hypothetically.....young person living in private rented accomodation, is getting IS, has fallen foul of the LHA under 25 rule so is only getting 1/2 rent costs through HB. If her parents make up the difference for her (ie £250 per month) does that count as income to be deducted from IS entitlement? methinks yes, but am desperatly trying to find a way to advise with something positive to offer (DHP has been refused incidentally and reviewed and refused again).

any thoughts welcome!
many thanks
C

Expect you've already looked at this but the CPAG handbook seems to offer two possible ways of looking at this - as "voluntary payments" (p864) or "Income Paid to someone else on your behalf" (p874), the first being ignored the second (which gives the specific example of rent paid to a landlord) being treated as notional income which then apparently falls under the same rules as notional capital (p929).

The upshot, rather counter to my intuition too, seems to suggest that these payments may not effect her IS! CPAG refers to some cases that I'm gonna look at after having some lunch ...

many thanks! R9H)5/05 would certinaly seem to suggest that they are 'voluntary payments and therefore not income for IS purposes or HB purposes

I think this falls under a separate heading. Reg 42(4)(a)(ii) says that a payment of income is treated as income if it is used for anything which would be covered by benefits - food, clothing, fuel and rent which is covered by housing benefit.

There is then a related disregard in Sch 9, para 30, which disregards any payment made to the claimant intended to be used to pay that part of his rent which is not paid by housing benefit, to the extent it is so used.