Amendment of regulation 15 of the Housing Benefit Regulations4

1

Regulation 15 of the Housing Benefit Regulations (circumstances in which a person is to be treated as being or not being a member of the household) shall be amended in accordance with the following provisions of this regulation.

2

In paragraph (1) for the words “where any of them is absent from the dwelling occupied as his home” there shall be substituted the words “notwithstanding that any of them is temporarily living away from the other members of his family”.

3

For paragraph (2) there shall be substituted the following paragraph—

2

Paragraph (1) shall not apply to a person who is living away from the other members of his family where—

a

that person does not intend to resume living with the other members of his family; or

b

his absence from the other members of his family is likely to exceed 52 weeks, unless there are exceptional circumstances (for example where the person is in hospital or otherwise has no control over the length of his absence) and the absence is unlikely to be substantially more than 52 weeks.