Regulation 8 Waiver and reduction of fees

(1)

A person shall not be liable to pay any fee due under these Regulations where on the relevant date, he or his partner is in receipt of—

(a)

either of the following benefits under Part 7 of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992^f1—

(i)

income support; or

(ii)

housing benefit;

(b)

an income-based jobseeker’s allowance within the meaning of section 1 of the Jobseekers Act 1995^f2;

(c)

a tax credit to which paragraph (2) applies;

(d)

guarantee credit under the State Pensions Credit Act 2002^f3; or

(e)

a certificate—

(i)

which has been issued under the Funding Code^f4 and which has not been revoked or discharged; and

(ii)

which is in respect of the proceedings before the tribunal the whole or part of which have been transferred from the county court for determination by a tribunal.

(2)

This paragraph applies to a working tax credit under Part 1 of the Tax Credits Act 2002^f5, where—

(a)

either—

(i)

there is a disability element or severe disability element (or both) to the tax credit received by the person or his partner; or

(ii)

the person or his partner is also in receipt of child tax credit^f6; and

(b)

the gross annual income taken into account for the calculation of the working tax credit is £14,213 or less;

(3)

Where a person is not liable to pay a fee by virtue of paragraph (1), the following provisions shall apply—

(a)

where more than one person is the applicant and at least one of those persons is liable to pay a fee, the fee shall be reduced rateably in accordance with the number of persons who would have been liable but for paragraph (1); and

(b)

where more than one person is the applicant and at least one person is liable to pay a portion of a fee by virtue of regulation 7(2) to (5), such portion shall be reduced rateably in accordance with the number of persons who would have been liable but for paragraph (1).

(4)

In this regulation—

(a)

“applicant” includes any person, whose request under regulation 6 of the Leasehold Valuation Tribunals (Procedure)(England) Regulations 2003 to be joined as a party to the proceedings and treated as an applicant, has been granted by the tribunal;

(b)

“partner”, in relation to a person, means—

(i)

that person’s spouse;

(ii)

a person of the opposite sex who is living with that person as husband or wife; and

(iii)

a person of the same sex living with that person in a relationship which has the characteristics of the relationship between husband and wife;

(c)

“relevant date” means—

(i)

in the case of a fee payable under regulation 3, the date of the application;

(ii)

in the case of a fee payable under regulation 4, the date of the court order transferring proceedings to the tribunal;

(iii)

in the case of a fee payable under regulation 5, the date of the request for payment.

Annotations

Footnotes

f1: 1992 c. 4; amended by the Tax Credits Act 2002 (c. 21), sections 60 and Schedule 6. There are other amendments not relevant to these Regulations.
f2: 1995 c. 18; amended by the Welfare Reform and Pensions Act 1999 (c. 30), sections 59 and 88 and Schedules 7 and 13.
f3: 2002 c. 16.
f4: See sections 8 and 9 of the Access to Justice Act 1999 (c. 22) for the Funding Code. See section 4 of Part 2 to the Funding Code for the certificate.
f5: 2002 c. 21.
f6: See section 1 of the Tax Credits Act 2002 (c. 21).