Hello everyone,
I have got a case in which non-dependants have been treated as not resident in the claimant’s home and in this case I don’t think that is right.
The non-dependants are the claimant’s son and daughter who are aged 21 and 25 respectively. They are both doing three year batchelor’s degrees. They both live away from home during term time but return home for vacations. What will happen when they have finished their courses I don’t know, but for the moment I am assuming they will return home until they have sorted out what to do next.
On the facts, I think they should be treated as occupying the claimant’s home. This is because:
1) Regulation 7 says that a person should be treated as occupying as their home the dwelling they normally occupy – I don’t think they can be seen to regard their place in halls or whatever as their normal home
2) Young persons temporarily absent from the home on courses of study are treated as occupiers (regulation 21)
3) For Council Tax purposes the non-deps should be treated as having sole or main residence in the claimant’s dwelling.
Does anyone disagree? Better still can anyone provide more specific authority for this view? A CD perchance?
I need to sort this out because the claimant is maintaining a home with three bedrooms – treating the non-deps as living elsewhere has led to a £250 pcm shortfall.
All references to regs are of course the new numbers. Thanks very much for your help.
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