Terms & Conditions

[Anonymous]

What would happen in the case where a family – couple with 6 kids, Mr working 16 hours a week for minimum wage, total benefits in CB, CTC and HB over £500 but not excluded from Cap so HB reduced accordingly, who at some point after April 2013, after over 12 months of work lost his job through no fault of his own.

Would they be entitled to the 9 month grace period or is there something in the Regs that I've missed that would prevent this?

Thanks

[peterdelamothe]

Housing Benefit (Benefit Cap) Regulations 2012

are the draft regs…75F would apply I suspect. However, would the cap apply before? Its a good question..no entitlement to WTC so that exemption does not count. The rent would have to be very high I suppose.

[Anonymous]

That’s how I read it too.

Family get over £400 a week in Child Benefit and Child Tax Credit and as Mr is on minimum wage full HB too – so as their rent is over £100 a week they will be affected by the Benefit Cap from April.

But if Mr lost his job through no fault of his own, the way the draft Regs are written means that the family would then become ‘excluded’ from the Cap for 9 months and therefore have a higher income than when he was working.

Seems strange to me.

[Author]

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