The Housing Benefit (General) Amendment (No.2) Regulations 1995

Amendment of regulation 11 of the principal Regulations

3.—(1) Regulation 11 of the principal Regulations(1) shall be amended in accordance with the following provisions of this regulation.

(2) After paragraph (6) there shall be inserted the following paragraphs—

“(6A) Subject to paragraph (6B), in a case where—

(a)a rent officer has made a determination in exercise of the Housing Act functions pursuant to an application by an authority under regulation 12A(1)(c)(2); and

(b)subsequent to that determination the reckonable rent for that dwelling is changed,

then in determining a maximum rent in relation to a claim for benefit of a claimant who has a liability to make payments in respect of that dwelling, the authority shall treat the relevant or, as the case may be, reckonable rent to be that determined in or, as the case may be, applicable to, that determination by the rent officer.

(6B) Paragraph (6A) shall not apply in a case where the reckonable rent is reduced to a figure below the figure that would have been the maximum rent if that reckonable rent had not changed; and where this paragraph applies, the maximum rent shall be the reckonable rent, as so reduced.”.

(3) After paragraph (8) there shall be inserted the following paragraphs—

“(8A) Subject to paragraphs (8B) and (8C), in any case where, pursuant to regulation 10(3) (non-eligible payments)(3), the amount of a person’s otherwise eligible rent falls to be lessened by any—

(a)deduction for fuel;

(b)deduction for meals; or

(c)water charges,

the maximum rent shall be that determined in accordance with the foregoing provisions of this regulation, less the amount of any such deductions or charges.

(8B) Subject to paragraph (8C), where a rent officer has made a rent determination under paragraph 3 of Schedule 1 to the Rent Officers Order there shall be no deductions for fuel or for meals.

(8C) Where the notice of the determination to which paragraph (8B) refers states, pursuant to paragraph 2A of Schedule 1 to the Rent Officers Order(4), that an ineligible payment has been included in it and—

(a)sub-paragraph (a) of that paragraph applies to that determination, there shall be a deduction for meals;

(b)sub-paragraph (b) of that paragraph applies to that determination, there shall be a deduction for fuel;

(c)sub-paragraph (c) of that paragraph applies to that determination, there shall be a deduction for fuel and a deduction for meals.”.

(4) In paragraph (13)—

(a)after the words “In this regulation –” there shall be inserted the following definitions—

““deduction for fuel” means any amount of a person’s otherwise eligible rent which is an ineligible service charge by reason of and within the meaning of paragraph 4 of Schedule 1;

“deduction for meals” means any amount of a person’s otherwise eligible rent which is an ineligible service charge by reason of and within the meaning of paragraph 1(a)(i) of Schedule 1(5);”;

(b)to the definition of “reckonable rent” there shall be added, at the end, the words—

• “plus the amount of any deduction for fuel, deduction for meals or water charges, as the case may be, which that person is liable to pay”;

(c)after the definition of “size-related rent” there shall be added a new definition—

““water charges” means any charge to which regulation 10(3)(a) applies.”.