Inclusion of the Severe Disability Premium

Can anyone confirm that the SDP be included in the applicable amount for HB even if the claimant does not get IS? As far as I can see from Reg. 22 and Sch 3 the duty falls on the HB assessor to make the calculation including any premiums and this is obligation is not qualified in any way.

Are there any rules that oblige DM’s to put the premium into place without being specifically asked to do so?

My client notified HB that his son had left home and he therefore lived alone but they don’t seem to have done anything about the SDP that he had then become entitled to.

I personally think that it would be legally unsound and generally unreasonable to require claimants to know they were now eligible for a premium and then ask for it. The duty in the ‘disclosure’ rules only requires the claimant to disclose a change, not to know how it affects them and this would seem to pass the onus of responsibility back to the DWP/Council.

The duty to calculate a person’s benefit entitlement by including the appropriate premiums is absolute and once a relevant change of circumstance is notified to it then the LA must then look at the existing benefit entitlement to see whether it falls to be recalculated.  No more, no less.

Yes, the SDP is also an HB premium, calculated in the usual way.

There must be something else that HB wasn’t aware of and had not loaded on their system: otherwise it should calculate automatically.

Alternatively, they might know something you don’t! (A carer receiving CA in respect of the claimant perhaps?).

How long ago was the change of circs reported?  And does the departure of the son bring the claimant into bedroom tax/lower LHA territory?  On the assumption your client is getting DLA(c) or equivalent and there are no under-occupation issues, from your perspective you won’t be able to tell the difference between the Council processing the change and wrongly failing to award SDP on the one hand, and just not getting round to processing the change yet on the other.  Do you know for sure that they have processed the change?

Good point, someone at HB is actually looking into it as we speak. They have already amended the HB award after the gent applied for,and was given, IS with the SDP included.