The Housing Benefit (General) Regulations 1987

Rates

9.—(1) The payments in respect of which housing benefit is payable in the form of a rate rebate are the payments by way of rates in respect of the dwelling which a person occupies as his home.

(2) Where a person is liable to make payments only of such a kind as are specified in regulation 10(1) (rent) in respect of the dwelling which he occupies as his home and which comprises part only of a rateable unit, the proportion of those payments equal to the proportion of the rates payable in respect of the rateable unit as a whole which appears to the appropriate authority to be referrable to his dwelling shall be treated as payments by way of rates for the purposes of paragraph (1).

(3) Subject to any apportionment in accordance with paragraphs (4) and (5) and to regulation 11 (restrictions on unreasonable payments), the amount of a person’s eligible rates shall be the amount of the payments by way of rates referred to in paragraph (1), or, as the case may be, (2).

(4) Where a rateable unit consists partly of residential accommodation and partly of other accommodation, only such proportion of the rates payable for that rateable unit as is referrable to the residential accommodation shall count as eligible rates for the purposes of these Regulations and in the application of this paragraph to Scotland the proportion so referrable shall be such as may be determined by an apportionment under section 45(1) of the Water (Scotland) Act 1980(1) (apportionment of annual value of premises).

(5) Where more than one person is liable to make payments by way of rates in respect of a dwelling, the rates payable in respect of that dwelling shall be apportioned for the purposes of calculating the eligible rates for each such person having regard to all the circumstances, in particular the number of such persons and the proportion of rates paid by each such person.

(6) In a case to which regulation 6(3) applies (circumstances in which a person is to be treated as liable to make payments in respect of a dwelling), the claimant’s eligible rates shall be treated as being of an amount equal to his eligible rates immediately prior to the date on which the rating authority should have made a rate.

(1)

1980 c. 45.