Housing cost for adult family - one person on tenancy

Our clients - family of four adult siblings - have just been offered private rented accommodation. It’s a four bedroom house within the relevant LHA rate, which they are entitled to. My only query is how the housing costs will be paid. In other similar cases, I’ve seen that the UC statement says they’re paying the claimant 1/4 of the tenancy, if they are 1 of 4 people named on the tenancy for example, meaning everyone gets this portioned out housing element separately.

In this situation though, only one of the adult siblings is named on the tenancy. Will she be able to receive 100% of the housing element due, will UC know that she is still entitled to the 4 bedroom LHA rate?

The rent is typically apportioned evenly amongst joint tenants as you say. However in your case there is no apportioning as there is only one tenant.

The starting point is therefore that the tenant gets one room for themselves and one room for each of the other siblings, who for UC’s purposes are non-dependents, leading to a 4 room LHA rate.

Unless the tenant is exempt, there would then be a Housing Costs Contribution of £77.87 deducted for each of the three siblings who do not themselves qualify for an exemption.

Hi Elliot, thank you, as always! I’ve just read up on the Housing Costs Contribution - the main tenant and one of her siblings currently receive PIP (and likely another of the two remaining sibling soon), and all receive UC with the LCWRA element. Does that render her completely exempt from the Housing Costs Contribution, or just mean that the deduction is not made for the non-tenant sibling who receives the DL component of PIP?

I’m now thinking it might be better for the local authority to have each of the siblings be joint tenants, rather than just the one of them, so that no Housing Costs Contributions can be made/deducted from UC?

Yes. If she is an exempt renter, which she is because of the PIP DL, there are no HCCs. If she were not an exempt renter, then each of the non-deps would be looked at individually and a HCC would be applied unless that non-dep were exempt. So if the tenant’s PIP stopped right now, on the face of it there would be two HCCs because the sibling who gets PIP DL would not have one applied.

The decision on whether to have joint tenants or one tenant is not altogether straightforward. From a benefits point of view, it doesn’t seem like it makes much difference in this particular case. However, from a housing point of view, being a tenant will come with rights and responsibilities which the other siblings may or may not want to assume.