nevip
welfare rights adviser, sefton metropolitan borough council, liverpool.
Member since 22nd Jan 2004
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RE: Capital assets other than savings and shares
Fri 13-Nov-09 11:40 AM |
Fri 13-Nov-09 11:41 AM by nevip
I don’t think it is helpful or desirable to start drawing distinctions between what might be in day-to-day use or not or between functional/non-functional or between taxable/non-taxable. In my view this puts an unnecessary gloss on the regulations.
In R(H) 7/08 commissioner Jacobs said:
“53. My conclusion is that “personal possessions” mean any physical assets other than land and assets used for business purposes. This is broadly the same conclusion as that reached by the deputy Commissioner in CPC/370/2006. It avoids uncertainty of scope and difficulties of application. It is consistent with the legislative history of the disregard and the more humane approach to resource-related benefits that has increasingly been shown over the period of the welfare state. It recognises the increased emphasis that has been given over recent decades to ways of assisting claimants off welfare by not requiring particular categories of possession to be disposed of for what may be a relatively short period on benefit. 54. This interpretation does not render the word “personal” redundant. It still has a function in distinguishing between things held by the claimant for personal and business use. 55. There is, of course, the risk of abuse in my conclusion. However, the legislation contains the safeguard of notional capital. If personal possessions are disposed of in order to secure or increase entitlement to housing benefit, their value will be taken into account as notional capital. And if something is converted into a personal possession for that purpose, it will be caught by the qualification to the disregard in paragraph 11”. I, therefore, think that this avoids the can of worms that Claire fears whereby cases can get caught up in elaborate, over complex debates about just what is a personal possession. You know the ones the “how many angels can dance on the head of a pin” type
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