Pensioner moving from UC to HB and SAR

Hi

I’m advising a pensioner who has just changed from UC to HB after reaching pension age.

She lives in shared accommodation with a private landlord and her rent was previously being covered by the one-bed LHA with her UC.

HB are now stating that she can only get the shared accommodation rate, and her rent is more than this.

Does anybody know of any way around this (other than a DHP)?  I know that the rules are different for HB, but this doesn’t seem right to me.

Thanks

Martin

In HB, the shared accommodation rate can apply either where you are expected to live in shared accommodation because you are a single person under 35, or where you actually are living in shared accommodation irrespective of your age or other circumstances.

In UC they got rid of the second situation so only single people under 35s will get the shared rate. As this did not apply to your client, they correctly got the one bed rate in UC.

However as the rule is still in HB, if your client is actually living in shared accommodation, then it is correct that they will drop from the 1 bed to the shared rate when moving from UC to pension age HB.

Thanks, Elliot
Yes, I was hoping that I’ve missed something about this particular scenario, but it seems that I haven’t (unfortunately!)
Thanks for your help