Housing costs non dependent decuction for student living away

Hi,

Client has had deduction from housing cost element due to 25 year old year son living with her. However he lives away at university in a different city.

Is this right?

Thanks

Probably yes.  Non-dep students are not exempted from HCCs, as they are in HB.  If DWP considers his absence to be temporary and unlikely to exceed 6 months at a time, he will continue to be included as a member of the Extended Benefit Unit.  Is she relying on him to qualify for an extra bedroom by the way?  If so it probably won’t make much difference either way

A non-dep under 21 (student or not) would be not attract a HCC but as Peter says sudents are not exempt as a class from a HCC unlike (NDDs) in HB. Another little nasty in UC! Perhaps DWP assume no one aged over 21 attends higher education and/or still lives with parents?

I’m not aware that student financal support is increased at 21 where the person might, in effect, have to fund two homes - student accom plus HCC on their normal home. An issue for client / son to raise with MP and NUS?

And your client cannot claim a DHP to cover the HCC because a DHP can only be paid for the amount of the UC ‘housing costs element’ which is the amount after deduction of the HCC (Peter will correct me if I’m wrong).

The way I read it, the maximum DHP is an amount equal to the Schedule 4 housing element, which means the DHP can double/match it. As long as the HCC doesn’t exceed what’s left, DHP could make up the shortfall because the DHP itself would be less than the housing element.

Thanks Anorak and Peter. I suppose I was too hopeful thinking it would work like HB!

I also never knew there was a question mark about DHP for this situation either, that was going to be my next suggestion for her so that’s a worry.

This lady has lost her SDP moving over from IS and some HB now and is now going to food banks to survive. Was going to do a DHP until the SDP was sorted and backdated (no idea how long this will take as it seems to be a new announcement that they are now even offering this on UC). Hopefully I still can potentially do this.

Like you say, another nasty little surprise in UC!

EDIT: good point about the bedroom, may not make much difference after all

If she had another adult living in her h/h (assuming son is was not ignored because he himself is on a qualifying disbility benefit) then she would not have been eligible for SDP anyway? But see https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/12960/

We have had cases where student is awarded a bedroom but claimant still entitled to SDP but I can’t recall the case law on which this decision was based at present

It is theoretically possible in HB to have SDP and a bedroom for the student, but a recent UT decision has severely curtailed the chances of this:

- Bedrooms are dished out to people who “occupy” the dwelling
- SDP is suppressed by a non-dependant who “resides with” the claimant

You could occupy but not reside, or vice versa (more likely vice versa, as occupation ends after quite short absences in some cases - out of GB especially).

But the UT has just applied a common sense approach saying that occupy and reside are more or less synonymous.

Her son was on DLA however failed to qualify when transferred over to PIP. She still got SDP up to the end of her IS though so need to check with her on that one. Cheers Peter, saw that link, still getting my head round the announcements.

Her son has his own rented house in a different city. I remember when I was living in rented student house I didn’t go back to my mum’s at summer break. Seems harsh to count people as living there in that situation.

JAS1 - 08 June 2018 03:02 PM

Her son was on DLA however failed to qualify when transferred over to PIP. She still got SDP up to the end of her IS though so need to check with her on that one. Cheers Peter, saw that link, still getting my head round the announcements.

Her son has his own rented house in a different city. I remember when I was living in rented student house I didn’t go back to my mum’s at summer break. Seems harsh to count people as living there in that situation.

Where a students normal home is will depend on the facts of the case. for example if he was living in halls of residence but was required to vacate during vacations it would be easy to argue his normal home was his mothers.

If he lived in shared (private) rented accomodation with other students and normally returned home during the vacations (even if the tenancy was for an academic / calander year) again it would be easy to argue his normal home was his mothers.

Factors like where he keeps most of his belongings, has most of his mail etc directed would also be relevant.

However if he rented his own house / was in a house share with others but did not normally return to his mothers during vacations, kept all his possessions there etc (in every day terms he had moved out of his mothers) then it would be difficult to argue he normally lived at his mothers.

as Peter points out he/mum can’t have their cake and eat it. He either normally lives at mums and attracts a HCC or normally lives in the Uni city and mum gets hit by the bedroom tax (not forgetting issues like student exemption for council tax purposes, single person occupier discount etc).

Thanks Peter. Good points, she will be affected one way or another it seems. I will check the details of her son’s living situation with her and then see how we get on.

Have a good weekend