Three queries on the same topic:
A query from Frankie
Our service provides emergency accommodation for single homeless people.
This week Anna and Mark have moved in. They each have their own room with their own licence agreement.
They have a joint claim for Universal Credit.
Now Housing Benefit says that they have to have separate claims – and that they will need to make new, separate claims for UC
Is this right?
A query from Keith
Amarjit will soon leave hospital and will be returning to the property where she lived with her husband.
Their relationship has broken down.
DWP have said that she can’t make a single-person claim for Universal Credit.
Is this right?
A query from Blossom
Harriet’s boyfriend has recently been given notice to leave his tenancy.
They don’t want to live together, long-term, but he wants move in with her for a few weeks while he looks for a new property
Harriet’s sister, who works for a Housing Benefit department, has told her that if she lets him move in she will have to stop claiming ESA as a single woman and that they will have to to make a joint claim for Universal Credit.
Is this right?
The Legal Rules
Throughout the benefit and tax credit system, you count as a member of a couple if you are:
- living in the same household, and
- married, or
- living together as though you are married.
This means that the Decision Maker must consider your circumstances in three separate steps.
Step 1 – Are You Living In The Same Household?
The DWP’s Advice for Decision Makers says:
A household is a domestic establishment containing the essentials of home life. Household and home are not the same. A person cannot be a member of more than one household at the same time.
To be members of the same household means that two people live in the same house, flat, apartment, caravan or other dwelling, and neither normally lives in another household and they both live there regularly, apart from necessary absences.
However, examples of two people living in one dwelling but not necessarily living together in the same household include… two people who are married to each other or who are civil partners of each other who separate and refuse to leave the home.
The Decision Maker should consider:
- the circumstances in which the two people came to be living in the same house
- the arrangements for paying for the accommodation
- the arrangements for the storage and cooking of food
- the eating arrangements (whether separate or not)
- the domestic arrangements such as cleaning, gardening and minor household maintenance
- the financial arrangements – who pays which bills? is there a joint bank account? whose name is shown on utility bills?
- evidence of family life.
Regardless of whether you are married or not, if you are not living in the same household you cannot be treated as a couple
Step 2 – Are You Married?
If you are living in the same household and you are married, then the benefits system should treat you as a couple
Step 3 – Are You Living Together As Though You Are A Married Couple? *
The DWP’s Advice for Decision Makers says:
To be treated as a couple, the relationship has to be the same as that of a married couple. Marriage is where two people join together with the intention of sharing the rest of their lives. There is no single template of what the relationship of a married couple is. It is a stable partnership, not just based on economic dependency but also on an emotional relationship of lifetime commitment rather than one of convenience, friendship, companionship or the living together of lovers.
Unless it is more likely than not that the relationship between two people has the emotional quality that characterizes a married couple’s partnership, the Decision Maker should find that they are not a couple.
The characteristics of the relationship of husband and wife may include:
- mutual love,
- faithfulness
- public acknowledement
- sexual relations
- shared surname
- children
- endurance
- stability
- interdependence
- devotion
Not all of these characteristics need be present and two people may treated as a couple even though the relationship is unsatisfactory or unhappy.
The Answers To The Queries
The Answer to Frankie’s Query
Although these two people see themselves as partners they currently have separate licence agreements for separate rooms.
This means that they are not living in the same household and so are not, for benefit purposes, a couple.
They must each make separate claims for Universal Credit and for Housing Benefit for their supported accommodation.
The Answer to Keith’s Query
Because these two people are married, if they live in the same household they must be treated as a couple and all means-tested benefis must be joint claims.
However, if they have separate domestic arrangements they can form two different households within the same house, and so be treated as two single people.
This will mean that Keith’s client is able to make single-person claims for means-tested benefits.
The Advice for Decision Makers specifically mentions this possibility.
The Answer to Blossom’s Query
The answer to Blossom’s query is less clear-cut: When does a guest become a housemate? When does a housemate become a partner?
If the arrangement is very short term it’s probably best to think of the boyfriend as a guest who is staying, rather than living, with Harriet. I don’t think it would be necessary to tell DWP about having a guest to stay.
If the arrangement is meant to last a bit longer and the boyfriend is going to live with Harriet, then she should definitely let DWP know.
DWP may well decide that he counts as a partner leading to huge complications.
This decision would be wrong since their relationship is not the same as that of a married couple… where two people join together with the intention of sharing the rest of their lives.
Harriet would then have to ask for a revision (mandatory reconsideration) of the decision, pointing out the DWP guidance that unless it is more likely than not that the relationship between two people has the emotional quality that characterizes a married couple’s partnership, the Decision Maker should find that they are not a couple.
But even if she eventually got DWP to change their decision this could cause significant problems, with delays and interruptions to her benefit.
Also, if the DWP decide that the boyfriend does not count as a partner then he probably counts as a non-dependent which could lead to problems with her Housing Benefit.
If I was in her position I would not let the boyfriend move in except as a short term guest.
* What’s With the Asterisk?
In addition to all of these rules you cannot be treated as a member of a couple if your relationship would be forbidden by law. Even in Lincolnshire.
For Universal Credit if you have a polygamous or polyandrous relationship only two people can be recognised as having that relationship