Housing Benefit Information Bulletins can be found by clicking here. These are the bulletins for Local Authority staff making Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit decisions.
Treatment of foster children in the HB assessment
8 An Upper Tier decision has recently been handed down on two cases
involving the treatment of foster children and the application of the size
criteria (CH/1608/2009 and CH/3000/2009). The ruling is that a foster child
should be treated as an occupier for the purposes of the application of the
size criteria in Local Housing Allowance (LHA) cases.
9 This decision is contrary to DWP policy and amending legislation will be
brought forward at the earliest opportunity to put the situation beyond doubt.
In the meantime you will want to consider how best to take account of this
ruling. In these cases Regulation 7(2) of The Housing Benefit and Council
Tax Benefit (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations 2001 will apply (error of
law). Any supersession will apply from the date of the supersession decision
or, if an application for review of the HB award is made, the date of that
application. If an application has already been made the supersession will
apply from the date of the ruling. You may therefore wish to consider how
10 You may also wish to keep a record of such cases so that they can be
identified easily when our amending regulations come into force in Autumn
Changes to the Local Housing Allowance arrangements and Housing Benefit size criteria for people with non-resident overnight carers.
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/lha-and-carers-eia.pdf