CB v Manchester City Coucil and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (HB) (Housing and council tax benefits : other)

This decision is given under section 11 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007:

The decision of the First-tier Tribunal under reference SC946/13/09555, made on 14 April 2014 at Manchester, did not involve the making of an error on a point of law.

This case concerns the amount of housing benefit properly payable to the claimant by virtue of regulation B13 of the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006. That regulation is commonly called the bedroom tax, although that is a misnomer. It is properly a reduction on account of over accommodation by having more bedrooms than the claimant requires. In the claimant�s case, he is subject to a 14% reduction for having two bedrooms when only one is required.

The claimant lives in a flat with two bedrooms. He does not dispute that. His argument is that the additional room was added to his flat, as it was to others, as part of a refurbishment. He did not want the additional bedroom. The evidence shows that there have been two concessions made to the claimant. First, the landlord has let the flat to the claimant on the basis that it is still a one-bedroom flat and charges rent accordingly. Second, the local authority makes special payments to the claimant�s rent account to make up the shortfall that arises from the application of regulation B13.

The claimant exercised his right of appeal against his local authority�s decision applying a 14% reduction with effect from April 2013. The First-tier Tribunal dismissed his appeal, but gave him permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal. The Secretary of State was joined as a party in this tribunal. I have received submissions from the Secretary of State�s representative and from the claimant. The local authority has not made separate argument from the Secretary of State.