advice re: housing benefit and bankruptcy please

chelleyb

Went bankrupt 2nd June, have been claiming housing benefit since Oct 07 with no problems, have very recently received a letter regarding my bank account? and yesterday regarding my capital??? (bank was a letter, capital they have made me an appointment???? - sounds ominous?!)

I am planning on calling them on Monday to discuss this as my bank account has changed due to bankruptcy, but my capital has not (I have none!) however, since becoming bankrupt and having my car repossessed I have purchased a car (my parents gave me the money) which was £1500.00

Should I inform the housing benefit people about this?
Also am I supposed to tell them everytime there is a change in bank etc etc?

Thanks for any help.

debt_doctor

Hi,

The car thing is irrelevant to HB. If you have capital/savings of more than £ 6000 your benefit would start to be affected ( and your OR would be very interested in it too !)
You must inform HB of any change in income.

DD

dalip

If claiming H/B you have to tell them of all bank accounts in your name.We had to tell our H/A of an account that got frozen with my bc with just £28 in. Because it has been frozen for 10 mths we had hell of a job getting a b/s but they insisitd they had to have one:eek: . It has been known for people claiming benefit to have an account tucked without telling the h/a with a secret stash in it.So don't worry they are just doing a little checking.Dx

skylight

It may be something to do with an nil code? There is a lovely long thread here about a poster being given a nil tax code, AND then the council decided that the extra money meant that they were no longer entitled to HB and C/TB - although it was argued that the nil tax code was supposed to go to the OR.

Anyway - your council may think that you have a change in capital or circumstances now along similar lines. If you have no extra income, and no assets in your bank accounts, then you have nothing to worry about.

Its also possible that your particular council has a policy of contacting those who have been claiming for a period of time - a year in your case. Anything is possible.