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Absent parent

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  • July 14, 2008 at 2:02 pm #34284
    Anonymous
    Guest

    We have a claim where the couple have two children of there own and a 3rd child who is the daughter of the claimants partner. The child lives with her mother for two weeks (mother gets CHB) and then with claimant & partner for two weeks.
    Should they get 2 bedroom LHA rate (couple with 2 children of same sex under 10) or 3 bedroom (couple with 3 children of same sex under 10).
    I know the guidelines say you don’t count children of absent parent but who is the absent parent when you have a shared arrangement of 2 weeks on two weeks off?
    Any thoughts appreciated – thanks

    July 14, 2008 at 2:44 pm #50221
    Andrew Plant
    Participant

    I would say, in this scenario, the child is “normally living with” the person who gets the CHB see HB reg 20 (2)(a).

    July 14, 2008 at 2:48 pm #96272
    Anonymous
    Guest

    The accepted practise (and guidance from the DWP) has been that you will have to make up your mind one way or the other over this, and that CB was only one factor in that decision, but could be a deciding factor in the event of a tie otherwise – which may be the situation you have in this case here, and see the post above.
    But then (cue fanfare) along came the Hockenjos case which challenged this and went some way to overturning it. I believe the transcript of the case is in the caselaw section here on HBInfo, and it makes this not as straightforward as thought. Without all details I do not feel able to comment on whether this case would be applicable to your claim (even with all the datails I suspect I would struggle), but you may want to look at the transcript and see if it is applicable to your situation. 8)

    July 15, 2008 at 9:30 am #96273
    Andrew Plant
    Participant

    Hockenjos does give pause for thought but as far as I can remember the DWP do not think it applies to HB.

    So I suppose that until the cases listed as going to comms in the HB arena are heard and therefore a , hopefully, definitive decision for HB is made we are stuck with what the regs state, the current caselaw, what the guidance is on the current caselaw and how individuals interepret that information.

    The first link below is to a HBinfo thread on Hockenjos and the second link is to a welfare rights bulletin.

    http://hbinfo.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13309&highlight=hockenjos

    http://www.cpag.org.uk/cro/wrb/wrb194/after_stec.htm

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