HB size criteria: count joint tenants who form a single household with the claimant (reg 13D(12); LHA Guidance Manual 2.100) #2046

Problem

Where joint tenants share a household's rent (liable_for_share_of_household_rent, #2006), the Housing Benefit LHA size criteria count, for each joint tenant's family:

• that family;
• its non-dependants, following non_dependant_normally_resides_with (Count a non-dependant shared by joint tenants in each tenant's Housing Benefit size criteria #2029 / Count a non-dependant shared by joint tenants in each tenant's Housing Benefit size criteria #2035);
• for the household head's family, boarders and lodgers.

This follows DWP for joint tenants in separate households: LHA Guidance Manual 2.093; HB circular A21/2013 para 25, "each tenant's individual household size".

The model has no way to say that a joint tenant is in the same household as the claimant. HB Regs 2006 reg 13D(12) (SPC reg 13D(12) is identical) defines "occupiers" as the persons who occupy the dwelling as their home "except for any joint tenant who is not a member of the claimant's household". So a joint tenant who is a member of the claimant's household is an occupier, and so is their family.

LHA Guidance Manual (April 2014):

• 2.030 lists among occupiers "joint-tenants who are a member of the customer's household, for example their partner or children who are now adults".
• 2.031 excludes "joint-tenants who are not a member of the customer's household (household is not defined but should be given its everyday meaning)".
• 2.100: "In some cases joint tenants may be part of the same household but are not treated as members of the same family. For example, the customer may have a non-dependent son or daughter who is a joint tenant but they maintain a common household." In the example, Lee (partner, two children under 10) is a joint tenant with his mother, and "the three bedroom LHA rate applies to both Lee and his mother because they form a single household".
• 2.123 example 3: Andrew, his wife and three children under 10 are joint tenants with Andrew's father George in a single household, and "The four bedroom LHA rate of £210 applies to both Andrew and George".

Today the model gives Lee two bedrooms and his mother one; she also lacks exclusive use, so she gets the shared accommodation rate.

Proposed fix

1. A BenUnit input joint_tenant_in_household_head_household (default false) marks a family sharing the rent that forms a single household with the household head's family.
2. The head's family and every flagged sharer count each other's members as occupiers in 13D(3) and in the additional bedrooms (13D(3A)(a)(iii)).
   • Each also counts every occupier counted for any of them (the head's boarders and lodgers, and non-dependants residing with any of them), so all get the same size criteria.
   • The claimant-specific (3A)(a)(iv) and (b) rooms are the exception.
3. 13D(2)(b) exclusive use. A room shared with "a member of his household" is still the claimant's, so these families do not lack exclusive use because of each other.
4. Unchanged:
   • non-dependant deductions;
   • the young individual's test (a joint tenant is never a non-dependant, reg 3(2)(d));
   • Universal Credit (separately liable joint tenants are not in each other's extended benefit unit, Sch 4 para 9);
   • CTR.