service charges guidance

just to alert you to universal credit service charges guidance for landlords and owner occupiers (landlords one has come up before but i don’t think owner occupiers one has)

landlords -

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/universal-credit-service-charges-guidance-landlords.pdf

owner occupiers -

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/universal-credit-service-charge-guidance-owner-occupiers.pdf

confirms that regulations take a ‘light touch approach’ to service charge eligibility with detail provided in this guidance.

also - guardian professional article today saying that home owners guidance is ‘a recipe for confusion’ -

http://www.guardian.co.uk/housing-network/2013/may/21/universal-credit-assessments-recipe-confusion

You may notice that the DWP thinks that the following are not eligible:

1) Any kind of depreciation
2) Furniture in common areas