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Neutral Citation Number:	2015 UKUT 532 AAC
Reported Number:
File Number:	CH 2606 2014
Appellant:	Liverpool City Council
Respondent:	(1) NM, (2) WD (HB)
Judge/Commissioner:	Judge G. Knowles QC
Date Of Decision:	24/09/2015
Date Added:	27/10/2015
Main Category:	Housing and council tax benefits
Main Subcategory:	payments that are eligible for HB
Secondary Category:
Secondary Subcategory:
Notes:	Reported as [2016] AACR 19. Housing benefit – eligible rent – service charges for water supply for communal areas of sheltered or supported accommodation – regulation 12 and Schedule 1 The two claimants rented accommodation – one within a supported housing scheme for young people and the other within a sheltered housing scheme for the elderly or disabled. Both claimants were liable for service charges which, among other things, included amounts towards the costs of supplying water within the communal areas. The local authority disallowed both claimants’ claims for housing benefit (HB) for these particular charges. The claimants successfully appealed to the First tier Tribunal (F-tT) whereupon the local authority appealed to the Upper Tribunal (UT). The issue before the UT was whether communal water charges within supported or sheltered housing were eligible for HB. Held, allowing the appeal to a limited extent, that: 1. communal water charges are an eligible service charge for residents in sheltered or supported housing and the accommodation occupied by both claimants fell within the term sheltered accommodation. Residents in this type of accommodation are usually billed for water use by their landlords rather than having a separate liability to a water company (paragraphs 3 and 31); 2. the F-tT erred in law in holding that regulation 12B(5)(c) of the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 applied to both claimants since regulation 12B(5)(b) better described the type of accommodation each occupied (paragraphs 4 and 51 to 52); 3. the F-tT had failed to determine the proportion of communal water charges attributable to the use of a communal laundry which was ineligible for HB by reason of sub-paragraph 1(a)(ii) of Schedule 1 to the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 (paragraphs 5 and 66). The judge set aside the decisions of the F-tTs and remitted both appeals to a differently constituted tribunal to be re-decided in accordance with her directions.
Decision(s) to Download:	[2016] AACR 19ws.doc