Charge non-dependant deductions for non-dependants within the claimant's benefit unit

[MaxGhenis]

Problem

A benefit unit can include someone aged 16 or over who is neither the claimant or partner nor a child or young person the claimant is responsible for. Examples are an adult son, or a 19-year-old who has left education. In law that person is a non-dependant of the renter. The model is inconsistent about them:

• lha_renter_has_non_dependant already treats them as non-dependants.
• Give benefit-unit members aged 16 or over a bedroom in the LHA size criteria #2010 (issue Give benefit-unit members aged 16 or over a bedroom in the LHA size criteria #2008) gives them a bedroom as non-dependants under UC Sch 4 para 10(1)(c).
• No deduction is ever charged for them:
  • uc_non_dep_deductions and housing_benefit_non_dep_deductions count only people outside the household head's family (is_non_dependant_of_household_head).
  • The individual eligibility variables also exclude anyone in a family liable for rent.
  • council_tax_reduction_non_dep_deductions subtracts the claimant's own benefit unit.

So a lone parent on UC with a 25-year-old son pays no housing cost contribution. Moving the son into his own benefit unit in the same household would charge him the full £96.55 a month.

The Universal Credit renter exemption (Sch 4 para 15) is also not modelled for any non-dependant. When the renter or a joint renter is blind or receives AA, the DLA care component at the middle or highest rate, or the PIP daily living component, no contribution should be deducted.

The law

• Universal Credit. UC Regs 2013 Sch 4 para 9:

  • (1) The extended benefit unit is the renter, any child or qualifying young person the renter is responsible for, and "any person who is a non-dependant".
  • (2) A non-dependant is anyone who normally lives with the renter, except those listed. The exclusions relevant here are the renter and their responsible children and qualifying young persons, and (g) "a child or qualifying young person for whom no-one in the renter's extended benefit unit is responsible".
  • Para 13 deducts a housing cost contribution for each non-dependant in the extended benefit unit.
  • Para 15 exempts the renter (or joint renters, meaning the joint claimants under para 1(2)).
  • Para 16 exempts the non-dependant, including anyone under 21.

• Housing Benefit. HB Regs 2006 and HB (SPC) Regs 2006 reg 3 (2006/213, 2006/214):

  • A non-dependant is anyone who normally resides with the claimant, except (a) members of the claimant's family, (c) a child or young person not in the household under reg 21, and the joint occupiers, commercial payers and landlord's household in (d)-(e).
  • The family is the couple plus children and young persons, where a young person is a Child Benefit qualifying young person (reg 19).
  • Reg 74 / SPC reg 55 deduct for non-dependants aged 18 or over, apportioned between joint occupiers under (5).

• Council Tax Reduction. The same definition applies in each scheme:

  • England, SI 2012/2885: reg 9 and Sch 1 para 8;
  • Wales, WSI 2013/3029: reg 9;
  • Scotland: SSI 2021/249 reg 8 and SSI 2012/319 reg 3.

  Deductions apply to non-dependants aged 18 or over, apportioned equally between jointly liable persons.

Fix

• is_benefit_unit_non_dependant_for_universal_credit: aged 16 or over, not claimant or partner, not a UC qualifying young person (para 9(1)-(2)(a), (g)).
• is_benefit_unit_non_dependant_for_legacy_benefits: not claimant or partner, not a Child Benefit child or qualifying young person (HB reg 3(2)(a), (c); CTR reg 9 and equivalents).
• UC:
  • charge the renter's own in-unit non-dependants;
  • a non-dependant in another family stays with the household head's claim (para 9(2)(f));
  • add the para 15 renter exemption (uc_non_dep_deductions_renter_exempt);
  • the Pension Credit limb of para 16 applies only to the claimant or partner, who are the ones receiving it.
• HB: in-unit non-dependants of a joint occupier are apportioned between the joint occupiers by rent share (reg 74(5)). A boarder or lodger bears their own in-unit non-dependants.
• CTR (national schemes): every non-dependant is pooled across the claiming families by joint-liability share. Only claiming families bear deductions.

Local English working-age schemes (Merton, Kingston, Newham, Westminster, Oxford) are not changed. They need their own scheme text and a per-person income test; that is a separate issue.

On the released enhanced FRS 2024-25, about 19k people in about 20 survey households are in this group in 2026. Most are under 21, so the fiscal effect is expected to be small; the main value is household-calculator correctness.