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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Children and childcare  →  Thread

Married couple + dependent children, in 2 properties

Tom B (WRAMAS)
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WRAMAS - Bristol City Council

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Hi all,

I’m sure much of this will have been discussed elsewhere but cannot find a relevant thread.

If a married couple with a very large family are to be offered 2 entirely separate tenancies to discharge a homelessness duty, it is clear that they will be entitled to HB for both properties however I’m not entirely clear on ESA, CB and CTC entitlement and how these impact on the HB entitlement.

My reading is that they will continue to form one household for CTC purposes (because they are married, will continue to remain a family and plan to return to living in one single property when circumstances allow) is my understanding correct?

For ESA (or other MTB they may be entitled to), I am unsure whether this should (or could?) be one claim that includes both members of the couple, or 2 individual claims. It doesn’t seem clear cut either way looking at the Living Together signposts? Is there any precedent in this sort of scenario?

Similarly for CB, it seems appropriate that one parent would claim for the children occupying one property and the other parent would claim for the children occupying the other property, as these living circumstances are likely to be stable and in place for several years. However I believe in this scenario, a single CB claim for all the children could legitimately be maintained (though this would be financially disadvantageous).

[ Edited: 17 Apr 2018 at 03:48 pm by Tom B (WRAMAS) ]
Stainsby
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Welfare rights adviser - Plumstead Community Law Centre

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Don’t mean to sound pernickety but there can be a joint claim for tax credits and in some circumstances for JSA but in the case of a married couple there can only be one claimant for income based ESA.

It is strongly arguable that in cases where the family is housed in separate premises, there still remains only one dwelling even though it covers two sites (See R(H)5/09 and R(JSA)9/03)

[ Edited: 17 Apr 2018 at 04:35 pm by Stainsby ]

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Tom B (WRAMAS)
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WRAMAS - Bristol City Council

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Total Posts: 454

Joined: 7 January 2013

Stainsby - 17 April 2018 02:43 PM

Don’t mean to sound pernickety but there can be a joint claim for tax credits and in some circumstances for JSA but in the case of a married couple there can only be one claimant for income based ESA.

It is strongly arguable that in cases where the family is housed in separate premises, there still remains only one dwelling even though it covers two sites (See R(H)5/09 and R(JSA)9/03

Thanks. I will have a read of these cases.

& not pernickety! Original post edited.