Scottish working-age Council Tax Reduction: severe disability premium reads a Child Benefit young person as family, not as a non-dependant #2295

Defect

Scotland's working-age Council Tax Reduction scheme defines a young person as a Universal Credit qualifying young person (SSI 2021/249 reg. 6(1)). #2288 gives that definition to the family, lone-parent status and the income mask. One reader of the old (Child Benefit) definition is left: the severe disability premium's non-dependant test.

council_tax_reduction_applicable_amount takes its premiums from working_age_benefits_premiums, which is shared with Housing Benefit and Income Support. The severe disability premium there is removed by has_non_dependant_for_severe_disability_premium, whose "family" is the claimant, the partner and is_child_or_qualifying_young_person_for_child_benefit. So a resident aged 18 or 19 who is a Child Benefit young person, but not a Universal Credit one, is read as family. Under the Scottish working-age scheme that person is a non-dependant, and the premium is not due.

The review of #2288 found this. It is older than #2288 and #2288 does not change it.

The law

SSI 2021/249 reg. 8:

(1) In these Regulations, “non-dependant” means any person, except someone to whom paragraph (2) applies, who normally resides with an applicant or with whom an applicant normally resides.
(2) This paragraph applies to— (a) any member of the applicant’s family, (b) a child or young person who is living with the applicant but for whom neither the applicant nor the applicant’s partner is responsible by virtue of regulation 7 [...]

Sch. 1 para. 13(2)(a), for a single applicant:

(ii) subject to sub-paragraph (4), the applicant has no non-dependants aged 18 or over normally residing with the applicant or with whom the applicant normally resides

Para. 13(2)(b)(iii) says the same for an applicant with a partner. "Young person" in reg. 8(2) is reg. 6's, the Universal Credit one.

Reproduction

On #2288's branch at 9dc3e3c, 2026-27, Scotland: an applicant aged 45 who receives a qualifying benefit (receives_severe_disability_premium_qualifying_benefit), with a 19-year-old at school on a course begun at 17.

In the second row the 19-year-old is not a young person under reg. 6, so they are a non-dependant aged 18 or over and the premium is not due: the applicable amount should be the personal allowance alone, £95.55 × 52 = £4,968.60. England gives the same numbers, correctly, because its scheme uses the Child Benefit young person.

from policyengine_uk import Simulation

Y = 2026
situation = {
    "people": {
        "applicant": {"age": {Y: 45}, "is_claimant_or_partner": {Y: True},
                      "receives_severe_disability_premium_qualifying_benefit": {Y: True}},
        "student": {"age": {Y: 19}, "current_education": {Y: "UPPER_SECONDARY"},
                    "age_started_or_accepted_current_education_or_training": {Y: 17},
                    "is_before_universal_credit_qualifying_young_person_terminal_date": {Y: False},
                    "is_claimant_or_partner": {Y: False}},
    },
    "benunits": {"b": {"members": ["applicant", "student"]}},
    "households": {"h": {"members": ["applicant", "student"], "country": {Y: "SCOTLAND"}}},
}
sim = Simulation(situation=situation)
print(sim.calculate("severe_disability_premium", Y), sim.calculate("council_tax_reduction_applicable_amount", Y))

Size in the microdata

None today. On Enhanced FRS 2024-25 (uk-data 1.58.0) no person's Universal Credit and Child Benefit young person statuses differ in any year from 2024-25 to 2030-31 (#2288's impact run), so this changes household calculations where the inputs are supplied, not the aggregates.

Fix

• A Council Tax Reduction test of the non-dependant condition whose family is is_child_or_young_person_for_council_tax_reduction in Scotland's working-age scheme, and the existing Child Benefit test everywhere else. Housing Benefit and Income Support keep the shared helper.
• The severe disability premium amount before the non-dependant test, so the Council Tax Reduction premium can be worked out in both directions (a Universal Credit young person who is not a Child Benefit one is family in Scotland and a non-dependant elsewhere).
• Reg. 8(2)(b) also excepts a young person who lives with the applicant but for whom the applicant is not responsible. The shared helper counts every household member aged 18 or over outside the benefit unit's family, so it counts an 18- or 19-year-old young person of another benefit unit. Decide whether to fix that here or record it.

Sequencing. After #2288. #2078 (open, conflicting) replaces the same premiums line with council_tax_reduction_premiums, so whichever lands second must keep the other's change.

Keep Sch. 1 para. 13(4) and the existing exceptions (a non-dependant who is blind or receives a qualifying benefit is disregarded), as the shared helper does; the review of #2288 asked that the Council Tax Reduction version preserve them explicitly.

Invariants to test: the Council Tax Reduction premium equals the shared one wherever the two young person statuses agree; in Scotland's working-age scheme a resident aged 18 or over who is not a Universal Credit young person, not blind and not on a qualifying benefit always removes it; Housing Benefit's and Income Support's premiums do not change.

axiom: SSI 2021/249 reg. 8 and Sch. 1 para. 13 are not encoded in rulespec-uk (TheAxiomFoundation/rulespec-uk#448 covers regs 4, 6 and 7; an addendum there lists these two).