: an amount for rent is added to the basic requirements.
A householder will generally have the full amount of rent and rates added (but see below). If the claimant owns the house in which he lives, outgoings including payments of mortgage interest—but not of capital-and rates, etc will be treated as rent.
The rent addition will be less than the full rent if this includes such items as heating or lighting, if it is unreasonably high, or if there are any payments from sub-tenants. Part of the rent may be attributed to other members of the household who are not dependent on the householder.
Rent rebates or allowances and rate rebates are not normally made available by local authorities to people who receive supplementary benefit for con- tinuous periods of more than eight weeks. When someone claiming sup- plementary benefit already has a rent rebate or allowance or rate rebate, the relevant amount is deducted from the amount to be added for rent in the supplementary assessment.
A claimant living as a member of someone else's household has £1·45 added for rent.
A boarder who pays an inclusive charge for board and lodging does not have an amount added for rent. Requirements in this case are assessed as the amount of the board and lodging charge (up to a reasonable level) plus £4.70 (£5.25 for long-term beneficiaries) for personal expenses. Special additions are added to requirements where there are exceptional circumstances, for example, where a special diet or domestic help is needed or extra expenditure is necessarily incurred in centrally-heated accom- modation. Help with heating costs can also be given where a claimant or a dependant has difficulty in moving about, or is seriously ill or suffering from a chronic illness (such as chronic bronchitis) or where the living accommodation is difficult to keep warm.
The long term rate of benefit already includes a margin of 50p (75p for the over 80 rate) towards special expenses and this will be deducted from any additional requirements other than for heating or for special expenses of children.
Resources
In calculating "resources" different kinds of income are treated as follows: Earnings: generally the first £4 a week of any part-time earnings plus the first £4 of a wife's earnings are not counted. In the case of the parent of a one-parent family, £6 is ignored. But someone who is unemployed and required to register for work has only £2 ignored. The earnings of children under 16 (or over 16 and in full-time secondary education) are disregarded entirely. Earnings, for this purpose, means the net amount received after deducting tax, national insurance and pension contributions, trade union subscriptions, fares to work and other expenses connected with work. Child benefit and most national insurance benefits: fully taken into account. Maintenance payments (voluntary or under Court Order): fully taken into
account.
Occupational pension or weekly payments under a redundancy scheme: first £1 a week is disregarded.
Disablement and war widow's pensions: up to £4 is disregarded.
Other income: up to £4 a week of the total of most other forms of income is disregarded.
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