Housing Benefits Regulations 1985
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | SI 1985/677 |
| Year | 1985 |
1985 No. 677
HOUSING, ENGLAND AND WALES
HOUSING, SCOTLAND
RATING AND VALUATION
The Housing Benefits Regulations 198529thApril 1985
30thApril 1985
21stMay 1985Regulation 50(3)(d)(iii)Regulation 50(3)(d)(iii)1stAugust 1985
The Secretary of State for Social Services, in exercise of the powers conferred on him by section 28(1) of the Social Security and Housing Benefits Act 1982(a) ("the 1982 Act") and section 166(2) and (3) of the Social Security Act 1975(b) (as applied by section 45(1) of the 1982 Act) and of all other powers enabling him in that behalf, with the consent of the Treasury, after consultation with organisations appearing to him to be representative of authorities concerned(c) and after agreement by the Social Security Advisory Committee that proposals to make these regulations should not be referred to it(d), hereby makes the following regulations:—
ARRANGEMENT OF REGULATIONS
PART I
GENERAL
1. Citation and commencement
2. Interpretation
3. Statutory rebate and allowance schemes and local schemes
PART II
ELIGIBILITY
4. Provision against multiple benefits
5. Eligibility for rate rebate
6. Eligibility for rent rebate
7. Eligibility for rent allowance
8. Limited eligibility for boarders on supplementary benefit
(a) 1982 c. 24.
(b) 1975 c. 14.
(c) See section 336(1)(a) of the Social Security and Housing Benefits Act 1982.
(d) See section 10(2)(b) of the Social Security Act 1980 (c. 30).
9. Persons on supplementary benefit
10. Persons treated as occupying a dwelling as their home
11. Joint occupiers
12. Students from abroad
PART III
AMOUNT OF HOUSING BENEFIT
13. Factors governing amount of housing benefit
14. Conversion to weekly amounts
15. Needs allowance
16. Income
17. Eligible rates
18. Eligible rent
19. Unsuitable accommodation
20. Deductions for non-dependants
21. Lesser deductions for non-dependants in certain cases
22. Calculation of benefit
23. Minimum and maximum amounts of benefit
24. Amount of benefit for certain persons in receipt of supplementary benefit
25. Additional amount of benefit in exceptional cases
26. Disentitlement to rent allowance and rate rebate
27. Benefit by reference to another person's income
PART IV
BENEFIT PERIOD
28. Beginning of benefit period
29. End of benefit period
30. Days of entitlement to housing benefits
PART V
CLAIMS AND CHANGES OF CIRCUMSTANCES
31. Claims
32. Procedure following a claim
33. Duty to notify changes of circumstances
34. Changes leading to lesser amounts of benefit
35. Changes leading to greater amounts of benefit
36. Changes in rates and housing authority rents
37. Changes in regulations
38. Disregard of small amounts
PART VI
PAYMENT
39. Time and manner of payment
40. Interim payments of rent allowance
41. Prompt first payment in certain cases
42. Frequency of payments of rent allowance
43. Withholding of payment
44. Persons to whom benefit may or shall be paid
PART VII
RECOVERY OF OVERPAYMENTS
45. Meaning of overpayment
46. Restriction on recovery in certificated cases
47. Recovery by authorities
48. Recovery by the Secretary of State
PART VIII
DETERMINATIONS AND REPRESENTATIONS
49. Determinations
50. Notification of determinations
51. Representations in writing and review
52. Further review of determinations
53. Procedure on further review
54. Determinations on further review
55. Effect of alteration of determination
56. Revision of determinations
PART IX
REVOCATIONS
57. Revocations
SCHEDULE 1: Students
SCHEDULE 2: Amounts to be disregarded when ascertaining weekly income for any housing benefit
SCHEDULE 3: Deductions in respect of charges for fuel and services and in respect of rent for the purpose of computing eligible rent
SCHEDULE 4: Areas of high rent
SCHEDULE 5: Constitution of review boards
SCHEDULE 6: Revocations
PART I
GENERAL
Citation and commencement
1. These regulations may be cited as the Housing Benefits Regulations 1985 and shall come into operation on 21st May 1985, except for regulation 50(3)(d)(iii) which shall come into operation on 1st August 1985.
Interpretation
2.— (1) In these regulations, unless the context otherwise requires,—
"the 1982 Act" means the Social Security and Housing Benefits Act 1982;
"advanced education" means full-time education by attendance at an educational establishment for the purposes of—
(a) a course in preparation for a degree, a diploma of higher education, a higher national diploma or a teaching qualification, or
(b) any other course which the appropriate authority considers to be a course of a standard above ordinary national diploma, general certificate of education (advanced level) or Scottish certificate of education (higher level);
"authority" means a rating, housing or local authority;
"beneficiary" means a person to whom a housing benefit has been granted;
"benefit day" is to be construed in accordance with regulation 30(1);
"benefit period" means the period for which a housing benefit is granted;
"boarder on supplementary benefit" means a boarder within the meaning of regulation 9(13) and (14) of the Requirements Regulations who is in receipt of, or has claimed and is entitled to, supplementary benefit;
"certificated case" means a case in which a certificate has been issued by the Secretary of State under regulation 9(1);
"crofter on supplementary benefit" means a tenant of a croft within the meaning of section 3(1) of the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1955(a) who is in receipt of, or who has claimed and is entitled to, supplementary benefit;
"Crown tenant" means a person who occupies a dwelling under a tenancy or licence where the interest of the landlord belongs to Her Majesty in right of the Crown or to a government department or is held in trust for Her Majesty for the purposes of a government department, except (in the case of an interest belonging to Her Majesty in right of the Crown) where the interest is under the management of the Crown Estate Commissioners;
"dependent child" means a person who resides in the dwelling occupied by the eligible person and whose requirements are provided for, in whole or in part, by the eligible person or his partner, or wholly by means of maintenance payments payable to him, and who is either—
(a) under the age of sixteen, or
(b) aged sixteen or over but under the age of twenty and receiving full-time education at a school, college or other similar educational establishment, other than advanced education, or
(c) a person in respect of whom child benefit is paid or is payable under the Child Benefit Act 1975(b);
"eligible person", except as provided by regulation 27(2), means a person eligible for a housing benefit;
"eligible rates" means the amount of payments by way of rates which may be met by a rate rebate;
(a) 1955 c. 21.
(b) 1975 c. 61.
"eligible rent" means the amount of rent which may be met by a rent rebate or a rent allowance;
"fuel" includes gas and electricity and a reference to a charge for, or an amount payable for, fuel includes a reference to a charge for, or, as the case may be, an amount payable for, the facility of providing it;
"grant-aided student" means a person for the time being in receipt, in respect of his attending a course at an establishment in Great Britain, or undergoing education in Great Britain, of an award or grant of any of the classes specified in Part I of Schedule 1;
"housing association"—
(a) in relation to England and Wales has the meaning assigned by section 189(1) of the Housing Act 1957(a), and
(b) in relation to Scotland, has the meaning assigned by section 208(1) of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1966(b);
"industrial disablement pension" means any weekly payment of disablement pension under the Social Security Act 1975;
"long tenancy" means a tenancy granted for a term of years certain exceeding twenty-one years, whether or not the tenancy is, or may become, terminable before the end of that term by notice given by or to the tenant or by re-entry, forfeiture (or, in Scotland, irritancy) or otherwise; and includes a lease for a term fixed by law under a grant with a covenant or obligation for perpetual renewal unless it is a lease by sub-demise from one which is not a long tenancy;
"married couple" means a man and women who are married to each other and are members of the same household;
"non-dependant" means, in relation to an eligible person,—
(a) a member of his household other than his partner or a dependent child of his or of his partner, or
(b) a person occupying his dwelling who makes payments to him which include a charge in respect of board, where that charge forms a substantial proportion of those payments,
but does not, except where sub-paragraph (b) of this definition applies, include a person paying rent under a tenancy or similar agreement;
"old cases allowance" means a weekly payment made under a scheme having effect by virtue of the Industrial Injuries and Diseases (Old Cases) Act 1975(c);
"owner" means—
(a) in relation to a dwelling in England and Wales, the person who, otherwise than as a mortgagee in possession, is for the time being entitled to dispose of the fee simple,
(b) in relation to a dwelling in Scotland, the proprietor under udal tenure or the proprietor of the dominium utile or the tenant's or the
(a) 1957 c. 56; the definition of "housing association" was extended by Clergy Pensions Measure 1961 (No. 3), s. 29 and amended by Housing Act 1974 (c. 44), Sch. 13 para. 6.
(b) 1966 c. 49; the definition of "housing association" was amended by Housing Act 1974, Sch. 13 para. 15.
(c) 1975 c. 16.
lessee's interest in a long tenancy, a kindly tenancy, a lease registered or registerable under the Registration of Leases (Scotland) Act 1857(a) or the Land Registration (Scotland) Act 1979(b) or a tenant-at-will as defined in section 20(8) of that Act of 1979;
"partner" means one of a married or an unmarried couple;
"pensionable age" means in the case of a man, 65 and in the case of a woman, 60;
"qualifying supplementary benefit" means supplementary pension or allowance...
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