HB claims during period of no work - zero hours contract

Can I put a follow on enquiry to this and hopefully someone can suggest whether and when my client would get HB if she claims just before going abroad to see her family, for a month or so. Client is on zero hours contract and her earnings of about £800/£900pm have taken her off HB for the last year or so - in fact had a considerable overpayment decision as a result 3 months ago. She will not be paid while she is away and not entitled to any holiday pay etc so can she claim on nil income?

It seems to me if she is still working when she makes a new HB claim her earnings would be averaged over the 2 months prior to her claim, Reg 29(2)(a) which means she is not awarded HB. I cant see any provision to calculate her earnings in another way, either when she claims or after.

Would she need to be not working when she claims? She is intending to keep working right up to when she goes away and to come back to the job when she returns, but if she could afford to stop working a week or so before, would HB assess her claim on nil income if she is not actually doing work in the week of the claim, is not under any contract to the employer and not receiving any payment? This will be difficult for her to afford but is only way I can see that a claim wold be assessed on nil income rather than averaged earnings over the 2 months prior to the claim.

Does this sound correct, or has anyone come up with other ideas on this sort of situation?

I had this very thing with someone last year.  What we did was make the HB claim before she went away and get proof of nil income from her and her husband’s employers.  HB weren’t exactly keen to pay so waited to confirm that they had returned when they were supposed to and then paid for the period of the absence.  As I had pre-warned the couple (and our rent collection team) that this might happen there wasn’t a problem with that.

It should always be possible to have HB paid for a set period based on nil income despite any previous income IMO.

I’m not sure it makes a difference here, but there is a change in (or at least, a clarification of) how earnings are attributed for HB, effective from 9th Feb 2015:
http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/welfare-rights/news/item/changes-to-calculation-of-earnings-for-housing-benefit-purposes