Forum Home → Discussion → Housing costs → Thread
Shared room or not?
Can anyone help with this? Getting myself tied up in knots.
The situation is two clients intend to share a privately rented two-bed flat as joint tenants.
One gets PIP and is under 35, and the other is over 35 with no PIP etc.
Wandsworth Council website says that they will both have the shared accommodation rate applied, because they are sharing a flat.
Gov.uk says that the older tenant will be entitled to the shared room rate but that the younger one, based on PIP I assume, will have the one-bed self-contained accommodation rate.
CPAG, page 106 says that, in practice, the DWP will apply the self-contained rate to people who are over 35, even if they live in shared accommodation.
As I understood it with HB if you are joint tenants, and not part of the same household you get 2x shared room rate, as WBC seem to indicate.
So It is confusing and also seems to be a difference between HB and UC?
Any help/ideas much appreciated.
[ Edited: 6 Feb 2023 at 05:49 pm by roecab ]Seems to be a difference between HB and UC?
Indeed.
Specifically, whilst the shared accommodation rate can apply in HB either because you are under 35 or because you actually occupy shared accommodation, for UC the shared accommodation rate only applies if you are under 35 and the type of accommodation you actually occupy is completely irrelevant.
The older tenant would therefore only get the shared rate on HB but would get the one bedroom rate on UC.
The younger tenant would need to rely on an exemption to the shared accommodation rate. For HB, the relevant exemption would be met if he qualifies for the SDP. For UC, it is only necessary that he receives PIP daily living (so for example he could have a carer and still qualify).
It doesn’t sound like it will be specified accommodation and it appears the benefit they will be claiming for housing costs is therefore UC. Is that correct?
If so, each of them will be entitled to the s/c 1B rate of LHA: the older one because they are 35+ and the younger one because they are on PIP (assuming it’s the daily living component).
In UC, the shared accommodation LHA rate only applies to single <35s who are not exempt through PIP etc. DWP wants to assess UC by machine as much as possible - they don’t want to be messing about asking >35s about their living space.
I have seen an argument that the way in which the LHA rates are described in the Rent Officers’ UC Functions Order means that entitlement to “1 bedroom” under the UC Regs could equally generate either the shared accommodation rate or the 1B s/c rate, as DWP at its discretion thinks fit. I think that explains CPAG’s cautious “in practice” comment. I really don’t buy that, I think Schedule 4 to the UC Regs clearly contemplates the shared accommodation rate being used only for non-exempt <35s.
SNAP Elliot is on rota today, my bad!
SNAP Elliot is on rota today, my bad!
Blimey, down to the same minute.
That is great, thanks to you both, much appreciated.