Housing benefit stopped!?

[Moomoo10]

Okay so I'm in need of desperate Help! My housing benefit has been stopped I got 677 a month since I moved Into my place on may 31st. They said from the start of get full housing. Rent is 850 a month. And council tax 250 a month. Also had reductions for council tax aswell.

They reassessed my claim because my income support stopped the day we moved in witch they knew. How is this affecting my housing benefit? I rang them up and they also said that my partner earns too much money (1300 a month) they only just sent the letter out today and apparently I own 1500 to them in arrears for housing benefit and now my council tax bill has gone right back up to 250 a month. Me and my partner my son can't afford to live here if we don't have housing benefit my son is disabled meaning I'm a full-time carer and cannot work what's my partner works as a mechanic. what do we do? what's the next steps? They said we wasn't entitled to this this amount before we even got our place or else we wouldn't have even moved out in the first place. I have pretty much no source of income but child tax child benefit DLA and carers allowance for my little boy. Is there anything I can do As it's not our fault they knew everything at the start of the claim. Our rent is due last day of this month so something needs to be sorted then.
Surely they can't do this to me???

Please help guys thank you

[warwick65]

Re: Housing benefit stopped!?

Hi
This may just be bureaucracy
Have you worked out what benefits you are entitled to
https://www.entitledto.co.uk/?utm_so...campaign=GovUK

The above is a great website which will calculate you benefits based on where you live

The problem is I think that some of the benefits are means tested and have you been claiming as a single person with a disabled son or as a couple with a disabled son. I am assuming you live with your partner

[Moomoo10]

Re: Housing benefit stopped!?

Thanks for the reply Warwick65, I know How much I'm entitled to as nothing has changed since we moved apart from the fact I don't claim income support and i gave the letter to them ( before I gave them the letter they knew it had stopped so why didn't they stop it till now?) And I was claim as single parent before we moved in but as soon as we did we claimed as a couple. This is our first family home. We're both young aswell. Just need to know what to do next. Like what do we say to our landlord ad we have a year tenancy and only 4 months into it

[warwick65]

Re: Housing benefit stopped!?

Well I did a quick calculation on entitled to, obviously I had to make some huge assumptions about your setup and level of disability. However it calculated zero HB or CT benefit but significant other benefits. On top of that would have been DLA

Have you spoken or emailed disability specialists such as disability rights UK.

It does seem wrong they have taken so long to sort this out. Have you asked to pay this back over time.

I know from experience just how difficult local councils can be.

The only think to think about us if you knew what you are entitled to, did you realise there was no HB or CTB due. Not a good idea to admit that though.

[warwick65]

Re: Housing benefit stopped!?

First thing really is to double check you are receiving all the benefits you are entitled to. Then if it is unlikely you can meet your rent talk to your landlord and explain about the changes in HB.

I live north of Watford so that rent and CT just seem alien to me, I could be in a vast house for that but appreciate that may not be the case

I know this is difficult and I appreciate the excitement of a new home then this punch in the stomach when your HB stops.

- - - Updated - - -

First thing really is to double check you are receiving all the benefits you are entitled to. Then if it is unlikely you can meet your rent talk to your landlord and explain about the changes in HB.

I live north of Watford so that rent and CT just seem alien to me, I could be in a vast house for that but appreciate that may not be the case

I know this is difficult and I appreciate the excitement of a new home then this punch in the stomach when your HB stops.

- - - Updated - - -

First thing really is to double check you are receiving all the benefits you are entitled to. Then if it is unlikely you can meet your rent talk to your landlord and explain about the changes in HB.

I live north of Watford so that rent and CT just seem alien to me, I could be in a vast house for that but appreciate that may not be the case

I know this is difficult and I appreciate the excitement of a new home then this punch in the stomach when your HB stops.

[Moomoo10]

Re: Housing benefit stopped!?

I check the caculatour for myself and it says we're entilited to the full lot! Also I'm claiming everything im entitled to for my little boy such as DLA, carers allowance, child tax/benefit. Down here in Newbury the council are absoulty crap to say the least�� I'm going to citizens advice tomorrow before I go down to the council and blaze my guns lol. I shall ring my landlord tomorrow ad there no way we can afford it. She's very understanding as she was previously on hb before and F***** her over to so hopefully she can help or something. It is deffo a punch in the stomach! If worse comes to worse I'll have to claim universal credit witch I don't want to do as I've worked out I'll be losing 450 off of my child tax credit meaning it's going to be a strain paying other bills

[Wylderose]

Re: Housing benefit stopped!?

Hon if you were still on Income Support then you would quite possibly have been entitled to 100% HBen. I don't know if you started out in your current house as a single parent or if you changed address and moved into it with your partner, but what I do know is that what would have been affordable on Income Support becomes a whole different ball game when you are not on Income Support.

When you are on Income based benefits (Income Support, JSA Income Based, ESA Income Related), you are classed as being at the lowest scale of income, so this is classed as a Passported Benefit. Why passported? - Because these 3 benefits over-ride any other income you have on your claim and are also treated as though you have no income at all and therefore entitle you to full HBen.

When a partner who is working joins the household, all that goes out the window. Income support stops and you are assessed on all the income that comes into your bank account. Apart that is from your son's DLA. DLA is not counted as income on a claim.

When you claimed, I assume that you declared your son's DLA as doing so - even though it does not count as income, gives you the Disabled child premium and your carer's allowance - the carer premium. The disabled child premium tends to offset the higher disabled child tax credits and the carer's premium gives you a higher council tax allowance.

In the normal scheme of things, if you had just done a change of address with you, your partner and your child on the claim, then when it was calculated, there should not have been an overpayment as your claim would have already been paid up to the change of address point at the full entitlement that was due.

Did your partner get added to your claim retrospectively? If this is the case then as they are saying that his income is too high, this could be the reason for the overpayment.

Is your partner employed or self-employed? Mechanics who are self employed, in fact most self employed people usually have sufficient business expenses that they don't have massive profits and many only just exist a little above the normal Jobseeker's level.

Whatever the reason for your claim being taken out of entitlement, ask for a written explanation of why you have an overpayment (they may have offered you underlying entitlement). If your partner is self employed (does not have his tax and national insurance paid by an employer - i,e, works for himself), ask for your claim to be reassessed on this basis. Don't leave it longer than a month as you would then lose the right to have your claim re-instated from the start of the cancelled period. You would also be forced to make a new claim and would lose your family premium (assuming you still have this)

I know you are upset, but don't go in guns blazing - you will get a better response from the council - they will be more helpful