Client's husband passed away end of March this year, client was only in receipt of Carer's Allowance so her son set up a standing order and paid her £55 per week for '5 weeks' until her Bereavment Allowance came through. Housing Benefit have taken this income as Voluntary Payments and given a disregard of £20 per week. I asked them to look at again as only 5 payments made I did not think it could be classed as 'regular payments'. Housing Benefit have come back to me saying, 'standing order was set up and it is therefore classed as regular payments'.

any comments or ideas please!

sarah smith

how regularly did her husband die?

recently perhaps ??

In addition to the standard £20 disregard, additional amounts might be disregarded depending on what they were intended for and what they were used for. Have a look at

http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2004/1671.html&query=Perkins&method=all

(Hey - did I just make a link that actually works?)

Gerry
(Luddite of the Year, 2002)

okay - it's friday...they're no good if you have to explain 'em...

the LA can't just decide to define 'regular' payments as any payments set up by standing order can it? ... it's not defined in the schedule or regs - not sure if it's come up in a CD...

they sound like rather irregular payments to me...bit of a once in a lifetime experience, death...

and the end date was unknown, determined by whenever the DWP sorted out claim, with no intention of it becoming a regular income..

realistically, i suspect you're stuck with the decision, other than any of gerry's exemptions...

reg. 24 does talk about average weekly income, don't know if there's any mileage there, but doubt it...

can't help being struck by son's efficiency, which goes to show - you can be too clever. : (

Wouldn't claimant get full benefit anyway regardless of whether the whole amount of the voluntary payments was disregarded or just £20 per week?

Original post stated claimant was just in receipt of carers allowance. That is £45.70 per week.

Applicable amount (assuming she is over 25) would be £82 (including carers premium). £45.70 + £30 voluntary payments = £75.70

sorry probably did not make it very clear, client was in receipt of Carers Allowance which continued to be paid for 8 weeks after death, however when Bereavement Allowance was paid at the end of May 2005 they backdated to date of death 27 March 2005 (and they deducted the Carers Allowance which had already been paid from the back pay). So income HB used for the period 26.04.05 - 01.06.05 was Bereavement Allowance £82.05 and £35 voluntary payments

Unfortunatley i think the LA acted correctly. however, i would be willing to accept other plausable reason for the payments to be fully disregarded.

Voluntary payments paid to anyone over 60+ are fully disregarded. If the claimants are under 60:-

£20 is disregarded from any amount intended and used for the claimants (or member of families) food, ordinary clothing or footwear, household fuel, eligible rent, ctax or water charges.

So it seems the LA took this approach. If possible argue that the payments where not for the above.

Secretary of state for DWP vs Perkins and Another. I believe if memory serves ok that their was no factual evidence of what the payments were for. I think the claimant had other income and the payments were non-basic living needs thus Fully Disregarded.

I think that was the right one?

This has to be calculated per annum!!!!!!!! I have this situation with several on-going cases and have to send a written statement to the Hb office each year, providing details of the VP's, which are then added together and divided by 52. This enables us to make considerable donations without threatening thier status. These are all differnt councils by the way, so this is neither a new nor novel arrangement.

£55 x 5 weeks = £272 divided by 52=£5.23 per week - well under the limit.

Thanks - looks like a way around this one.

Is there a regulation I can quote to HB? or if not how did you manage to get HB to assess the payments over an annual period rather than weekly

regards
sarah

The original post clearly stated that the £55 was paid for a specified period of 5 weeks. There is nothing to suggest it is paid in respect of another period.

If that is correct, the LA are quite right to assess the income over that same 5-week period. Unless there is a specific provision for a particular type of income, the income in question MUST be assessed over the period it is in respect of. This is confirmed by a recent Tax Credits CD - CH/1561/2005 (on the Commissioners' site - www.osscsc.gov.uk). LAs who assess income on a different basis are simply not complying with the regs.

Although the CD was in respect of how to assess arrears of Tax Credits, the vast majority of points raised apply to nearly all other income.

In that same CD, it was also confirmed that if the monies were income (as opposed to capital), irregularity of payments did not in itself cause that income to become capital. As an aside, it would be difficult to suggest that payments are "irregular" when paid by standing order with a clear periodic time frame.

BradW's comments about age & usage are relevant.

Hope this helps.