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Assessment of eligibility : Contents

Exceptions to bedroom allocation

Generally, bedrooms will be allocated based on the overcrowding criteria. However there may be some exceptions to this.

Young people sharing a bedroom

Generally, it is reasonable that children under the age of 10 years (any sex) and children under the age of 18 years of the same sex should share a bedroom. However there may be good reasons that additional bedrooms would be approved when:

  • there are health and disability issues that mean sharing is unreasonable
  • there are health and safety issues
    • for example a child has behavioural problems when the other child is at risk of harm
  • young people are within 6 months of the criteria changing
    • for example a boy aged 9 years is two months away from his 10th birthday and is living in a house with his sister who is aged 7 years
  • it is unreasonable for the children or young people to share given their gender and privacy needs
    • for example when a young person is gender diverse or when their gender is different from their sex it may be unreasonable for them to share with another young person of the same sex
  • an age difference in the children means it is unreasonable for them to share a bedroom
    • for example a 17 year old and a 1-year-old have very different developmental needs which might make it unreasonable to expect them to share a bedroom

Unreasonable to share given gender and privacy needs

When a household includes 2 or more young people and at least 1 is gender diverse, you will need to discuss what may be an appropriate bedroom arrangement given the genders, ages and privacy needs of the young people.

Similarly, clients may also raise concerns about young people allocated to share a room who are the same gender but different sexes.

In both scenarios, you will need to consider bedroom allocation on a case-by-case basis and can allocate additional bedrooms as appropriate, given the genders, ages and privacy needs of the young people.

Couples

Generally a couple would share a bedroom. There may be good reasons that an additional bedroom is required for a couple. This could include:

  • an extra bedroom is required to store medical equipment (for example for a dialysis patient)
  • health and safety issues that require 1 of the couple to have their own bedroom

For more information see:

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