Pre-Budget announcement

Following on from the Chancellor's pre budget statement, where he announced that the annual uprating of child benefit would take place from 1st or 5th Jan 2009 rather than the normal first Monday in April.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) have, announced that there will be a temporary income disregard of the increased amount of child benefit for the period 1st/5th Jan to 1st/5th April 2009 in all Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit claims in payment or made during this period.

The temporary disregard will end at the start of April 2009 when the normal annual uprating will take into account the uprated child benefit amount and apply the new uprated applicable amounts as normal in the calculation of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit.

The proposals for a full disregard of child benefit from October 2009 are unaffected by this. This means that there remains the requirement for a mini uprating, recalculation, notification and rebilling of affected cases next October 2009.

The Chancellor also announced that the Government will make a one off payment of £60 in the New Year to pensioners and others entitled to the Christmas Bonus. This payment should be treated as capital in the assessment of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit