Housing Benefit

Eager_Elephant · 4 December 2006 at 10:34PM

Hi peter

Yes the DHP will be administered by the Revenues section which benefits will come under.

It is usual to have 1 person dealing prmarily with these applications.

I suggest you contact benefits and ask for a form immediately because DHP will only be paid from the date a form was requested and if your appeal does not succeed then you will need the money.

EE

Anthillmob · 4 December 2006 at 10:58PM

you can also ask for a re-determination of the rent officers decsision. before they do this though ensure they have the correct details enetered as its jyust a paper document that gets sent to the rent officer. a quick slip of the fingers can have you down as having a 3 bed instead of a 2 bed.

good luck. imho what you are being charged pcm for rent is excellent value for money compared to the prices where i live.

Anthillmob · 4 December 2006 at 11:06PM

Eager_Elephant wrote:

Hi peter

Yes the DHP will be administered by the Revenues section which benefits will come under.

It is usual to have 1 person dealing prmarily with these applications.

I suggest you contact benefits and ask for a form immediately because DHP will only be paid from the date a form was requested and if your appeal does not succeed then you will need the money.

EE

not necessarilly. we can all do DHPs now at work, no longer down to a manager. not sure if this is the case in every LA

reason_2 · 5 December 2006 at 1:30PM

Small update..

Landlord rang HB asking why I'd been given such low benefit, and how they have other tenants paying similar rent to me and receiving almost all the rent. Landlord completely baffled since HB often email asking to update them on rental value of properties! Basically, they're gonna send another rent officer out.. but theres still a good chance they'll give the same figure.. So I guess I'll have to have a chat with him/her when she comes.. although people don't like being told how to do their job.. so.. we'll see what happens.

The DHP.. is a small fund apparently that when its gone, its gone.. and its upto the supervisor whether or not we get anything. No application per se.. just got to put in an abit of paper with name etc. and why I want it. Doing that today. If anything it'll be abit of money towards rent until something is sorted.

Peter.

bewitched1234 · 5 December 2006 at 2:41PM

Eager_Elephant wrote:

Hi bewitched,

I expect the reason they are not paying your full rent is because the rent has been assessed as too high.

If you have 2 children and yourself living together then the Rent Office determination will say that you only need a 2 bedroomed house as children are allowed to share a room until 1 reaches the age of 10.

This is not necessarily fair but these are the rules.

See my post above about the DHP and see if your council do a similar scheme.

EE

its for me,my little girl aged 7 and my boy who is 12 he also suffers from adhd and bed wets,so this is why i had to move.

i think HB are being utter gits expecting me to pay the amount of money i have to.

peter999 · 5 December 2006 at 3:55PM

reason wrote:

.... Basically, they're gonna send another rent officer out.. but theres still a good chance they'll give the same figure.. So I guess I'll have to have a chat with him/her when she comes.. although people don't like being told how to do their job.. so.. we'll see what happens.

That's good, at least they're coming to have another look & correct their mistake
-hopefully!!

Rent officer visits are usually short with little, if any, opportunity to discuss the rent they foresee.
In fact I think Rent Officer only deals with HB office.

If I remember correctly, they put you off saying they will notify HB office & don't write to you directly.

Maybe that is the real problem
-Rent Officer's responsibility is to HB office & don't have any responsibility to tenants !!

Maybe not enough tenants complain, that's why system has ended up with assessed rents staying low.

I think you may have to put some pressure on & kick up a fuss.

peter999

Anthillmob · 5 December 2006 at 6:37PM

remember to send a statement of incomings and outgoings otherwise if you dont theyll send you a form to fill out which will hold up your claim.

deary65 · 5 December 2006 at 8:44PM

It is interesting to read how none lawyers discuss legal matters.The frist thing a lawyer would do is ask to be directed to the primery ledgislation authorizing the setting of a market rents.
I myself, have been unable to find such ledgislation, may be someone on the board can quote the sorce.Any time i have asked an LA housing department for this information,I have had no reply and the rent has been payed in full.

Aitch7 · 5 December 2006 at 11:45PM

reason wrote:

Small update..

Landlord rang HB asking why I'd been given such low benefit, and how they have other tenants paying similar rent to me and receiving almost all the rent. Landlord completely baffled since HB often email asking to update them on rental value of properties! Basically, they're gonna send another rent officer out.. but theres still a good chance they'll give the same figure.. So I guess I'll have to have a chat with him/her when she comes.. although people don't like being told how to do their job.. so.. we'll see what happens.

The DHP.. is a small fund apparently that when its gone, its gone.. and its upto the supervisor whether or not we get anything. No application per se.. just got to put in an abit of paper with name etc. and why I want it. Doing that today. If anything it'll be abit of money towards rent until something is sorted.

Peter.

Hello Peter,

I'm sorry to hear that you are having a stressful time with all of this. It seems that you have received some really good advice on this thread so I'm only adding in a couple of points.

I have been in the same position as you and applied for DHP which I did get - I thought that might be of some reassurance but I was also told that there is a limited fund and that once they have given it out that's it. However it's well worth applying for!

When I applied I spent quite a while thinking of every outgoing that I have - my tip is to include as much detail as possible even if it does feel personal and difficult. It's important to create the most accurate picture of your expenditure that you can.

Another tip is to keep all corresspondences and the dates they arrived and to keep a written log summarizing them and including summaries of any phone calls too so that you won't suddenly be faced with trying to piece it together retrospectively and writing a very long letter for an appeal at a later stage.

If you do feel that you are running out of options and that your case is not progressing or that you are not happy with a decision - write to the Head of Corporate Services.

I was in a mess that would take several books to describe(!) about 18 months ago and when I just felt as though I couldn't cope any more I wrote to this person and he told me to address corresspondences to him and to put on the envelope 'personal and confidential' or the staff will open them.

Because this person's name is on all corresspondences from HB some people address all letters to them and they don't need to go to them so you have to ensure that it is meant for them sometimes.

My claim was eventually sorted out by the Head of Corporate Services and his assisstant and a lot of errors were found to have been made. It was very upsetting at the time and taught me a lot of lessons about the system and what to do.

Good luck with your claim - I wish you all the best,

Aitch7

skintas_2 · 5 December 2006 at 11:59PM

good luck peter with your housing, hb can be a right pain in the backside, its so frustrating and stressful, good luck g x

Housing Benefit

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