My client and his wife live in a chalet which they own on a site which is not deemed residential.

They do not pay council tax and are in the process of claiming help with their site fees.

They have to vacate the property for one month of the year, from the 30/11 to 01/01. They have always stayed with family for this time but this year that is not possible.

His question to us is can they get housing benefit for the month they will have to go into rented accomodation?

The chalet is worth approximately £20,000 and the client is in receipt of Income Support.

I've looked everywhere i can think of and cannot find a definitive answer - can anyone help? Will the chalet be disregarded as capital because they are living away from "home" temporarily?

Any help greatly appreciated!

I think the answer has yo be "yes" given the decsiion of Mr Commissioner Jacobs in CH0318/2005 where he ruled in favour of a person who rented a narrow boat where the licence required that he move the boat out of the LA area every so often and he could only moor the boat in the LA area 14 days in every 42.

Your client is based in the LA area 11 months out of 12 so there should no be a problem

Wed 17-Aug-05 01:32 PM by ken

There's a summary of Commissioner Jacobs recent decision in CH/318/2005 available in the briefcase area of rightsnet together with a link to the full decision available on the osscsc.gov.uk website.

Thanks both of you but - the client owns the chalet. He needs to rent somewhere else for one month only when he can't live in the chalet. I'm concerned about the chalet being regarded as capital if they claim Housing Benefit.

I may be missing the point but CH/318/2005 does not seem to apply to my client.

I'm also now concerned that he and his wife do not seem to be registered for council tax anywhere!

The dwelling ocupied as a home is always disregarded, but in the case of chalets, boats, caravans etc, I would say they are personal possesions (again disregarded) and not real estate.

Registration for council tax is not relvant to housing benefit.

I raised the issue of CH0318/2005 because of the mobility question, and whether the chalet is a dwelling occupied as a home.

I doubt whether they could get HB for the rented property because they have not moved from their principal home they are merely temporarily absent from it during the month

The issue of ground rent for a chalet was considered favourably by Commissioner Rowland in CH3110/2003

Can I put a spanner in the works and suggest that HB on the temporary home would not be payable?

The starting point is Section 130 of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 - paragraph(1) says that "a person is entitled to housing benefit if:
(a) he is liable to make payments in respect of a dwelling which he occupies as his home."

Regulation 5 of the Housing Benefit Regulations covers the meaning of the phrase "occupies as his home": paragraph (1) says "...a person shall be treated as occupying as his home the dwelling normally occupied as his home."

Paragraph (2) says: "In determining whether a dwelling is the dwelling normally occupied as a person's home for the purposes of paragraph (1) regard shall be had to any other dwelling occupied by that person......

In other words, the local authority will have to decide which is the claimant's "normal" home. Clearly, in this case the chalet is the "normal" home - it's where the claimant keeps all his belongings; it is his address for 11 out of 12 months; it is his address for identification and registration purposes etc etc.

I can't, therefore, see how HB could be awarded.

Thanks! This is what i've told the client, but started to doubt myself!

Thanks to all for your help

Nicky