Just when I really thought I had this sussed one of my managers is advising a strange course of action on a pfa.
The claimant gets IS, DWP have stated he has been treated as a single person, his wife lives in the same house and is a student she has a grant of £4000 per year and has £13,000 capital.
It is my understanding that DWP calculate the IS by disallowing any premiums on his applicable amount for his wife but will consider her income. They are therefore not actually treating him as single but are treating him as a married person but not awarding any premiums for her.
Once the claim comes though to us it comes as a straight forward IS claim. I thought we therefore had to assess his claim on the basis of IS but include his wife in the household. As IS overides any other income then the claim will be paid on the basis of IS.
My manager has advised our assessor of 2 options.
1) input his income as JSA(C) and then include her income or
2) input him as a 50% share.
I was convinced that we were not able to do this but all I’m getting is the”its not fair argument” and we should take her income into account.
Could someone please clarify if my stance is correct and if not should we be using either of her options (I would be very unhappy with option 2 as it just appears incorrect)
Thanks
Debbie P