Non-dependants

Quick Links:

Non-dependants

Lines open 9am to 5pm - Monday to Friday
Council Tax and Business Rates: 01903 221061
Housing and Council Tax Benefit: 01903 221062

revsbens@worthing.gov.uk

A non-dependant is someone who lives with the customer other than:

Their partner
Someone who pays rent on a commercial basis (e.g. a boarder or lodger)
A dependant child (for whom Child Benefit is in payment)
A joint tenant or joint owner

Typically, non-dependants are adult sons or daughters living with their parents, or elderly parents living with one of their children.

Non-dependants must be included in the Housing and/or Council Tax Benefit assessment and a deduction is usually taken in respect of any non-dependant aged 18 or over. The deduction that is taken is based on the non-dependant's gross weekly income, and not any "house keeping" that the non-dependant may (or may not) pay the benefit claimant. The tables below shows the weekly deductions for 2011/12 and 2012/13.

2011/12 deductions
Non-dependant's circumstances	Housing Benefit	Council Tax Benefit
Working 16+ hours per week (in remunerative work)
Gross income £387.00 or more	£60.60	£8.60
Gross income between £310.00 & £386.99	£55.20	£7.20
Gross income between £234.00 & £309.99	£48.45	£5.70
Gross income between £180.00 & £233.99	£29.60	£5.70
Gross income between £122.00 & £179.99	£21.55	£2.85
Gross income less than £122.00	£9.40	£2.85
In receipt of Pension Credit	Nil	Nil
In receipt of Income Support or income-based Job Seeker's Allowance and aged 25 or over	£9.40	Nil
In receipt of Income Support or income-based Job Seeker's Allowance and aged under 25	Nil	Nil
In receipt of income-related Employment & Support Allowance (assessment phase) and aged under 25	Nil	Nil
In receipt of income-related Employment & Support Allowance (assessment phase) and aged 25 or over	Nil	Nil
In receipt of income-related Employment & Support Allowance (main phase), any age	£9.40	Nil
In receipt of contribution-based Employment & Support Allowance (assessment or main phase), any age	£9.40	£2.85
Others not in remunerative work	£9.40	£2.85

2012/13 deductions
Non-dependant's circumstances	Housing Benefit	Council Tax Benefit
Working 16+ hours per week (in remunerative work)
Gross income £394.00 or more	£73.85	£9.90
Gross income between £316.00 & £393.99	£67.25	£8.25
Gross income between £238.00 & £315.99	£59.05	£6.55
Gross income between £183.00 & £237.99	£36.10	£6.55
Gross income between £124.00 & £182.99	£26.25	£3.30
Gross income less than £124.00	£11.45	£3.30
In receipt of Pension Credit	Nil	Nil
In receipt of Income Support or income-based Job Seeker's Allowance and aged 25 or over	£11.45	Nil
In receipt of Income Support or income-based Job Seeker's Allowance and aged under 25	Nil	Nil
In receipt of income-related Employment & Support Allowance (assessment phase) and aged under 25	Nil	Nil
In receipt of income-related Employment & Support Allowance (assessment phase) and aged 25 or over	Nil	Nil
In receipt of income-related Employment & Support Allowance (main phase), any age	£11.45	Nil
In receipt of contribution-based Employment & Support Allowance (assessment or main phase), any age	£11.45	£3.30
Others not in remunerative work	£11.45	£3.30

There are no deductions taken in the following situations:

If the non-dependant is aged under 18 (for example, children aged 16 or 17 who have left school and who are working)
When the customer (or their partner) is in receipt of the care component of Disability Living Allowance or Attendance Allowance
When the customer is registered blind

A deduction must be taken in respect of each non-dependant. For example, (based on 2012/13 figures) if a customer has two adult children living with them and each child earns more than £394.00 gross per week, the deductions that must be included in the benefit calculation are:

Housing Benefit: 2 x £7.85 = £147.70
Council Tax Benefit: 2 x £9.90 = £19.80

However, if there is a non-dependant couple then their joint gross weekly income is used to calculate the deduction. For example, a benefit claimant's son and his wife live with her; the son earns £150.00 gross per week and his wife earns £175.00 gross per week. Their joint gross earnings are £325.00 per week so (based on the figures for 2012/13) one deduction of £67.25 would be used in the Housing Benefit calculation.

An information leaflet about non-dependants is available on the information leaflets page of the website.

Back to Navigation - Back to the top of this article

Send an e-mail to this service

If you have any questions about this service you can send this department an e-mail here

Report a problem or suggest improvements to this webpage

Report any problems, improvements or suggestions you have for this webpage. These will all be read by our web team and we will try to help you or take on board your ideas