Oh I agree Reg 68B is a balls-up, whichever way you look at it. I just prefer the strategy of interpreting it in the light of what it is clearly trying to say, rather than descending into the hell of two different effective dates under two different regulations for just one change of circumstances! That would be: a) crazy, even by the standards of HB Regs; b) unworkable, because we won’t even know when the income change occurred; and c) counter-productive, in that the whole policy intention – to ensure (blameless) claimants receive arrears when HB goes up but do not face overpayments when HB goes down – would be lost.
The obvious solution is for the DWP to amend Reg 68B to make explicit what is already implicit – that it applies to both the PC and AIF aspects of a change.
