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Neutral Citation Number:
Reported Number:	R(H)1/09
File Number:	CH 3584 2007
Appellant:
Respondent:
Judge/Commissioner:	Other Judges / Other Commissioners/Deputy Commissioners
Date Of Decision:	13/06/2008
Date Added:	23/06/2008
Main Category:	Housing and council tax benefits
Main Subcategory:	council tax benefit
Secondary Category:
Secondary Subcategory:
Notes:	Council tax benefit – termination of entitlement for failure to provide information following suspension – information requirement framed by reference to a document which did not exist The claimant was a self-employed earner in receipt of council tax benefit. In July 2006, following enquiries into his circumstances, the local authority suspended payment of council tax benefit under regulation 13 of the Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations 2001 (the 2001 Regulations) and in August 2006 requested that he provide certain information including his profit and loss accounts for 2005/06. The claimant was given a calendar month from the date of the letter to reply and was told that failure to reply would result in termination of benefit under regulation 14 of the 2001 Regulations. The claimant stated that he did not yet have from his accountant the profit and loss account for 2005/06, but the authority terminated his entitlement. He appealed and an appeal tribunal dismissed his appeal, finding that the information had been reasonably required in accordance with regulation 72(1) of the Council Tax Benefit Regulations 2006 (the 2006 Regulations). The claimant appealed to the Commissioner, arguing that he had, within the time limit, provided all the information that the local authority had requested which was in his possession, and that that information was sufficient to allow the authority to determine his entitlement to council tax benefit. The local authority argued that the fact that a profit and loss account for 2005/06 may not have existed at the time of the information request did not affect matters as the claimant could have provided the information which it was, in substance, seeking which was the figures for trading income and expenditure for 2005/06. Held, allowing the appeal, that: 1. in order to decide whether the claimant had failed to comply within the appropriate time limit, it was necessary for the tribunal to identify the “information requirement” formulated by the local authority and in failing to do that it had erred in law (paragraph 31); 2. it would have been reasonable for the authority to request information in terms of the information it needed, which was his “net profit” for the assessment period, either initially or when it became clear that the document it had requested did not exist, but there is no evidence that it did so (paragraphs 36 to 40); 3. the authority had not complied with its duty to notify the claimant of the requirements set out in regulation 13(4) which include provision for a claimant to satisfy the authority that the information or evidence does not exist and the tribunal had erred in failing to consider that question (paragraph 41); 4. if a document which is the subject of an information requirement does not exist at the time that the information requirement is notified to the claimant an omission to produce it is not a “failure” for the purposes of regulation 14 of the 2001 Regulations (paragraph 42).
Decision(s) to Download:	R(H) 1_09 bv.doc