Count Universal Credit carer-element awards in the severe disability premium and addition carer test #2120

What is missing

The severe disability premium (legacy benefits, Housing Benefit, Council Tax Reduction) and the Pension Credit severe disability addition are not payable when someone is paid a carer benefit for caring for the claimant or partner. The law counts three awards:

• Carer's Allowance,
• Carer Support Payment, and
• "an award of universal credit which includes the carer element".

Sources: HB Regs 2006 Sch 3 para 14(2)(a)(iii) and (2)(b) and SPC Regs 2002 Sch I para 1(1); para 1(4) defines the carer element by reference to UC Regs 2013 reg 29.

is_cared_for_by_carer_benefit_recipient (added in #1977) attributes only the first two. It reads receives_carer_benefit, which covers Carer's Allowance and Carer Support Payment. A carer whose only award is the Universal Credit carer element does not bar the premium or the addition in the model.

Why it was left out

The variable's documentation records the reason: reading Universal Credit there would be circular, because uc_non_dep_deduction_exempt reads pension_credit, and Pension Credit reads the addition.

What a fix needs

• A way to read a Universal Credit carer-element award without that cycle (for example a carer-element eligibility variable that does not depend on the housing costs element).
• The same attribution order as the other two awards (claimant or partner first, then other members, then other benefit units).
• A measured impact from a real microsimulation run.

#1938 (pension-age Housing Benefit and Council Tax Reduction premium) inherits the same omission through severe_disability_premium.