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Legacy award readers count income-related ESA and JSA of members who are neither claimant nor partner #2026
Description
Activity
A reader that none of #2027, #2076 or #2038 changes, found in the review of #2013:
- Where it reads the total.
extended_childcare_entitlement_limited_capability_or_specified_benefitreads the benefit unit'sesa_income, whichgov.dfe.extended_childcare_entitlement.disability_criterialists for SI 2022/1134 reg 11A(1)(e). It reads it throughadd(person.benunit, period, group_criteria) > 0. - The effect. Another member's income-related ESA, such as a non-dependent adult's, lets a parent or partner meet the specified-benefit condition.
- The likely fix. Once Count only the claimant's and partner's legacy awards in means tests and passports #2027 lands,
claimant_or_partner_esa_incomewould be the natural replacement.
Two related readers are already covered:
- The Housing Benefit passport,
in_receipt_of_income_support_jsa_ib_or_esa_ir(from Disregard the whole income and capital of Housing Benefit claimants on IS, income-based JSA or income-related ESA #2000), is in Count only the claimant's and partner's legacy awards in means tests and passports #2027's follow-up list. - Count only the claimant's and partner's legacy awards in means tests and passports #2027 leaves the cost of living payment list as it is, by design.
🤖 Generated with Claude Code
- Where it reads the total.
esa_income(policyengine_uk/variables/gov/dwp/esa_income.py) sums every benefit-unit member'sesa_income_reported, andjsa_incomesums every member'sjsa_income_reported. These totals are right as household income: another member's award is real income. But a member who is neither the claimant or partner (is_claimant_or_partner) nor a child or young person they are responsible for (is_child_or_young_person_for_legacy_benefits), for example a non-dependent adult, has their award read by means tests and passports that the law ties to the claimant and partner:housing_benefit_applicable_incomeadd_for_membersadds benefit-unit variables as they are)council_tax_reduction_applicable_incomecouncil_tax_reduction_relevant_income_based_benefitcouncil_tax_reduction/_legacy.py)tax_credits_applicable_incomeis_scp_eligibleis_benefit_cap_exempt_health_disabilityqualifying_benefitsmaintenance_loan_entitled_to_benefitswould_claim_ISSynthetic example: a single claimant aged 40 with no income and an adult aged 30 who reports £5,000 of income-related ESA, with
is_claimant_or_partner: falseand not in education. Housing Benefit and council tax reduction count the £5,000 as the claimant's income. The working-age council tax reduction passport is on, the tax credit income test is lifted and the family is exempt from the benefit cap.income_supportis already limited to the claimant's and partner's award by #2013. The household totals (esa,household_benefits, HBAI,gov_spending,benefit_cap_reduction) should not change.Follows #2023 (the Income Support gate). Found while fixing it.