Housing costs element- additional bedroom, disabled child

Hi guys, my client lives in 1 bed property with partner and two children under 10. So their LHA is 2 bedrooms. However, one of her children is disabled (ASD) and client has good medical evidence that the child cannot share the bedroom.

DWP states that “Universal Credit is always awarded based on the number of bedrooms that are needed and never considers the number of rooms a property may or may not have.” (https://data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2023-0365/163_The_size_criteria_for_renters_V7-0.pdf)

Would the number of the bedrooms “needed” be 3, as the 3rd bedroom is not discretional if child gets DLA care middle or higher rate?

For UC purposes, the LHA rules are based entirely on the need of the household and not the actual property occupied.

The family is entitled to a 2 bed LHA without any hoops to jump through. The 3 bed LHA would apply if the child is unable to reasonably share a bedroom with their sibling.

The fact that the family are all living together in a 1 bed property doesn’t mean that they can’t have 3 bed LHA. The actual living arrangements could still inform the decision about whether they can reasonably share a room (e.g. if the DM thought that any adverse health impacts were more to do with all three of them being stuck in a tiny property, rather than as a result of the two kids sharing as such).

I am digressing but Housing Benefit Reg 13D(3)(e) has the proviso

“but the claimant is only entitled to a bedroom in respect of a child who cannot share a bedroom if there is a bedroom in the dwelling occupied as the home that is additional to those to which the claimant would be entitled if the child [F11or the member of the couple] were able to share a bedroom

This is missing from paragraph 12 of Sch 4 of the UC Regs”

I digress again but Interestingly paragraph 19 of Sch 4 (payment of housing costs for 2 homes)  requires that there must be a “reasonable” fear of violence but HB Reg 7(6) only requires that there is a fear of violence

It seems that (following CH/3016/2005)  that an honest fear would suffice for HB but that there will be more scrutiny if the claimant is on UC.

There is usually some rationale behind the provisions but I cannot see any reason for the differences here

I think the rationale is the same as that behind the fact that only single under 35s are restricted to the shared accommodation LHA in UC, whereas in HB that rate also applies to people who occupy shared accommodation.

It’s because DWP wants UC to be assessed by machine as far as possible, so they cannot be bothered worrying about private tenants’ living arrangements.  The LHA gives you a budget based on family composition - off you go and use it as you see fit.  I would expect the 3B LHA rate to be awarded in this case if the child is on DLA and they declare that s/he is unable to share with a sibling - I don’t think DWP would come back with “well you seem happy enough for them to share”.