The Income Support (General) Regulations 1987

Circumstances in which a person is to be treated as being or not being a member of the household

16.—(1) Subject to paragraphs (2) to (5), the claimant and any partner and, where the claimant or his partner is treated as responsible under regulation 15 (circumstances in which a person is to be treated as responsible or not responsible for another) for a child or young person, that child or young person and any child of that child or young person shall be treated as members of the same household where any of them is absent from the dwelling occupied as his home.

(2) Paragraph (1) shall not apply in respect of any person referred to therein who is not treated as occupying a dwelling as his home because he fails to satisfy the conditions in sub-paragraph (8) of paragraph 4 of Schedule 3 (housing costs).

(3) Paragraph (1) shall not apply in respect of any member of a couple or of a polygamous marriage where—

(a)one, both or all of them are patients detained in a hospital provided under section 4 of the National Health Service Act 1977(1) (special hospitals) or section 90(1) of the Mental Health (Scotland) Act 1984(2) (provision of hospitals for patients requiring special security); or

(b)one, both or all of them are detained in custody pending trial or sentence upon conviction or whilst serving a sentence imposed by a court; or

(c)one of them is in accommodation and, if the accommodation is accommodation provided under the provisions referred to in paragraph (a) of the definition of residential accommodation in regulation 21(3) (special cases), the couple, or as the case may be, the members of the polygamous marriage are not entitled to income support and they have insufficient income to meet the minimum charge for that accommodation; or

(d)the claimant is abroad and does not satisfy the conditions of regulation 4 (temporary absence from Britain); or

(e)one of them is permanently in residential accommodation or a residential care home or a residential nursing home.

(4) A child or young person shall not be treated as a member of the claimant’s household where he is—

(a)boarded out with the claimant or his partner under a relevant enactment; or

(b)boarded out with the claimant or his partner prior to adoption; or

(c)placed for adoption with the claimant or his partner pursuant to a decision under the Adoption Agencies Regulations 1983(3) or the Adoption Agencies (Scotland) Regulations 1984(4).

(5) Subject to paragraph (6), paragraph (1) shall not apply to a child or young person who is not living with the claimant and he—

(a)has been continuously absent from Great Britain for a period of more than four weeks commencing—

(i)where he went abroad before the date of claim for income support, with that date;

(ii)in any other case, with the date on which he went abroad; or

(b)has been an in-patient or in residential accommodation for a continuous period of more than 12 weeks commencing—

(i)where he became an in-patient or, as the case may be, entered that accommodation before the date of the claim for income support, with that date; or

(ii)in any other case, with the date on which he became an in-patient or entered that accommodation,

and, in either case, has not been in regular contact with either the claimant or any member of the claimant’s household; or

(c)is in the care of a local authority under a relevant enactment; or

(d)has been boarded out with a person other than the claimant prior to adoption; or

(e)has been placed for adoption pursuant to a decision under the Adoption Agencies Regulations 1983 or the Adoption Agencies (Scotland) Regulations 1984; or

(f)is detained in custody pending trial or sentence upon conviction or under a sentence imposed by a court.

(6) A child or young person to whom any of the circumstances mentioned in sub-paragraphs (c) or (f) of paragraph (5) applies shall be treated as being a member of the claimant’s household only for that part of any benefit week where that child or young person lives with the claimant.

(7) Where a child or young person for the purposes of attending the educational establishment at which he is receiving relevant education is living with the claimant or his partner and neither one is treated as responsible for that child or young person that child or young person shall be treated as being a member of the household of the person treated as responsible for him and shall not be treated as a member of the claimant’s household.

(8) In this regulation—

(a)“relevant enactment” means the Army Act 1955(5), the Air Force Act 1955(6), the Naval Discipline Act 1957(7), the Adoption Act 1958(8), the Matrimonial Proceedings Children Act 1958(9), the Children Act 1958(10), the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968(11), the Family Law Reform Act 1969(12), the Children and Young Persons Act 1969(13), the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973(14), the Guardianship Act 1973(15), the Children Act 1975(16), the Domestic Proceedings and Magistrates' Courts Act 1978(17), the Adoption (Scotland) Act 1978(18), the Child Care Act 1980(19), and the Foster Children Act 1980(20);

(b)“voluntary organisation” has the meaning assigned to it in the Child Care Act 1980 or, in Scotland, the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968.