A statutory provision entitled a person to housing benefit if he had no income above a specified amount, and it had been previously decided that receipt of income support under the separate social security scheme, with its inbuilt rights of adjudication and appeal, bound those administering the housing benefit scheme to treat a person as having income below the specified amount. Mr Hamilton had however obtained income support by false statements.
Held: Income support obtained by fraud did not count for the purposes of entitlement to housing benefit. One reason was an express provision in the relevant regulations defining ‘a person on income support as a person lawfully in receipt of income support’, but another was the principle that ‘legislation should not be so construed as to enable a man to profit from his own wrong’:
Judges:
Henry, Robert Walker LJJ, Scott Baker J
Citations:
[2000] EWCA Civ 518, (2001) 33 HLR 9
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and Another v Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council SC 6-Apr-2011
The land-owner had planning permission to erect a barn, conditional on its use for agricultural purposes. He built inside it a house and lived there from 2002. In 2006. He then applied for a certificate of lawful use. The inspector allowed it, and . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Benefits, Housing
Updated: 19 July 2022; Ref: scu.276300