Hi
I wonder does anyone have practical experience of seeking Housing Benefit where a person with a learning disability is renting from a family Trust?
My wife and I have set up a discretionary trust whose potential beneficiaries are our children and their children etc. The trust is buying a flat which will be occupied by one of our sons who has Downs Syndrome. Ideally, the trust would like to set up a tenancy agreement and charge a rent so that service charges and other outgoings are covered. However, Regulation 9 does not permit a claim where the rent is payable to a trustee of a trust of which the tenant is a beneficiary unless the Local Authority is satisfied that it is not a means of taking advantage of the HB scheme.
Does anyone have any experience of how difficult this is to prove, the attitude of Councils and what factors are taken into account?