Terms & Conditions

[awj136]

…any advice gratefully received for the following scenario ; specifically, can I take the 300.00 payment towards the rent into account, for the Benefit calculation ?

clt.is 20 years old ; working ; on a low wage ;
the rent is £700.00 pcm ;
clt.also has a 21 non-dependant resident, on JSA ;
clt.is sole tenant ; there’s no mention of non-dep on tenancy agreement ;
however, non-dep’s mum contributes £300.00 to the rent, via direct debit to the landlord (proof received)

can I take this £300.00 into account in the Benefit calculation ?

if I don’t, the net result in this instance would be a payment of c.700.00 per month to the clt., leaving her 300.00 per month free, to spend as she wishes !!

…surely not the purpose of HB…

[Kevin D]

A couple of questions:

1) Is the money paid to the non-dep, or to the clmt?

If to the non-dep, it isn’t the clmt’s income. And, if the non-dep is not working 16+ hours per week, it won’t affect the non-dep deduction.

If the money is paid to the clmt, then a further question arises:

2) Is there any obligation for the £300?

If not, the payments would appear to be voluntary and, as such, would be disregarded in full.

Hope this helps.

[Trevor Kenward]

It would seem that it cannot be treated as clmts income as it would appear such an amount is being paid on behalf of the non-dep.
I would ask the intention of such an arrangement . ie is it in effect the non deps proportion of the rent even though not formalised on a joint tenant basis?
Will such an arrangement cease if the non-dep starts work?

[jamcon]

Is the 21 year old not on the tenancy agreement actually a non-dep, or is he in reality a sub-tenant?

[peterdelamothe]

As the “rent” of £300 is being paid via “direct debit to the landlord” then I think it is a reasonable inference to believe that there is at least an oral contract between the non-dep and the landlord and pay HB on the £400 remaining. That leaves the issue of whether to take a non-dep deduction … logic suggests no but I am still thinking on that one ….

[Anonymous]

If there is a written agreement giving the claimant exclusive possession of the whole property for the full rent, I think that is a hefty factor counting against the inference that there is a separate de facto tenancy between the landlord and the putative non-dep.

If you do decide to go along with the view that there is actually a separate oral tenancy between the non-dep and the landlord, and that the claimant’s true rent liability is therefore reduced accordingly, Reg 3 would not expressly rule out the applkication of a non-dep deduction when the person reaches age 25 or comes off JSA, but it is surely absurd to double-count: otherwise, in any house-share arrangement where the occupiers have indivual tenancy agreements but there is a shared living room or kitchen you could argue that everyone is everyone else’s non-dep! The only sensible interpretation is to say that the categories of non-dep and fellow HMO tenant are mutually exclusive.

[Author]

Posts