Hello all,
I wonder if i can ask for thoughts on the following-
We have a case where a claimant is paying for Child Care. Everything is fine in that she is eligible for the disregard, and the child care being provided is eligible etc.
However, the claimant works 16 hours per week, and the child care costs are for more than 16 hours.
The person processing the claim is asking me if it is okay to allow the full amount to be deducted even though the child care provided seems to them to be more than the claimant “needs”.
I’ve said that i don’t think we should look at it that way as there is nothing in the regs (that i can find) that allows us to limit what we deduct for child care costs on the basis of cost or hours worked (apart from the max figures allowed etc).
Am i correct in this assumption? Or is there some way in which the number of hours of childcare provided should relate to the numbers of hours worked by the claimant?
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