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Housing Benefit, Income Support, tax credit and CTR means tests count a young person's own income #2385
Description
Defect
Four means tests count a child's or young person's own income as the claimant's:
| Variable | Members whose income counts |
|---|---|
housing_benefit_applicable_income |
claimant, partner, and is_child_or_young_person_for_legacy_benefits |
income_support_applicable_income |
the same |
tax_credits_applicable_income |
claimant, partner, and is_child_or_qualifying_young_person_for_child_tax_credit |
council_tax_reduction_applicable_income |
claimant, partner, and is_child_or_young_person_for_council_tax_reduction |
Each formula's own comment says the regulations count only the claimant's and partner's income, and that "dropping dependants' own income is a follow-up". The masks also count the dependant's tax, National Insurance and pension contributions, and their personal benefits.
It matters most for a young person who works. The review of #2299 (Child Benefit routes for young people who have left education) ran an 18-year-old outside education, working 24 hours and earning £20,000, before the Child Benefit terminal date: with #2299 they are rightly a young person, and their £20,000 then enters the parent's Housing Benefit applicable income (£0 to £20,000), Income Support applicable income (£0 to £18,960) and Council Tax Reduction applicable income (£0 to £20,000).
The law
- Housing Benefit. HB Regs 2006 reg. 25(3): "The income and capital of a child or young person shall not be treated as the income and capital of the claimant." HB (SPC) Regs 2006 reg. 23 treats only the partner's income as the claimant's. These are the "prescribed circumstances" of SSCBA 1992 s.136(1).
- Income Support. IS Regs 1987 reg. 23(2): "Subject to the following provisions of this Part, the income paid to, or in respect of, and capital of, a child or young person who is a member of the claimant's family shall not be treated as the income or capital of the claimant."
- Tax credits. Tax Credits (Definition and Calculation of Income) Regs 2002 reg. 3(1): "the income of a claimant or, in the case of a joint claim, the aggregate income of the claimants" (TCA 2002 s.7).
- Council Tax Reduction. The applicant's and partner's income: SI 2012/2885 Sch. 1 para. 11, WSI 2013/3029 Sch. 1 para. 5, SSI 2012/319 reg. 21, and SSI 2021/249 reg. 36(2): "The income and capital of a child or young person is not to be treated as the income and capital of the applicant."
Fix
Count only the claimant's and partner's own income, tax, contributions and personal benefits in all four. Keep everything else: who is a child or young person, the allowances for them, the benefit-unit awards (Child Benefit and the rest) and, for Council Tax Reduction, the household head who applies alone (#2288). #2078 changes the Council Tax Reduction mask to the applicant and partner and so overlaps that one reader.
Invariants: a child's or young person's own income, tax and personal benefits never change any of the four; the claimant's and partner's still count in full.
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