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UC and bereavement protection
Tenant dies leaving 18 year old son in 3 bed property. Mother had worked and paid full rent. Assuming son succeeds the tenancy and is not on benefit (or in education) will he claim UC and get 13 week bereavement protection from the bedroom tax - i.e get full housing element to cover 2 spare rooms? If he was moved to a 2 bed would the protection still apply but for 1 room or does it have to be the same property? We are not a UC full service area yet.
Thanks in advance
will he be eligible at all for housing costs as he is 18?
will he be eligible at all for housing costs as he is 18?
Not a full service area so won’t be hit by that fortunately…
Yes - we aren’t full service so that isn’t an issue. More concerned now about whether moving to a smaller property “breaks” the entitlement to protection??
I’m pretty sure the protection cannot apply if the person moves. The relevant regulation seems clear that it only applies in respect of the property the deceased person last occupied.
Should add here that it was the HB Regs I was looking at, forgetting this was about UC! Can’t get to the UC Regs at the moment but I suspect they won’t say anything different.
Run-on after a death
37. In calculating the maximum amount of an award where any of the following persons has died—(a) in the case of a joint award, one member of the couple;
(b) a child or qualifying young person for whom a claimant was responsible; or
(c) in the case of a claimant who had regular and substantial caring responsibilities for a severely disabled person, that person,the award is to continue to be calculated as if the person had not died for the assessment period in which the death occurs and the following two assessment periods.
His problem is going to be that he doesn’t have an existing award to protect. I cannot see anything else that would cover him. However, as he is in a live service area, he needs to manipulate the “existing benefit” gateway conditions so as to stay off UC and have the protection of the HB 12 month rule. Because his mother did not claim HB his eligible rent is protected at the full amount as at the date of death for the next 12 months.
He needs to make a claim for HB, which he can do if he is not currently getting or waiting to hear about UC. If he then also needs to claim DWP subsistence benefit he can do that while the HB claim is still pending and fail the gateway so he gets JSA(ib).
Some Councils will insist that the 12 month rule only applies in a case where the surviving claimant was the claimant (or tenant if not on HB) before the death - it cannot be relied on by a successor. I think they are wrong but you might need to argue about that when the time comes.