Housing benefit tenant.Due to property repairs,will be away for months. Will HB Stop?or UC transfer?

katesheet

Hello x, wont go into too much detail but..

Private landlord, tenant issue.

Private landlord renting property to a tenant,

Tenant receives housing benefit (direct to him), to pay for his rent to the landlord.

The tenant also receives income based ESA, and PIP, and SDP.

The current property has had a boiler issue, it exploded, and also damaged walls.

Nobody was hurt.

Landlord is happy to carry out the repairs, but will take time (months) as he is away due to Covid.

As there is no boiler/no hot water, needs tenant to be vacated out of the property for them months 

(until it is fixed, as the landlord is away for a while)

The landlord has no alternative accommodation to rehouse the tenant in.

Here are the options,

the tenant can move in a new temporary place within the same borough,

The tenant can move in with family during this period.

The main question is about the housing benefit the tenant currently receives, as they will not be living in 

the property for a few months.

What are the options here?

The tenant phones the HB department, they Stop their Housing benefit (as they will not be living there)

then in a few months when the whole place has been repaired and boiler fixed, the tenant reapply for housing benefit?

1) Is that the usual common option?

2) If so, when the tenant re-applies for housing benefit this second time, when they return to the property, 

then will they amount they receive the same amount of housing benefit this time around as the first,

(assuming there have been no changes in their other circumstances)?

3) If the tenant stops their housing benefit by phoning the HB team, then when they reapply in months time

will they have to apply for Universal Credit?

4) The tenant is also getting income based ESA. If they do option 3), will their ESA stop? or will

it carry on and be merged into the UC payment?

Once the original property has been fixed up, boiler repaired the tenant wants to come back to the property and rent out there, with housing benefit.

5) What would be the best avenue to take for this?  Eg move somewhere else but local, temporarily,  live with family temporary?

6) If within this temporary period the tenant decides to live with family, until the repair work has been completed,

then would this have any advantages/disadvantages regarding the Housing benefit and ESA being paid when they move back?

The tenant also receives income based ESA, income based, and PIP, and SDP.

The landlord has no alternative accommodation to rehouse the tenant 

Please can you answer the above questions and write your answers in this format 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) format, 

(even if you only know the answers to some of the questions, please answer what you can)

please xx

Thank you xx

poppy12345

I'm finding that quite difficult to read because the spaces between each line is rather large....

Does the landlord of the house that needs repairs still expect the rent to be paid while they are not living there? Is rent expected to be paid in the temporary house?

Either way, if the housing benefit ends they will not be able to reclaim it, which will mean a transfer to UC to claim for help with any future rent, so their ESA would then end. If part of their ESA is Contributions based then this will continue but be deducted in full from any UC entitlement.

katesheet

poppy12345 said:

I'm finding that quite difficult to read because the spaces between each line is rather large....

Does the landlord of the house that needs repairs still expect the rent to be paid while they are not living there? Is rent expected to be paid in the temporary house?

Either way, if the housing benefit ends they will not be able to reclaim it, which will mean a transfer to UC to claim for help with any future rent, so their ESA would then end. If part of their ESA is Contributions based then this will continue but be deducted in full from any UC entitlement.

Thanks x
No landlord does not expect any rent during the vacated period.

Sorry about the spacing, will try to fix it  x

IF HB ends, and after months the tenant comes back to the original repaired properly, and need help with housing rent, so they apply for UC (not Hb)

Then why does this new UC application claim put a Stop to the tenants current ESA benefit they receive?

Or will they NOT lose the Esa money but rather it will be combined/converter to the UC payment.

(So for their new UC award they will get a HB component and a ESA component combined ?)
Or just a HB component only..

But with the UC if they only get a HB component (and no ESA component), then it feels they woukd have been penalised in losing an ESA component of money.. for just making a new application for UC
 

[Deleted User]

5. The tenant should go stay with family while the works are carried out.  Keep paying rent to the landlord to show that the tenancy continues.  There is not any change of circumstances, the tenant's is still liable for rent, they're just going away while the property is repaired.

You are allowed to be away for a period of up to 13 weeks without it affecting a HB claim.

The good thing is that, even if the works will take longer than that, all the tenant has to do is return to the property for at least 24 hours.   Then the clock resets.   You can keep on going away for periods of up to 13 weeks, returning for a short period, then going away.

Don't sign any tenancy agreements or register with utility companies for any other property.  Don't change your postal address with anyone, get all bills online instead.  Don't do anything which gives the appearance of your main  residence now being elsewhere. Therefore staying with family is the best option if this is possible.

The tenant doesn't have any obligation to tell the council about being away as this is all allowed.

Housing benefit doesn't have a work commitment to it, unlike UC, so I think the tenant would be well advised to hold on to it.   It wouldn't be possible to reclaim it.

By the way I'm not an expert, just an HB claimant myself.   

[Deleted User]

The key point is to insist on continuing to pay rent to the lucky landlord while away from the property!

calcotti

poppy12345 said:

I'm finding that quite difficult to read because the spaces between each line is rather large....

Me too. Got to the end and needed to read through it all again because I can only see a little bit at a time.!

calcotti

Poster_586329 said: Housing benefit doesn't have a work commitment to it, unlike UC, so I think the tenant would be well advised to hold on to it.   

But if OP is in ESA Support Group then if they transfer to UC there will be no work search requirement anyway so this doesn’t affect them.

calcotti

katesheet said: Then why does this new UC application claim put a Stop to the tenants current ESA benefit they receive?

Or will they NOT lose the Esa money but rather it will be combined/converter to the UC payment.
(So for their new UC award they will get a HB component and a ESA component combined ?)
Or just a HB component only..
But with the UC if they only get a HB component (and no ESA component), then it feels they woukd have been penalised in losing an ESA component of money.. for just making a new application for UC

UC replaces all existing means tested benefits except Council Tax Reduction so when UC is claimed those other benefits are stopped (although there is a two week run on). 
HB provides help with your rent
ESA provides help for people who have a health condition which limits their ability to work
UC does both of these things (and more depending on these circumstances). Help with rent is provided through the housing element and help for people in what was the ESA Support Group is provided through the LCWRA element.
Lots of information here https://www.understandinguniversalcredit.gov.uk/

[Deleted User]

Good point!   But keeping the HB claim going just seems like the least worrisome course of action.   Though it does depend on having family who'll provide free accomodation!

calcotti

Found this in the Housing Benefit Manual https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/236950/hbgm-a3-liability-to-make-payments.pdf

Landlord waives liability for payment
3.120 If the landlord waives liability for payment because the claimant is doing reasonable repair and redecoration work which the landlord would have had to do, treat the claimant as still liable to make the waived payments. In these circumstances, you cannot pay HB for more than eight weeks for any one period.

And (as already referred to by Poster)

Temporary absence from home
3.450 There are circumstances when a person may be treated as occupying their home while they are temporarily absent from it. The period benefit is payable for during a temporary absence depends on the reason for absence
• up to 13 weeks for most types of absence (the standard rule)
• up to 52 weeks in prescribed cases, and
• special rules for trial periods in residential accommodation

The last two bullet points do not apply.
 Poster mentioned that you can reset the clock by spending a night at home, this is possibly true but the stay has to be ‘genuine’, see

3.460 When considering entitlement to HB during a period of temporary absence from the home, remember
• any return to the normal home which is a genuine re-occupation of the home will end a period of temporary absence. If the period of the return is short, you will need evidence to prove the stay was genuine. Whether the stay is genuine is a question of judgement. For example, a stay lasting only a few hours may not be acceptable but one that lasts at least 24 hours may be acceptable. It all depends on the facts of the case. If the stay is not considered genuine, the temporary absence will not have stopped. 

Your problem seems to be the length of time the landlord needs to complete the repairs.

 

poppy12345

I don't know the answer to this but it needs to be pointed out because the post above is extremely difficult to read and @calcotti may have missed it.

The person claims SDP, if they went to live with family and they weren't claiming a qualifying benefit such as PIP daily living/DLA mid/high rate care or Attendance Allowance, would the SDP then end? or would it continue because of living temporary with family?