CCM15320 - Undisclosed Partners: Enquiries and Examinations for Same-Sex Couples

Our policy is to treat same-sex couples in exactly the same way as opposite-sex couples. A same-sex couple should therefore face no greater nor lesser risk of an enquiry or examination.

Until you have obtained more information from a claimant you should resist accusing them of being a member of a same-sex couple. You should call for further information/evidence to enable you to check their claim and if you then need to put your concerns to the claimant you can tell them that your information suggests they are living in the same property as another adult. You should then go on to discuss their relationship with this person.

You should remember that 2 men or 2 women will sometimes share a property for financial reasons and may even have obtained joint loans. Often this is the only way low earners can get onto the property ladder.

We will be using the criteria at CCM15040 to decide whether a same-sex couple are living together as civil partners. You can tell the claimant what criteria we use but you must not tell them that we consider they are living together as husband and wife. We will be deciding if they are living together as civil partners but we decide this by looking at the criteria that we also use for opposite-sex couples.