Ground Floor window cleaning in HB

Hello, I am supporting a tenant who has been refused HB to cover their ground floor window cleaning service charge. (replicating UC guidance). However I am also aware that the Local Authority is allowing this payment for people over 55, have I missed any changes or do individual HB departments have the ability to do this?

Depends how you interpret Schedule 1 to the HB Regs, which is the same in both working age and SPC-age HB Regs.

(iv) cleaning of rooms and windows [is ineligible] except cleaning of–
(aa) communal areas; or
(bb) the exterior of any windows where neither the claimant nor any member of his household is able to clean them himself

One interpretation would be that the intention here is to cover windows that you would not expect any tenant to attempt to clean because it needs specialist equipment.  Ground floor windows shouldn’t be a problem - no ladder or cradle needed.

An alternative way of reading it would be to say that it is focussed on the individual ability of the tenant to clean windows, so if you have impaired mobility or a learning disability you would be covered by this.

It is perhaps useful to look at the regs as they were in pre-2003 days when various support services were eligible for HB in supported accommodation.  Those eligible services included “the cleaning of rooms and windows where neither the claimant nor any member of his household is able to clean them himself”.  For general needs accommodation, the regs had the same wording as they do now.  The wording in relation to windows (as distinct from rooms) is identical for both supported and general needs, suggesting that it is the ability of the individual tenant that matters and not what you would generally expect any tenant to do.

There is also a question whether in a block of flats the exterior of all windows is a communal area if it can only be accessed for cleaning from communal grounds, whereas in a self contained house, or a split house with the garden belonging to downstairs, it is a private area.

I think this might be one of those remaining legal points that has never been properly clarified by the UT.