The Jobseeker’s Allowance Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996

Circumstances in which a person is liable to meet housing costs

2.—(1) A person is liable to meet housing costs where—

(a) the liability falls upon him or his partner but not where the liability is to a member of the same household as the person on whom the liability falls;

(b) because the person liable to meet the housing costs is not meeting them, the claimant has to meet those costs in order to continue to live in the dwelling occupied as the home and it is reasonable in all the circumstances to treat the claimant as liable to meet those costs;

(c) he in practice shares the housing costs with other members of the household none of whom are close relatives either of the claimant or his partner, and—

(i) one or more of those members is liable to meet those costs, and

(ii) it is reasonable in the circumstances to treat him as sharing responsibility.

(2) Where any one or more, but not all, members of the claimant’s family are affected by a trade dispute, the housing costs shall be treated as wholly the responsibility of those members of the family not so affected.