Housing Benefit & Tax Credits....???

Frances_O · 25 July 2004 at 2:47PM

I've been receiving Housing benefit since March of this year, and have just started receiving Working tax credit and child tax credit.
I'm not sure how it works, but I think someones mentioned to me before that if you are receiving other benefits, then this can affect how much housing benefit you receive?
Could someone clarify this for me please, as I'm slightly confused!
Thanks
p.s
Sorry if this has already been asked before, but I did a quick search, and couldn't find anything....

birksy · 25 July 2004 at 3:35PM

Hi

Tax Credits are classed as income and WILL affect the amount of Housing/Council Tax Benefit you receive.

You have to notify them in writing asap as its a disadvatageous change. The more you delay the more you will be overpaid.

The IR also send 'discs' to the local authorities so they may pick up you tax credit award anyway.

Either way the law says you must tell the local authority about your change of circumstances. A letetr should do it.

Ted_Hutchinson · 25 July 2004 at 9:21PM

You may find that your own local authority website has a housing benefit/council tax benefit caculator from which you may get a guide to the likely impact of the changes to your income. If not you may find this Web Benefits Calculator useful
The Web Benefits Calculator

Frances_O · 25 July 2004 at 11:30PM

Thanks for your help on this one....!
I tried the calculator out, and, assuming I did it all right, it doesn't look like there'll be a huge change to the housing benefit anyway.... I guess I'll just have to find out.....!
Thanks again

poppycat_3 · 26 July 2004 at 6:24PM

You need to be quick off the mark when it comes to telling your local authority about this kind of change of circumstance because each day that goes by is another day that you are being overpaid housing benefit.

I had a nightmare with them last year, at that time I was entitled to around 50% housing benefit and put in my housing benefit renewal form as soon as it arrived so that there wouldn't be a delay and the housing benefit payments would continue.

I gave them my Tax Credits award and everything else they needed to calculate what I was entitled to and within a couple of weeks I received a letter saying that I would still get around 50% housing benefit as I had before.

Everything was fine for 6 months until one day I got a letter saying that I had been overpaid ever since my claim had been renewed 6 months earlier. They said that they had been paying me 20 pounds a week too much.

I went to the council offices to find out what the heck was going on and they finally admitted that they had 'forgotten' to take my tax credits into account when they reassesed my claim. For some reason it had just come to light and now they wanted all the overpaid money back.

To me this is totally unfair. I provided them with EVERYTHING they needed to correctly assess my claim, and I didn't suspect an overpayment. I ended up in a worse situation that I started with because not only was my housing benefit cut, I also had the overpayment so I ended up with pretty much no housing benefit at all, which legally put me below the bread line but did they care? nah.

My view is that if some incompetent person can't add up and calculate a claim properly, then its their loss. Why should we end up in debt because of it? And they've got no incentive to do their jobs properly because theres no come back on them if they make a mistake, it all lands on the shoulders of the person who's claim has been messed up.

If they were held accountable then maybe they would be more accurate in the first place.

So my advice is to always tell them about a change of circumstances straight away and also double check that any amended claim is based on your correct circumstances. Basically, do their jobs for them.

Frances_O · 26 July 2004 at 7:15PM

Yea, I sent my change of circumstances form off today...
Hopefully should be okay, because my circumstances only changed as of last week, because my maternity leave ended....
Fingers crossed...

birksy · 27 July 2004 at 1:51AM

just opinion really

i work for a local authority.

I wouldn't trust the benefit people to sit the right way round on the toilet sometimes.

poppycats advice is spot on.

do their job for them.

scouselass · 1 August 2004 at 10:17AM

Not much help to you jellbabe, but here's an interesting little point re: tax credits and housing benefit (unless they have closed this loophole, and I don't think so yet).

At the moment everyone is receiving Tax Credit Renewal notices, and most of us (me too!) are being told we have been overpaid. However, if you are informed you have been underpaid, and the IR pay you back the underpayment for the previous year then this money will not affect the HB award retrospectively (ie for the previous year).

So (if the loophole still exists) there are some advantages when it comes to underpayments, but there doesn't seem to be too many of us around.

Maybe this should be on the Tax Credit Board, I will leave that to Fran to decide?

Fran · 1 August 2004 at 2:04PM

It's now on the Tax Credits thread as well as the Housing Benefit one, thanks Scouselass.

scooper · 7 October 2004 at 4:55PM

hi i have just used the online calculater to calculate how much housing benifit i may recieve, although i think it is wrong.
i have just submitted a form to housing benifit and it has come back to say we are not entitled to anything at all, even though our working tax has been cut from £85 a week to £25 a week(both ctc and wtc).overpayment from last year.
i asked her how much we are over by and she wouldnt tell me, she says it goes on circumstances.
so we are approx £60 down a week and still not entitled to a bean.

Ted_Hutchinson · 7 October 2004 at 6:46PM

...snip...
I had a nightmare with them last year, at that time I was entitled to around 50% housing benefit and put in my housing benefit renewal form as soon as it arrived so that there wouldn't be a delay and the housing benefit payments would continue.

I gave them my Tax Credits award and everything else they needed to calculate what I was entitled to and within a couple of weeks I received a letter saying that I would still get around 50% housing benefit as I had before.

Everything was fine for 6 months until one day I got a letter saying that I had been overpaid ever since my claim had been renewed 6 months earlier. They said that they had been paying me 20 pounds a week too much.

I went to the council offices to find out what the heck was going on and they finally admitted that they had 'forgotten' to take my tax credits into account when they reassesed my claim. For some reason it had just come to light and now they wanted all the overpaid money back.

To me this is totally unfair. I provided them with EVERYTHING they needed to correctly assess my claim, and I didn't suspect an overpayment. I ended up in a worse situation that I started with because not only was my housing benefit cut, I also had the overpayment so I ended up with pretty much no housing benefit at all, which legally put me below the bread line but did they care? nah.

My view is that if some incompetent person can't add up and calculate a claim properly, then its their loss. Why should we end up in debt because of it? And they've got no incentive to do their jobs properly because theres no come back on them if they make a mistake, it all lands on the shoulders of the person who's claim has been messed up.

If they were held accountable then maybe they would be more accurate in the first place.

So my advice is to always tell them about a change of circumstances straight away and also double check that any amended claim is based on your correct circumstances. Basically, do their jobs for them.

Your instincts that your local authority should not have claimed back the overpayment is right. Overpayments resulting from official error are not recoverable except where it is reasonable for the claimant to have know the overpayment had arisen.
Detail here

[urlhttp://www.dwp.gov.uk/housingbenefit/manuals/hbgm/parts/pta_07b.asp#q]Housing benefit guidance manual.[/url]

Is the overpayment recoverable?
7.160 Most overpayments of HB are recoverable, regardless of the cause of the overpayment. The only exceptions to this are certain official errors.

7.161 Overpayments caused by official error are recoverable only if the authority considers that the claimant, their appointee or agent, or the person to whom benefit was paid, could reasonably have been expected to realise that an overpayment had been made when

a payment was received, or
notification of a payment was received
7.162 If the claimant, their appointee or agent, or person to whom benefit was paid, could not have been reasonably expected to realise this, the overpayment is not recoverable.

Reg 99(1) 99(2) Reg 99(3)

Bit late now but it's worth challenging any decision to reclaim overpayments where you genuinely don't realise that you are being overpaid.

Housing Benefit & Tax Credits....???

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