UC, shared ownership - exempt from bedroom tax?

I seem to recall a discussion about this before but my search only brings up Timothy Seaside’s post at https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/15363 Can’t find any ref in UC Regs, CPAG handbook or ADM etc either (as one might expect if their is no exception). But that could be a senior moment!

Is there an equivalent to HB Regs Sch 2, para 12 for UC excluding shared ownership from bed tax? Has the exemption in HB been ‘tidied up’ in UC?

See Paragraph 36(5) here.

EDIT: For completeness, the ADM is at para F3274, and CPAG mentions it on page 108 in Step 5.

The legislation is actually drafted badly, and suggests the exception only applies if the tenant has eligible service charges, but that definitely isn’t the intention.

It never occurred to me that the rule only applied to shared ownership cases where there is a service charge.

Para 36(5) of Sch 4 says there’s no bedroom tax if Reg 26(4) to (6) applies.
Reg 26(4) just says how to work out the housing costs in shared ownership, 26(5) says what to do with service charges in shared ownership, and 26(6) defines “shared ownership”.

Looking at it now, the only confusion I can see would be if you were to read Para 36(5) as meaning that the shared ownership exemption from bedroom tax only applied if all of Reg 26(4) and Reg 26(5) and Reg 26(6) applied. But that seems to me to be a strained interpretation - given that 26(5) is incidental to 26(4), and 26(6) is just a definition. It seems much more natural to read it as “to which [any of] regulation 26(4) to (6) (shared ownership) applies” rather than “to which [all of]...”

Although, as I was writing that, it occurred to me that you could make the point that it would have been enough to have said “to which regulation 26(4) (shared ownership) applies” - and so there is an argument that it must mean something more - i.e. there must have been a reason to include ” to (6)”.

But when we were trying to get UC to agree that there was no bedroom tax in shared ownership they never came up with any such argument; they just kept saying no. I think it was only when it was reviewed before appeal that they conceded the point.

My concern wasn’t because I think all three paragraphs have to apply for there to be no bedroom tax.

Reg 26(5) and (6) are not really relevant at all for the bedroom tax exception - para (5) anyway only has effect when para (4) applies, and para (6) is simply a definition, as you say.

My concern was that Reg 26(4) only applies where Reg 26(3) applies, and Reg 26(3) only applies where there are service charge payments.

Reg 26 is anyway badly drafted now that it no longer covers SMI. Technically renters with service charge payments now come within Reg 26(3) as well, which of course is not the intention.

I see. You’re quite right of course.

I’m just glad I didn’t end up having to argue that to the tribunal, because although it’s obviously not what it should say, it’s still what it says. So this is one of those situations where it’s probably better to gloss over the regs and rely on the ADM, which is very clear on this point.

I think shared ownership tenants always or nearly always have service charges in any case, so the problem should seldom arise, but it is very bad drafting all the same

Gentleman, thanx for your replies, pints all round!

The info is rather hidden away in CPAG & ADM (and I missed it in a scan of S&M). I will suggest to CPAG that it may be easier to find if at the start of the section on p107.