A few scenarios ……
Scenario 1:A single pensioner gets savings credit, SRP and a private pension. They claim HB. We obtain details of their SC and AIF from the Pension Service. We enter their income on our (in house) system simply as SC and AIF. We are not planning to breakdown the AIF in these cases and there is no ‘more generous’ disregard to take.
Scenario 2: A lone parent pensioner gets SRP, private pension, savings credit as well as Child Benefit and Child Tax Credit. We obtain details of their SC and AIF from the Pension Service. We input their income on our system as SC + AIF + CHB + CTC. Again, we are not planning to breakdown the AIF in these cases because there is no more generous disregard to take.
Scenario 3: A lone parent pensioner works 16 hours a week, gets SC. The AIF includes income from employment. When we enter their income on the system we will enter SC + CHB + CTC + EARNINGS plus any other income used to calculate the AIF. In these cases we WILL breakdown the AIF because there is a more generous earned income disregard to take.
What am I trying to get at?
In the absence of the new MIS guide and information relaing to the new datamatching process, I am wondering if what we will be doing is correct. I keep reading that LAs will need to provide a breakdown of the AIF for MIS purposes whenever it modifies the AIF. According to reg 23(4) of the HB/CTB (SPC) regs, we will ‘modify’ the AIF everytime we assess an HB/CTB claim which includes saving credit – does that mean that ALL AIFs need to be broken down?
What are other LAs with in-house systems doing?
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