Excluded tenancies and the bedroom tax

An authority is allowed to accept a registered housing association rent as reasonable provided that the property is not underoccupied under regulation 14 and schedule 2.

If they do then there is no rent officer referral, the authority gets full subsidy and benefit is based on the full charge at present- until the introduction of the bedroom tax.

The criteria for underoccupation are not set out in regulations and there is no cross referencing to the bedroom tax criteria.

But it seems to me that authorities may well feel that they have to refer any housing association lettings that are subject to the bedroom tax to the rent officer. This could, in some areas, mean a double penalty- the eligible rent gets reduced by the rent officer and then the bedroom tax gets applied to the reduced figure.

Is anyone else concerned about the possibility of this occurring or has anyone actually had an authority say to them that this was likely to happen?

It’s always been a discretion to refer underoccupied Housing Association tenancies to the rent officer, and in the 3 LAs I’ve worked for in Housing Benefits, I’ve only ever known of 1 case, and that didn’t get there in the end due to claimant’s failure to provide any kind of ID or income evidence.

A “normal” HA tenancy, usually at most 1 room underoccupied, wouldn’t be referred, nor a lond-standing tenancy where children have moved out, families split up, that sort of thing.  The one case I knew of was where both parents separately vacated, and the tenancy of a 3 or 4 bed (I can’t remember) house was assigned to a single 17 year old, with no clause about transfer to a more suitable property when such becomes available.

It’s possible, but unlikely.

If the rent gets referred to the Rent Officer, then the RO will take into account any under occupation; there will be no double penalty and such cases are listing as exempt in the (draft) legislation