Income and expenditure - allowances for utilities etc

AdvicePlease

Are you allowed to put expenditure on your statement for utilities you dont actually pay for? e.g. my water is included in my monthly rent, but can I still claim for it?

I would think the obvious answer would be 'no' but when I submitted my income and expenditure to the OR for my IPA calculation they altered my figures to give me an allowance for a TV licence - even though I dont have a TV, and hadnt included that expenditure in my original figures?

sniggings

no you can only claim for stuff you need/paying for now. but in my experience the OR has a figure in mind for say a single person or family and would only go into detail if it looked like you were over that amount.

It make sense to buy insurance or get a TV etc etc because BR is meant to be a new start so you may have done without house insurance, hair cuts etc when you were struggling but you can claim those amounts now, what you can't do is claim for car insurance without having a car, I think the OR made a mistake by changing your TV figure but hey they did it so it must be right:D