Persons from abroad - UC claimants

I’ve picked this up from another forum and thought I’d post it here too.  Regulation 10 of the HB regs grants a right to reside for anyone in receipt of a passported legacy benefit.  However, the regs do not include any reference to a UC claimant.  Presumably UC claimants in temporary and supported accommodation would be subject to the PFA/HRT test when applying for HB to help with housing costs.  Can anyone foresee any problems?

I don’t think there will be problems, for a couple of reasons:

- Eligibility for temp acc is subject to much the same right to reside test, so the same council has already decided that the claimant has a right to reside at least at the point when they were provided with the accommodation
- In theory , since UC also has a right to reside test, anyone in either temporary or specified accommodation on UC must have a right to reside.  Now I know DWP’s decision making is not always as good as it ought to be on R2R matters, but in practice local authorities will be less rigorous in applying their own R2R test if they can see that the claimant is on UC.  There would need to be something staring them in the face: “how on earth did this joker get UC??”

I cannot see it being any more of a problem than the current lack of passporting for non-EEA nationals: even if a claimant is on a DWP means tested benefit, there is nothing to stop the Council from taking its own view that they are excluded from benefit as a person subject to immigration control under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.  It doesn’t often happen and it isn’t a major issue.

Many thanks.  I’d compared the regulations and couldn’t see any difference between HB & UC (aside from passported legacy benefits).  It will just be a burden for claimants (& support workers) if LA’s do decide to conduct their own RTR test, even if it’s a paper exercise only.