Charge the non-dependant deduction for a lodger's adult son once or twice (HB reg 74(5))

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Valutazione

Difficoltà
5/5
Tempo stimato
Più di una settimana
Idoneità per principianti
25/100
Tipo di issue
Funzionalità
Chiarezza
Da chiarire
Stato di attività
Attiva
Stack tecnologico
python
Ambito
backend

Direzione di ricerca

Start by reading the Housing Benefit non-dependant deduction rules and the cited regulations and DWP guidance. The issue says an Upper Tribunal decision or guidance naming lodgers or boarders is needed to choose among three readings; identify that evidence before deciding how the model should treat the lodger's claim. Done means the applicable reading is established and the model's deduction follows it.

Scritto dal modello di indicizzazione a partire dal testo della issue.

Descrizione

A householder on Housing Benefit takes a lodger, and the lodger's adult son lives with them and pays nothing. The council counts the son as a non-dependant of each adult: reg 3(2)(e)(i) leaves out only the person who pays the claimant, and he normally resides with both (reg 3(1)). Depending on his work and income, the deduction runs from £20.40 to £131.45 a week in 2026-27 (reg 74(1) and (2)). The model charges the householder the whole deduction for him and the lodger none, whichever benefit unit he's in.

Under reg 74(5), the council splits the deduction for a non-dependant of more than one joint occupier by their number and each one's share of the payments for the dwelling. No regulation defines a joint occupier, and I found no decision on whether a householder and a lodger count as joint occupiers. If they don't, the council charges each claim the whole deduction. Under two other readings, it would take one deduction for the son:

  • The council splits the deduction between the two claims under reg 74(5). Reg 3(2)(d) leaves out a person who "jointly occupies the claimant's dwelling and is either" a co-owner or jointly liable for the payments, so its wording allows joint occupiers who are neither.
  • The householder bears nothing for the son, and the lodger bears the whole deduction. HBGM C1 para 1.185 leaves out the household of anyone who makes commercial payments to the claimant, although reg 3(2)(e)(iii) reaches only the household of the person the claimant pays.

Elsewhere DWP describes the split in terms of joint occupiers' shares of one rent. In HBGM A5 paras 5.620 to 5.622, it tells councils to split the deduction by "the proportion of rent paid by each joint occupier". In A4 paras 4.1920 and 4.1921 it divides the rent between joint occupiers, and in the LHA guidance manual it applies reg 74(5) to joint tenants (para 2.110).

The FRS puts every adult other than a benefit unit's head and partner in a benefit unit of their own, and policyengine-uk-data and Microcosm keep the FRS benefit units. In survey data the son heads his own benefit unit. Under each of the three readings, a lodger who claims Housing Benefit bears some or all of his deduction.

An Upper Tribunal decision on reg 74(5), or DWP guidance that names lodgers or boarders, would settle which reading the model should apply.

Lingua principale
Python
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