The Valuation of Co-owners' Interests in Capital and Means-Tested Benefits

Income support is, by definition, a last resort for the impoverished citizen. It represents the principal safety net of the modern welfare state with a lineage that can be traced back through supplementary benefit, national assistance and unemployment assistance to the poor law. Today, income support is payable to those people who meet various prescribed conditions and who have either no other sources of income or insufficient income to live on, as judged by the minimum subsistence level laid down by the State. ¹ As it is a meanstested benefit, people are expected – within certain constraints recognised by the legislation – to rely on their own resources before turning to income support for assistance. ² As a general rule there is accordingly no entitlement to income support if the claimant possesses £8,000 or more in capital. ³ Identical provisions apply to income-based jobseeker’s allowance ⁴ and parallel provisions apply for the other means-tested benefits. ⁵ For all these purposes the claimant’s capital is treated as including assets owned by a member of his family, except in prescribed circumstances. ⁶ The definition of ‘family’ in social security law is such that this deeming rule effectively only brings in the capital of a married or an unmarried partner living in the same household. ⁷ However, certain forms of capital are expressly disregarded in assessing the claimant’s resources. ⁸ A claimant who owns between £3,000 and £8,000 in capital is deemed to receive a ‘tariff income’ from such assets which may, independently of the capital rule, disentitle him from receiving income support when aggregated with other forms of income. ⁹