The Housing Benefit (General) Regulations 1987

PART IIPROVISIONS AFFECTING ENTITLEMENT TO HOUSING BENEFIT

Circumstances in which a person is or is not to be treated as occupying a dwelling as his home

5.—(1) Subject to the following provisions of this regulation, a person shall be treated as occupying as his home the dwelling normally occupied as his home–

(a)by himself or, if he is a member of a family, by himself and his family; or

(b)if he is polygamously married, by himself, his partners and any child or young person for whom he or any partner of his is responsible and who is a member of that same household,

and shall not be treated as occupying any other dwelling as his home.

(2) In determining whether a dwelling is the dwelling normally occupied as a person’s home for the purpose of paragraph (1) regard shall be had to any other dwelling occupied by that person or any other person referred to in paragraph (1) whether or not that dwelling is in Great Britain.

(3) Where a single claimant or a lone parent is a student or is on a training course and is liable to make payments (including payments of mortgage interest or, in Scotland, payments under heritable securities or, in either case, analogous payments) in respect of either (but not both) the dwelling which he occupies for the purpose of attending his course of study or, his training course, or as the case may be, the dwelling which he occupies when not attending his course, he shall be treated as occupying as his home the dwelling in respect of which he is liable to make such payments.

(4) Where a claimant has been required to move into temporary accommodation by reason of essential repairs being carried out to the dwelling normally occupied as his home, and is liable to make payments (including payments of mortgage interest or, in Scotland, payments under heritable securities or, in either case, analogous payments) in respect of either (but not both) the dwelling which he normally occupied as his home or the temporary accommodation, he shall be treated as occupying as his home the dwelling in respect of which he is liable to make payments.

(5) Where a person is liable to make payments in respect of two (but not more than two) dwellings, he shall be treated as occupying both dwellings as his home only–

(a)where he has left and remains absent from the former dwelling occupied as his home through fear of violence in that dwelling or by a former member of his family and it is reasonable that housing benefit should be paid in respect of both his former dwelling and his present dwelling occupied as the home; or

(b)in the case of a married or unmarried couple or a member of a polygamous marriage, where he or one partner is a student or is on a training course and it is unavoidable that the partners should occupy two separate dwellings and reasonable that housing benefit should be paid in respect of both dwellings; or

(c)in the case where, because of the number of persons referred to in paragraph (1), they have been housed by a housing authority in two separate dwellings; or

(d)in the case where a person has moved into a new dwelling occupied as the home, except where paragraph (4) applies, for a period not exceeding four benefit weeks if his liability to make payments in respect of two dwellings is unavoidable.

(6) Where a person:–

(a)has moved into a dwelling and was liable to make payments in respect of that dwelling before moving in; and

(b)had claimed housing benefit before moving in and either that claim has not yet been determined or it has been refused but a further claim has been made or treated as made within 4 weeks of the date on which the claimant moved into the new dwelling occupied as the home; and

(c)the delay in moving into the dwelling in respect of which there was liability to make payments before moving in was reasonable and–

(i)that delay was necessary in order to adapt the dwelling to meet the disablement needs of that person or any member of his family; or

(ii)the move was delayed pending the outcome of an application under Part III of the Act for a social fund payment to meet a need arising out of the move or in connection with setting up the home in the dwelling and either a member of the claimant’s family is aged 5 or under or the claimant’s applicable amount includes a premium under paragraph 9, 10, 11, 13 or 14 of Schedule 2; or

(iii)the claimant became liable to make payments in respect of the dwelling while he was a patient or in residential accommodation,he shall be treated as occupying the dwelling as his home for any period not exceeding 4 weeks immediately prior to the date on which he moved into the dwelling and in respect of which he was liable to make payments.

(7) Where a person is treated by virtue of paragraph (6) as occupying a dwelling as his home in respect of the period before moving in, his claim for housing benefit shall be treated as having been made on either–

(a)in the case of a claim which has not yet been determined the date that claim was or was treated as made in accordance with regulation 72 (time and manner in which claims are to be made); or

(b)in the case of a claim for housing benefit which has been refused and a further claim was or was treated as made in accordance with Part X (claims) within 4 weeks of the date on which he moved into the dwelling, the date on which the claim was refused or was treated as made; or

(c)the date from which he is treated by virtue of paragraph (6) as occupying the dwelling as his home,

whichever of those dates is the later.

(8) A person shall be treated as occupying a dwelling as his home while he is temporarily absent therefrom for a period not exceeding 52 weeks only if–

(a)he intends to return to occupy the dwelling as his home; and

(b)the part of the dwelling normally occupied by him has not been let or, as the case may be, sub-let; and

(c)the period of absence is unlikely to exceed 52 weeks or, in exceptional circumstances (for example where the person is in hospital or otherwise has no control over the length of his absence), is unlikely substantially to exceed that period.

(9) In this regulation–

“patient” means a person who is undergoing medical or other treatment as an in-patient in any hospital or similar institution;

“residential accommodation” means accommodation which is provided by an establishment–

“training course” means a course of training or instruction provided wholly or partly by or on behalf of or in pursuance of arrangements made with, or approved by or on behalf of, a government department or the Manpower Services Commission.

Circumstances in which a person is to be treated as liable to make payments in respect of a dwelling

6.—(1) The following persons shall be treated as if they were liable to make payments in respect of a dwelling–

(a)the person who is liable to make those payments;

(b)a person who is a partner of the person to whom sub-paragraph (a) applies;

(c)a person who has to make the payments if he is to continue to live in the home because the person liable to make them is not doing so and either–

(i)he was formerly a partner of the person who is so liable, or

(ii)he is some other person whom it is reasonable to treat as liable to make the payments; and

(d)a person whose liability to make such payments is waived by his landlord as reasonable compensation in return for works actually carried out by the tenant in carrying out reasonable repairs or redecoration which the landlord would otherwise have carried out or be required to carry out but this sub-paragraph shall apply only for a maximum of 8 benefit weeks in respect of any one waiver of liability.

(2) A person shall be treated as liable to make a payment in respect of a dwelling for the whole of the period in respect of which the payment is to be made notwithstanding that the liability is discharged in whole or in part either before or during that period and, where the amount which a person is liable to pay in respect of a period is varied either during or after that period, he shall, subject to regulations 68 to 70 (dates of relevant changes of circumstances, weekly amounts and housing benefit for rent or rate free periods), be treated as liable to pay the amount as so varied during the whole of that period.

(3) Where there is no liability to pay rates in any benefit week because, exceptionally, the rating authority has failed to make a rate, but the claimant makes a payment by way of rates otherwise than to a rating authority and the amount of his rent treated as such a payment which he is liable to pay remains constant, he shall be treated as liable to make payments by way of rates.

Circumstances in which a person is to be treated as not liable to make payments in respect of a dwelling

7.  The following persons shall be treated as if they were not liable to make payments in respect of a dwelling–

(a)a person who resides with the person to whom he is liable to make payments in respect of the dwelling and either–

(i)that person is a close relative of his or his partner, or

(ii)the tenancy or other agreement between them is other than on a commercial basis;

(b)a person whose liability to make payments in respect of the dwelling appears to the appropriate authority to have been created to take advantage of the housing benefit scheme except someone who was, for any period within the eight weeks prior to the creation of the agreement giving rise to the liability to make such payments, otherwise liable to make payments of rent in respect of the same dwelling;

(c)a person who is a joint occupier of a dwelling and who was, at any time during the period of eight weeks prior to the creation of the joint tenancy or other agreement giving rise to the joint liability to make payments in respect of the dwelling, a non-dependant of one or more of the other joint occupiers of the dwelling, unless the appropriate authority is satisfied that the joint tenancy or other agreement was not created to take advantage of the housing benefit scheme;

(d)a person who is a member of, and is fully maintained by, a religious order.