TOILET WARS. THE RETURN OF THE JEDI MHKS Peter Karran, Kate Beecroft, Chris Thomas, and Brenda Cannell launch full scale attack on Toilet Chairman Houghton MHK. Houghton waffles away ………………….sound up…. tynwald.org.im/business/listen/AgainFiles/2980a.mp3 tynwald.org.im/business/listen/AgainFiles/2981a.mp3 And the DHSS cannot provide a written answer to Chris Thomas’ question as to how much benefits will be paid to those claiming such to compensate for the toilet tax…… The Hon. Member for Douglas West (Mr Thomas) to ask the Minister for the Social Care – What proportion of the 2014/15 sewerage charge will be paid by social security benefits? Department of Social Care Answer: Unfortunately it is not possible to provide an answer to the question as written. To be able to answer the question then, for every person claiming an income related benefit (income support, income-based jobseekers allowance or employed persons allowance) we would need to know whether their landlord is going to pass on the sewerage charge to the tenant and the amount of any other housing cost each tenant was required to pay. As housing allowances within income related benefits are capped, if a person’s housing costs are already at the cap or above they would not qualify for an extra allowance. It is not therefore possible for the Department to assess this information and make a reasonable forecast of likely claims. For example, there is at present uncertainty as to whether some, all or none of the public housing bodies will themselves be passing the charge through to their tenants - in part or in full. The department can confirm that tenants or home owners who are required to pay the sewerage charge could receive an allowance in their income- related benefit covering that cost. As an example, under regulation 28(1) of the Income Support (General) (Isle of Man) Regulations 2000 an income support allowance is provided to the claimant if the claimant or any dependant of the claimant is liable to pay charges or rates in respect of water, sewerage and allied environmental services. However, any benefit allowance made would be net of the 5% early payment discount – whether or not the tenant/home owner takes advantage of the discount.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 00:09:34 +0000
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