If the designated office of the local authority is not the registrars office – then IMO you can count this. See extract below taken from FAQ section of the MIS guide:
[quote:257d0bcc17]Q If we receive an internal written notification of a change i.e. notice from our housing department that a tenancy has ended or from our revenues section that customer has moved out of an address should this count as a change of circumstance?
A. Change of circumstance means any notice given in writing (where that notice is physically received at the designated office of a local authority) by the claimant or another person or a body during the course of a benefit award see MIS Guide 2005/06 section A. It should be counted as change of circumstance for the purpose of the PI.
Changes reported to Council Tax Office – Revenues Office
Q. When a change is notified to a Council Tax office or a Revenues office other than a Benefit Office it takes several days for the benefit office to receive the notified change. What date can we use as a date of notification? Is it a date the notification was received at Council Tax/Revenue offices or is it a date notification was actually received at the benefit office?
A. If the Council Tax office or the Revenues office within your LA are designated offices then the date of receipt of notification of changes of circumstance is the day it was received at the designated office. The definition of the designated office has been provided in the General Information section of the MIS guide. It is for the LA to decide which offices should be designated offices. [/quote:257d0bcc17]
So if the registrars office is a designated office then the count statrs for the day that they are notified in writing etc etc.
If the registrars office is not designated then I think that the registrars office becomes “any other person or body”.
As I say that is my humble opinion only.
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