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paying rent to a relative
I have someone who is very elderly who has moved into her nephew’s house. She pays £100 per week (including utilities). Having looked in the CPAG book it seems that this would not count as paying rent ot a close relative. However, I have been informed by her niece who is her carer and my client that the aunt did try to claim HB at some point and was turned down. She does not know why.
My question is should the aunt be bale to claim HB while paying rent to her nephew? She is in receipt of Pension credit so income / capital won’t be a problem.
Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 : Regulation 2 Interpretation
“close relative” means a parent, parent-in-law, son, son-in-law, daughter, daughter-in-law, step-parent, step-son, step-daughter, brother, sister, or if any of the preceding persons is one member of a couple, the other member of that couple;
I can’t see the problem. She should be entitled.
I can’t see the problem. She should be entitled.
Unless the LA considers the arrangement(s) not to be on a commercial basis and/or the liability was created to take advantage of the HB scheme. The info given suggests (no more, no less) that the arrangements may well be more personal in nature than commercial. If in doubt, apply. If the decision is negative, ask for a statement of reasons and, if appropriate, challenge the decision.
it may be that the local authority made a decision that it was not a ‘commercial tenancy’ or was put into place to ‘take advantage of the benefit scheme’.
when was the decision refusing benefit made? may be worth putting in appeal/late appeal.
to be on safe side, i would also put in a new claim and appeal refusal of that if necessary.
I would be looking into the tenancy agreement and making sure that it was on commercial terms before any appeal.
If not it would be an idea to let them know how the tenancy can be put onto commerical terms or referring to someone who can help with this, there are standard tenancy agreements to be found online.
Good luck.