HB calculation
Dear Sunderland City Council,
When you calculate Housing Benefit for Social Housing Tenants who
are deemed to have a spare bedroom, do you take into account the
following legislation, in that tenants who have been continuously
on housing benefit since before 1996 are exempt from the under
occupancy charge?
"A tenant (or they and their partner/ former partner /child /
non-dependant who has: died, or left the property, or served a
prison sentence) has been on Housing Benefit continuously since 1st
January 1996 (with certain gaps allowed) their eligible rent should
be assessed in accordance with paragraph 4 of Schedule 3 to the
Consequential Provisions Regulations 1996. This is because Housing
Benefit Regulation 2 defines ‘eligible rent’ as follows:
“eligible rent” means, as the case may require, an eligible rent
determined in accordance with–
(a) regulations 12B (eligible rent), 12BA (eligible rent and
maximum rent(social sector), 12C (eligible rent and maximum rent)
or 12D (eligible rent and maximum rent (LHA)); or
(b) regulations 12 (rent) and 13 (restrictions on unreasonable
payments) as set out in paragraph 5 of Schedule 3 to the
Consequential Provisions Regulations in a case to which paragraph 4
of that Schedule applies;
Because the tenant meets the conditions, the correct Regulation to
be applied when assessing their eligible rent is paragraph (b) ie
regulations 12 (rent) and 13 (restrictions on unreasonable
payments) as set out in paragraph 5 of Schedule 3 to the
Consequential Provisions Regulations in a case to which paragraph 4
of that Schedule applies.
The Consequential Provisions Regulations afford protection from any
new eligible rent provision introduced since 1st January 1996 to
claimants living in ‘exempt accommodation’ but also to claimants
who have had a continuous entitlement to Housing Benefit since 1st
January 1996 (with certain gaps allowed).
AS such, a tenant who has been on HB continuously since 1996, is
entitled to this protection and is therefore excluded from the
social sector size criteria."
Yours faithfully,
John Humble
Re: Your request for information concerning: HB Calculation
Council aims to provide available information promptly and in any event
within 20 working days, unless, exceptionally, there is a need to consider
whether the information is exempt from disclosure.
Please note that there may be a charge for providing copies of the
information. If the cost of complying with your request in full exceeds
£450, we will ask you to reconsider your request, or to pay a fee before
the information is supplied. If a charge or fee is payable we will let you
know.
I will contact you again soon in connection with your request.
Please quote the reference below if you contact the Council regarding this
request.
Customer Request Number: 14 01 50
I refer to your request below and can advise that we are currently in the
process of identifying those cases that are exempt from under occupancy
and will amend these cases appropriately when the process is complete.
I hope this is satisfactory. If, however, you are dissatisfied with our
response to your request for information, you can ask for the decision to
be reviewed in reply to this letter. The review will be removed from the
Directorate and coordinated by the Council’s Information Governance
Officer. A request for review should be directed, by email to
[1][Sunderland City Council request email], or by post or by hand addressed
to; Information Governance Officer, Governance Services, Civic Centre, PO
Box 100, Sunderland SR2 7DN
You are of course entitled to apply to the Information Commissioner at any
time, although the Commissioner will not usually investigate until the
public authority’s internal review procedure has been concluded.
Fiona Brown
Commercial and Corporate Services
Sunderland City Council
Tel 561 1811
[2]www.sunderland.gov.uk
[3]cid:image001.jpg@01CF0D19.57F43780
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