Private rental paid up front by a relative

Hi Fiona

As previously mentioned I had a similar UC claim when working for the DWP in the City of Bath where rents are very high and competition is so great that landlords can ask for 6 months or a years rent in advance. We looked into the effect of the claimant paying several thousands of pounds of rent in advance to a landlord and the UC Policy team determined that there was no deprivation of capital and that the rent could still be covered by monthly UC Housing Costs even though 6 months or a years rent had been paid in advance. Furthermore it didn't make a difference if the source of the rent in advance was the claimant's personal savings or a gift from a relative.
The UC regs are quite clear and the Benefit in Kind rules that you have alluded to and which are found in Income Support, reg.42(4) of the Income Support (General) Regulations etc are absent from the UC regulations.
Payments made by a parent ( or friend or relative ) to a landlord also fall outside the remit of the UC regs.
I quote John Mesher who writes for the Sweet & Maxwell Benefits guide from the discussion ( see link ) with me below:-
" However, the crunch must be that the payments made by the parents were not to the claimant or apparently at the claimant’s direction, but to the landlord, so were not income of the claimant. The UC legislation has no equivalent of the elaborate provisions for legacy benefits to treat payments made to third parties when used to defray the claimant’s household expenses, including rent, as possessed by the claimant (eg reg.42(4) of the Income Support (General) Regulations).
24 January 2025, 12:04 pm

www.rightsnet.org.uk/Forums/1942421/Linu...wthread/20816/#97285

If you would like detailed Benefits advice on this subject I could signpost you to someone from the professional network on Rightsnet.

David

Hi Fiona

I am aware that Peter Barker who contributes on Rightsnet as HB Anorak does advocacy work.
www.linkedin.com/in/peter-barker-b7b51a7/

www.hbanorak.co.uk/

Let me know how you get on.

David