Terms & Conditions

[Anonymous]

Sure this has been covered before but I will ask again anyway.

Is the son / daughter of a non-dep entitled to a bedroom under LHA?

I cant find a definitive answer anywhere so if some one can point me in the right direction it would be appreciated.

thanks

[andyrichards]

The answer is yes – the size criteria are pretty definitive, I would have thought. They apply to any and everyone living in the property and they say a child is entitled to a bedroom.

However there is nothing in the size criteria to say that a child of a non-dep could not share a bedroom with a child of the claimant (or another non-dep) if the age and gender requirements were met.

[aimish]

Hi

Following on from this….

We have a claim with a ND couple who have a baby….. I can’t find anything to say that the customer is entitled to an additional room for this baby.

The customer (who is single) has no dependant children herself and the ND couple’s baby is under 1 (born Jan 2008) so my initial feeling would be 2 room LHA rate. The other option is to include the child as part of ND family (so no premiums awarded to customer) and to select an override to 3 room LHA rate.

I would be interested to hear of any other opinions on this – how are you dealing with this – I can’t believe this is the only case like this?? 😯 Would the ages/numbers of any ND’s children make a difference?

Many thanks
Aimee

[Anonymous]

The baby is definitely entitled to its own room and it says this in the Regs.

The size criteria refer to the number of “occupiers”. These are defined in Reg 13D(12) as all the people who occupy as their home the dwelling to which the claim relates.

Reg 13D(3) then allows a bedroom for a child, or two children who can be paired up. A “child” is defined in Reg 2 as a person aged under 16 – it does not say anything about the child being part of the claimant’s family, just that it is aged under 16.

Sounds like there is only one child in this household, so a room is allowed for that child. It does not matter whether the child belongs to the immediate family of the claimant or of the non-dep couple – either way, it is a child who occupies the dwelling as its home.

[andyrichards]

Can I ask why people seem to think these scenarios are not covered in the regs when they clearly are?

Genuine question……

[Author]

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