Mixed age couples, Universal Credit and Council Tax Support.

Anyone like to give an opinon as to whether this is correct or not?

Currently, mixed-age couples claiming PC can be dealt with under the default CTS scheme and thus receive full discount.

Once changes to MAC’s come in from 15 May and they need to claim UC instead, they will also no longer be able to be claim CTS under default scheme due to reg.3(2)(a)(ii)(bb) of the The Council Tax Reduction Schemes (Default Scheme) (England) Regulations 2012 which holds (my emphasis):

Application of scheme: pensioners and persons who are not pensioners

3. —(1) This scheme applies to—
(a) pensioners who fall within any of classes A to C(b); and
(b) persons who are not pensioners who fall within any of classes D to F(c).
(2) In this scheme—
(a) a person is a “pensioner” if—
(i) he has attained the qualifying age for state pension credit; and
(ii) he is not, or, if he has a partner, his partner is not—
(aa) a person on income support, on an income-based jobseeker’s allowance or on an income-related employment and support allowance, or
(bb) a person with an award of universal credit;

Am I missing something or does this mean MAC’s claiming UC can only apply for working-age CTS?

If so, this creates another anomaly whereby people with sufficient income not to need to claim UC can still have CTS under the default scheme, which is invariably more generous, whilst those on lower incomes who do need to claim UC will also have to pay more Council Tax.

Any thoughts gratefully recieved, thanks all.

I think you’re correct.

I wouldn’t focus on the default scheme regs (SI 2012/2886); the schedule to those regs effectively provided a template scheme covering both working and pension-age for year-one of CTR - they’ve since been abandoned by DCLG (now MHCLG).

The regs with teeth are the Prescribed Requirements regs (SI 2012/2885) -  http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/2885/contents/made - which set out the minimum standards for CTR for pensioners (including 100% max support)

The PR regs continue to be updated but, so far, their pension-age boundary (reg 3) has not been moved with respect to mixed-age couples.

Unless the PR regs are amended, mixed-age couples who are not in receipt of an award of IS,JSA(IB),ESA(IR) or UC will continue to fall under the more generous pension-age rules.

But if the mixed-age couple are awarded UC they will, as you say, fall under the local working-age rules which could mean a *much* lower maximum level of support.

LAs could have adjusted their schemes if they wished to treat mixed-age couples on working-age IRBs more generously but as far as I know no LA has done this for 2019/20. (To be fair, until recently no-one knew when the mixed-age boundary shift was coming and I’m not sure anyone knows if/when MHCLG are going to change the PR regs.)

(I’m talking about CTR in England here. Similar considerations apply in Scotland and Wales but since 100% max support for working-age applies in those countries there’s much less potential downside.)

Thanks very much for that Jon, that’s really helpful.

Hello all,

I will want to know if anyone has the regulation to back a research I am currently doing for young homelessness clients. I work in the sector and I have realised that within the same borough when some people are in employment regardless of their earnings, they still receive full housing benefit as part of the exempt group but others do not get the same treatment. Can someone kindly help me with the regulation regarding benefit entitlement for young vulnerable people living in a supported accommodation and being in employment. I believe there is meant to be an exemption for such clients regardless of their earnings to get them started in life.

Thanks for the support

Hi Alzi20, you’re probably better off starting a new thread as what you’re talking about doesn’t have any connection to what the original post concerned.

MHCLG have confirmed they won’t be making any changes in respect of MACs - so as you said Paul

https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/welfare-rights/news/item/mhclg-confirms-it-will-not-be-amending-ctr-prescribed-requirements-regulations-to-take-into-account-changes-relating-to-mixed-age-couples-claiming-means-tested-benefits

Thanks Daphne (I think).

To be honest, I believe the change they were considering making was to remove pensioner status from mixed-age couples not on another benefit. To quote the recent Council Tax Information Letter: “... the Department wrote to confirm that it would consider whether any changes to regulations were needed to ensure regulatory alignment between Local Council Tax Support (LCTS) and the wider benefits system.” Alignment would have meant removing pensioner status from mixed-age couples, not giving pensioner status back to those on UC.

So I think we should be grateful for small mercies!