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Is it possible to get extra housing benefit for carer overnight stay in one bed tenancy?

leeosborne
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Airewharfe Mental Health Services, BDCT, Keighley

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Hello,

Client has been unable to get clear advice on this from advice agency. Client is convinced that local authority are denying him full amount of housing benefit.

Single person in a one bed tenancy. Client convinced that they can get extra housing benefit as has a carer staying overnight.

Although carer sleeps on couch rather than in a second bedroom client thinks wording he has seen on an advice agency website states that he can get two bedroom rate for a one bedroom tenancy because carer stays overnight.

It would be extremely helpful in this situation to be able to confirm that local authority is correct in saying that no extra housing benefit is available for a carer as the tenancy is for a one bedroom property.

Thank you.

lee

Elliot Kent
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Assuming that this is PRS/LHA?

Regulation 13D of the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 sets out the number of rooms which a claimant is considered to require for LHA purposes. Your client would naturally be entitled to one room as a single person - but reg 13D(3A)(a) allows him an extra bedroom if he is a “person requiring overnight care”. That would take him to two bedroom LHA.

On the face of it, there is no requirement there that the claimant actually has an extra bedroom available for the carer - so I can understand why your client might have reached that view - but “person requiring overnight care” is a defined term under reg 2 in the following terms:

“person who requires overnight care” means a person (“P”)–
(a) [gets DLA/AA/PIP at relevant rates] and
(b) whom the relevant authority is satisfied reasonably requires, and has in fact arranged, that one or more people who do not occupy as their home the dwelling to which the claim or award for housing benefit relates should–
(i) be engaged in providing overnight care for P;
(ii) regularly stay overnight at the dwelling for that purpose; and
(iii) be provided with the use of a bedroom in that dwelling additional to those used by the persons who occupy the dwelling as their home,
but, in a case where P is treated as occupying a dwelling which P does not actually occupy, paragraph (b)(ii) and (iii) are to be treated as satisfied where the relevant authority is satisfied that the dwelling contains such an additional bedroom and that P did or will reasonably so require and so arrange at such time as P actually occupied or occupies the dwelling;

(b)(iii) is where your client falls down. Your client has not in fact arranged for the provision of an additional bedroom and therefore does not meet the statutory definition of a “person requiring overnight care”. So one bedroom rate would appear to be correct.

HB Anorak
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Benefits consultant/trainer - hbanorak.co.uk, East London

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Although there is this:

http://administrativeappeals.decisions.tribunals.gov.uk//Aspx/view.aspx?id=4090 (2014 UKUT 48 AAC)

The carer used a fold-up bed in the living room and the Tribunal was entitled to find that this made the living room a bedroom for the purpose of Reg 13D.

There is a slight difference between the facts.  In the case linked to above, the property had two proper bedrooms that were being used as bedrooms by the claimant and partner, but before the Regs catered for couples unable to share.  Treating the living room as a bedroom was the only way the claimant could get a 2-bed LHA for a two-bed property that was reasonably required.  In the OP case, the claimant would be entitled to a one-bed LHA in any case if he is over 35 so he doesn’t need to rely on overnight care to bump up his LHA rate to amount that matches the dwelling he occupies.  What he is seeking to do is use the 2B LHA to cover rent for a 1B property that exceeds the 1B LHA rate.

As a matter of law I think that is perfectly OK: the way LHA works is that you have a budget and it’s up to you how you use that budget.  A nice one-bedder might be more suitable than a bog-standard 2-bedder if that’s what the claimant wants to do.  I think he can rely on 2014 UKUT 48 AAC to get the two-bed rate on the basis that the living room doubles up as a bedroom for the carer.

leeosborne
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Airewharfe Mental Health Services, BDCT, Keighley

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Thank you so much Elliot and HB Anorak.

Wonderful start to my week!

Lee

Weeman
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Service assurance team - Blackburn With Darwen Borough Council

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Would the same rationale apply to a couple who could not share a room for medical reasons?  They have space in the property (not a bedroom) where the claimant / partner can use.

Ruth Knox
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Vauxhall Law Centre

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Sorry not to be helpful by opting for the simple answer but I think HB Anorak’s point is at least arguable. As he says its not identical to the case law but there are some similarities .. For social housing it is the number of bedrooms which count but In the case of a LHA it is a theoretical amount of money. As far as I know (and I don’t deal with private landlords a great deal) the LA assesses the LHA needed based on the number of bedrooms needed but doesnt require that these actually exist in the accommodation in question.  It’s a proxy measurement of the rent its reasonable to cover.  So if they dont count the rooms for anyone else why do it for an overnight carer?  Another possibility would be for the landlord to classify the (living room?) as a bedroom.  After all “studio” flats are considered to be one-bedroom.  Ruth

Elliot Kent
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The problem which I identified and which Peter may well have solved in the carer case is that there is a specific requirement in the Regs for the claimant to have actually arranged for a bedroom for the carer in order to qualify for the additional room. The Regs don’t make the same requirement of members of a couple who cannot share a bedroom. All that needs to be asked is whether it is reasonable for them to share a bedroom and if it isn’t, then they need two bedrooms, regardless of what the practical arrangements actually are or how many bedrooms the property has.