The council decided that the agreements were not “on a commercial basis” for the purposes of the housing benefit regulations and refused benefit. That decision was upheld by a local tribunal and by a social security commissioner. The church members said the decisions failed to take account of their human rights and the extent to which the arrangements reflected their religious beliefs.
The Court of Appeal rejected a further appeal. It said whether an arrangement was on a commercial basis was a pure question of fact. Religious or other reasons for entering into the arrangement could not turn it from non-commercial to commercial. In any event, there was no challenge to the regulation the council applied. No rights protected by the Human Rights Act were infringed by what had occurred.
Source
Housing Today
Reference
Not many benefit officers will have had to consider the right to freedom of religion in their work. This judgment contains the latest judicial thinking on the relationship between housing benefit and wider human rights.