The Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit (Subsidy) Regulations 1994

• Citation: S.I. 1994/781
• Sections: 26

Section 1 Citation, commencement and interpretation

(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit (Subsidy) Regulations 1994 and shall come into force on 11th April 1994.

(2) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires—

“ the Act ” means the Social Security Administration Act 1992 ;

“the 1987 Regulations ” means the Housing Benefit (General) Regulations 1987 ;

“the 1989 Regulations ” means the Community Charge Benefits (General) Regulations 1989 ;

“the 1992 Regulations ” means the Council Tax Benefit (General) Regulations 1992 ;

“authority”—

with respect to claims for council tax benefit subsidy, means a billing authority or, as the case may be, a levying authority to which section 140(2) of the Act refers;

with respect to claims for housing benefit subsidy, means a housing or local authority, as the case may be;

“community charge benefits” and “excess community charge benefits” shall have the same meanings as in the 1989 Regulations;

“excess awards” means overpayments of housing benefit, excess community charge benefits and excess council tax benefit, as the case may be;

“ Subsidy Order ” means an Order in respect of the relevant year made under section 135(2) (subsidy order with respect to housing benefit) or section 140(2) (subsidy order with respect to council tax benefit) of the Act;

“the relevant year” means the year in respect of which a claim for housing benefit subsidy or council tax benefit subsidy is made;

“rent rebate” and “rent allowance” shall be construed in accordance with section 134 of the Act but shall exclude, in the case of a local authority in England and Wales, any Housing Revenue Account rebates granted by them,

and other expressions used in these Regulations and in the 1987 Regulations, the 1992Regulations or the Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit (Subsidy) Order 1994 , as the case may be, shall have the same meanings in these Regulations as they have in those Regulations or in that Order.

Section 2 Particulars to be supplied by an authority to the Secretary of State in relation to a claim for housing benefit subsidy or council tax benefit subsidy

For the purposes of sections 137(2) and 140(7) of the Act (power for the Secretary of State to withhold payments of housing benefit subsidy or council tax benefit subsidy) the prescribed particulars which are to be supplied to the Secretary of State by an authority in connection with its claim for housing benefit subsidy or council tax benefit subsidy for the relevant year are those specified in the Schedule to these Regulations.

Section 3 Conditions to be complied with on making a claim for housing benefit subsidy or council tax benefit subsidy

A claim for housing benefit subsidy or for council tax benefit subsidy shall be certified by the authority’s auditor; and the authority making the claim shall in addition provide such information and produce such records as are required to satisfy the Secretary of State that the claim is properly calculated and shall keep all records with a bearing on its claim in such a way as to enable them to show and the auditor to check that entitlement to subsidy has been correctly calculated.

Section 4 Time within which claims for housing benefit subsidy and council tax benefit subsidy are to be made and prescribed particulars provided to the Secretary of State

(1) An authority making a claim for housing benefit subsidy or council tax benefit subsidy shall submit it to the Secretary of State by the 30th September in the year immediately following the relevant year.

(2) Any particulars relating to a claim for subsidy to which regulation 2 of and theSchedule to these Regulations refer shall be supplied to the Secretary of State on the date the claim is made together with any certificates, records or other information required by the Secretary of State under regulation 3 above (conditions to be complied with on making a claim for subsidy).

Section 5 Revocation and savings

The Housing Benefit and Community Charge Benefit (Subsidy) Regulations 1991 , the Housing Benefit and Community Charge Benefit (Subsidy) Amendment Regulations 1992 and the Housing Benefit and Community Charge Benefit (Subsidy) Amendment (No.2) Regulations 1993 are hereby revoked, except that they shall continue to apply to any claims for subsidy, particulars to be supplied therewith and conditions and questions relating to the payment of subsidy under the Act for any relevant year before 1st April 1993, as if these Regulations had not been made.

Section 1

The total rent rebate and total rent allowance expenditure in the relevant year.

Section 2

The total rent rebate expenditure in the relevant year in cases to which paragraph 20 below refers, which is attributable to that part of the eligible rent which exceeds the relevant threshold specified in a Subsidy Order for the purpose of calculating subsidy on such rents.

Section 3

The total rent rebate expenditure in the relevant year in respect of rents payable to an authority—

(a) under section 69(2)(b) of the Housing Act 1985 or section 35(2)(b) of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 for board and lodging accommodation or accommodation which the authority holds on a licence agreement, or

(b) for accommodation outside the Housing Revenue Account under Part VI of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 , which an authority in England or Wales holds on a lease granted for a term not exceeding 3 years, or

(c) for accommodation which an authority in Scotland holds on a lease granted for a term not exceeding 3 years.

Section 4

The total rent rebate expenditure in the relevant year in cases to which paragraph 3 above refers which is attributable to that part of the eligible rent which exceeds the relevant threshold specified in a Subsidy Order for the purpose of calculating subsidy on such rents.

Section 5

The total number of awards of each of rent rebates, rent allowances, community charge benefits and council tax benefit in the relevant year made in respect of periods before the date of a person’s claim where there is a good cause for the claim not having been made at an earlier date and the total amount awarded for those periods of each of such rebates, allowances and benefits.

Section 6

(1) Where any excess awards to which sub-paragraph (2) below applies have been made in the circumstances specified in sub-paragraph (3) below, the total number and the amounts of those awards and the circumstances in which they were made.

(2) This paragraph applies to awards of—

(a) housing benefit by way of rent rebates;

(b) housing benefit by way of rent allowances;

(c) housing benefit by way of community charge rebates;

(d) community charge benefits; and

(e) council tax benefit,

which are identified in the relevant year.

(3) The circumstances specified in this sub-paragraph are—

(a) departmental error;

(b) error of the authority making the payment and claiming subsidy;

(c) technical overpayments and technical excess benefits;

(d) errors of claimants;

(e) fraudulent overpayments and fraudulent excess benefits;

(g) duplicate payments following non-receipt, loss or theft of benefit where the original instrument of payment has been encashed; and

(h) any other excess awards.

(4) In this paragraph “departmental error”, “error of the authority making the payment andclaiming subsidy”, “technical overpayments”, “technical excess benefits”, “fraudulent overpayments” and “fraudulent excess benefits” have the meanings assigned to them by article 10 or article 18, as the case may be, of the Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit (Subsidy) Order 1994.

Section 7

The total amount of overpayments of housing benefit made under the Housing BenefitRegulations 1985 which are recovered in the relevant year from claimants to whom regulation 24 of those Regulations (persons in receipt of supplementary benefit) applied.

Section 8

The total amount of excess awards in the relevant year in consequence of departmental error which are recovered in the relevant year.

Section 9

The total number and total amount of awards of benefit backdated in the relevant year under each of regulation 72(15) of the 1987 Regulations, regulation 60(18) of the 1989 Regulations and regulation 62(16) of the 1992 Regulations (backdated awards of benefit), as the case may be, which are excess awards.

Section 10

The total rent allowance expenditure in the relevant year attributable to each of—

(a) that part of any weekly eligible rents which exceeds any relevant threshold specified in a Subsidy Order for the purpose of calculating subsidy on such rents;

(b) that part of any weekly eligible rents which were at or below any such threshold; and

(c) that part of any weekly eligible rents to which any such threshold did not apply excluding cases which have been referred to a rent officer for a determination under section 121 of the Housing Act 1988 .

Section 11

The total rent allowance expenditure in the relevant year not attributable to any excess of eligible rent over the threshold in cases to which paragraph 10(a) above refers.

Section 12

The total rent allowance expenditure in the relevant year attributable to tenancies which are liable to determinations of the rent officer of the rent which a landlord might reasonably expect to obtain made under Schedule 1 of the Rent Officers (Additional Functions) Order 1990 or the Rent Officers (Additional Functions) (Scotland) Order 1990 , as the case may be.

Section 13

The total rent allowance expenditure in the relevant year, which is attributable to each of—

(a) weekly eligible rents which do not exceed any determination of a rent officer of a reasonable market rent or notional rent, under the Orders to which paragraph 12 above refers;

(b) the difference between the reasonable market rent for the accommodation and the comparable rent for suitably sized properties in cases where the rent officer has determined that accommodation is unreasonably large and is paid for a period of up to 13 calendar weeks;

(c) that part of the weekly eligible rents which exceeded the rent officer’s determination of a reasonable market rent or notional rent, in respect of which no restriction under regulation 11 (restrictions on unreasonable payments) or regulation 12 (restrictions on rent increases) of the 1987 Regulations would be made other than expenditure to which sub-paragraph (b) of this paragraph refers;

(d) that part of the weekly eligible rents which exceeded a rent officer’s determination of a reasonable market rent or notional rent, but excluding amounts to which sub-paragraphs (b) or (c) of this paragraph refer;

(e) the eligible rents in respect of deregulated housing association tenancies not referred to the rent officer; and

(f) cases subject to referral to the rent officer for a determination but where no such determination has been obtained.

Section 14

The total council tax benefit expenditure in the relevant year.

Section 15

The total expenditure in the relevant year in respect of discretionary increases of benefit where modifications of the 1987 Regulations have been made in accordance with section 134(8) of the Act or modifications of the 1989 or 1992 Regulations have been made in accordance with section 139(6) of the Act .

Section 16

The total expenditure in the relevant year in respect of increases of benefit under each of regulation 61(2) or 69(8) of the 1987 Regulations and regulation 60 of the 1992 Regulations (increases of weekly benefit for exceptional circumstances), as the case may be.

Section 17

The total amount of any instruments of payment in relation to housing benefit, community charge benefit or council tax benefit issued during the relevant year returned to the authority without having been presented for payment or found by the authority to have passed their date of validity without having been so presented.

Section 18

The total amount of any housing benefit subsidy or community charge benefit subsidy paid for any year before the relevant year in respect of any instrument of payment either returned to the authority during the relevant year without having been presented for payment or found by the authority during the relevant year to have passed their date of validity without having been so presented.

Section 19

The total number of benefit weeks and of overrun weeks, if any, in the relevant year, in the case of each of—

(a) rent rebates;

(b) rent allowances; and

(c) council tax benefit.

Section 20

In respect of tenants or dwellings, as the case may be, of a local authority in Scotland, of a New Town Corporation established under the New Towns Act 1981 or the New Towns (Scotland) Act 1968 and of the Development Board for Rural Wales—

(a) the average rent payable in respect of Category 1 dwellings and Category 2 dwellings respectively on the second relevant date and the third relevant date; and

(b) the average rent payable by Category A tenants and Category B tenants respectively on the first relevant date and the second relevant date.

Section 21

The total amount obtained in the relevant year of each of—

(a) housing benefit savings;

(b) council tax benefit savings; and

(c) related income support savings.