In message
<[log in to unmask]
nd.gov.uk>, at 08:07:34 on Tue, 3 Aug 2004, Graham Hadfield
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>I think the answer is in Jo's last message "any information which is
>relevant to the exercise of any function relating to housing benefit or
>council tax benefit by the authority or other person."
I mentioned that "loophole" earlier.
>Council tax benefit is calculated by comparing the claimant's circumstances
>to the amount payable. If single person discount is claimed then the amount
>payable is less than it would be otherwise. Therefore, the single person
>discount is relevant to the calculation of council tax benefit.
And almost everything else they know about the claimant :-( Council Tax
benefit is heavily means tested and the somewhat intrusive application
form basically asks everything there is to know about a person's
financial affairs. (Including all their bank account balances, savings
and investments).
http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts2002/20021--i.htm#sch5
However, am I reading it correctly that, where that section states
"for use for any purpose relating to tax credits, child benefit
or guardian's allowance."
Then the IR cannot ask for this information in pursuit of any matter
other than tax credits, child benefit or guardian's allowance? In other
words, if they were looking into the resident's capital gains tax
affairs, they couldn't use this route to trawl whatever the local
authority knew about this person's savings and investments.
Getting back to the original enquiry, does it actually affect the amount
of "tax credit, child benefit or guardian's allowance" if you are living
alone? (I can see that whether your were married or not it might, but
that's a quite different question).
Child Benefit isn't means tested, so all that information supplied for a
Council Tax Benefit claim won't help.
Nor is their anything in a Child Benefit claim form about whether your
partner is living with you. However, they do ask if the children
involved are living with you (if not, the person they live with should
probably make the claim, but there seems little scope for duplicate
claims as the children are absolutely identified by name and date of
birth).
*However* the Council Tax rebate is all about the number of *adults*
living in the property, not children!! So the council's answer to
whether the person is the only adult doesn't seem to be much help.
--
Roland Perry
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