Worried about Home Visit re: CT/HB

sarymclary

Hi,
I've received a letter today re. a visit to my home next week by council tax/housing benefits people. I don't know why they're visiting, although I suspect it may be because I've recently been spending more time at my BF's house.

I hate where I live, have had people try to break into the house twice in the past 6 months - while we were still in the house! Today I've come home and my garden waste wheelie bin has been stolen! I don't feel safe here on my own with the kids, but my attempts to find a mutual council house swap haven't worked.

I suspect that a not so nice neighbour has an alterior motive for trying to report me for not living here F/time - her teenage daughter has had a baby and they would want her to live nearby. We're in a line of terraces, and my immediate neighbour is a blood relative of their's too, and they live nextdoor down to them. The neighbour that lived nextdoor to me moved out earlier this year, and she ended up being forced to move out because of their bad attitude.

I've been with my BF for 5 years, and this has been the first time I have ever stayed at his with my kids. We have wanted to do a trial run - me pushing for it, him not keen - at living together. I have refused to move in with him until I am working. I was widowed a few years back, and have raised my 4 children alone since then, so have been worried to force any change on them.

I have been coming back home regularly, and staying overnight here 4 nights a week, 3 nights at his. We are not tied financially. I still pay all my own bills here, buy all our food. My BF works, but doesn't earn enough to keep me & the kids before I go to work. There aren't any of his things here at my house, but there are some of our things at his house.

Is there a rule that says I have to stay here full time, and not be able to stay at his? I know that the overnight rules for him staying here may say he isn't allowed. He isn't supporting me at all, and we have no joint bills, etc.

It is very tricky when children are involved, and I don't want to be doing anything wrong. I'm desperately job hunting so that we can now move ASAP, but I've not been successful, which is really depressing in itself.

Any words of advice please?

moggylover

sarymclary wrote: »

Hi,
I've received a letter today re. a visit to my home next week by council tax/housing benefits people. I don't know why they're visiting, although I suspect it may be because I've recently been spending more time at my BF's house.

I hate where I live, have had people try to break into the house twice in the past 6 months - while we were still in the house! Today I've come home and my garden waste wheelie bin has been stolen! I don't feel safe here on my own with the kids, but my attempts to find a mutual council house swap haven't worked.

I suspect that a not so nice neighbour has an alterior motive for trying to report me for not living here F/time - her teenage daughter has had a baby and they would want her to live nearby. We're in a line of terraces, and my immediate neighbour is a blood relative of their's too, and they live nextdoor down to them. The neighbour that lived nextdoor to me moved out earlier this year, and she ended up being forced to move out because of their bad attitude.

I've been with my BF for 5 years, and this has been the first time I have ever stayed at his with my kids. We have wanted to do a trial run - me pushing for it, him not keen - at living together. I have refused to move in with him until I am working. I was widowed a few years back, and have raised my 4 children alone since then, so have been worried to force any change on them.

I have been coming back home regularly, and staying overnight here 4 nights a week, 3 nights at his. We are not tied financially. I still pay all my own bills here, buy all our food. My BF works, but doesn't earn enough to keep me & the kids before I go to work. There aren't any of his things here at my house, but there are some of our things at his house.

Is there a rule that says I have to stay here full time, and not be able to stay at his? I know that the overnight rules for him staying here may say he isn't allowed. He isn't supporting me at all, and we have no joint bills, etc.

It is very tricky when children are involved, and I don't want to be doing anything wrong. I'm desperately job hunting so that we can now move ASAP, but I've not been successful, which is really depressing in itself.

Any words of advice please?

Don't worry Sarymclary, I got all worried about this earlier in the year and could not think why on earth they would want to come and do a home visit, but apparently they now come out every so often to fill in your claim form with you:rolleyes: . I consider this a complete waste of public funds, but I expect they also want to come and "snoop" as well - which I suppose is fair enough in view of the fact that there are people out there who are cheating the system.:D

It took very little time to do - and the lady that came to me was very nice so am sure your letter will be the same thing.

ETA: my carer was here with me at the time that they came, and does have to stay over as part of being my carer (obviously really) but we were assured that as carer maintains a home elsewhere this was okay, and did not infringe any rules.

PasturesNew

They've probably drawn your name at random out of a hat.

They're just coming to see if you live there or if you've sublet to 8 people in bunk beds and are raking it in.

mandi

Ditto the above posts . I called to say the date was inconvenient , and they just said ok. no problem , well just take some details over the phone.. That was it .. No need to worry..:D

foxxymynx

About your question about staying away overnight, the place you sleep for 4+ nights on the average week is classed as home legally apparently. Don't worry - but express your fear about living there to whoever comes around.

sarymclary

Thank you so much for all your replies.

I couldn't sleep last night I was worrying so much.

I don't even dare do ebay or carboot sales anymore as I was told that they have people trawling them to find benefit cheats!

I will mention how I am unhappy and worried about living there, but know that they aren't really bothered. I was effectively homeless when they supplied my house, and whilst I was grateful for a roof over our heads, it is over 10 miles from all my children's schools, so has been far from ideal.

I have spent a lot of money refurbishing the whole house & garden (£3k+), which was filthy dirty when we moved in. I'm sure my neighbours think I'm just a snotty bint, but I am not from the local area, unlike them, who have relatives up & down the street. It's a v.small village, and there's a really unsavoury group of teens who are intent on vandalising anything they can. It was in the paper this week that they've pushed over a load of headstones in the graveyard - I don't dare get one for my husband yet, because I'm sure they'd target his especially because of us.

I'll be happier once they've been. I wonder if it might be because they've discovered they mucked up my claim, as I'm paying less than £5 p/month at the mo, when I was paying about 75% of the full amount for months. It shows my rent account is in credit by nearly £200.

Thanks again for your help, it was very much appreciated.

real1314

foxxymynx wrote: »

About your question about staying away overnight, the place you sleep for 4+ nights on the average week is classed as home legally apparently. Don't worry - but express your fear about living there to whoever comes around.

No it's not. There is no set number of nights at all. Some people who work in London stay in flats during the week and return to their family at weekends. Some oil rig workers and fishermen are away from home for weeks on end. They are still classed as living at their home. Please do not give mis-advice that may lead people into problems.

soph2566

HB and CTB is all based on entitlement - are you entitled to it due to your income and are you entitled to it because you live in your home as your sole or main residence (special rules apply for temporary absence that are too indepth to go into here).

If you are living in your home as your sole or main residence and the HB CTB dept have all the relevant details of your income and household then your claim should be in payment correctly.

A few years ago every claim had to be renewed every 52-60 weeks which involved a visit or a postal renewal. Rules then changed and renewals are now done based on risk groups. The are called Reviews instead of renewals. You could make a claim today, have it reviewed by the dept in 3 months and then they could leave you alone for up to 5 years but equally could review it again just a couple of months after the first review!

There is nothing to fear from a review as long as your claim is based on up to date facts. Reviews can be made in person, by post or by phone. Of course if a review by visit was carried out and the visiting officer noticed mens clothes on the clothes horse, work boots in the hall way and a letter addressed to a chap when on the claim there is just a lady living on her own they would be right to have suspicions and may refer the claim to the fraud section upon their return to the office for a double check.

With regards to problems with your neighbours - I presume you are a council tenant or an ALMO tenant or a Housing Assoc. tenant? If you are then you will have a housing officer. This is a different person to the HB officer who may visit you or deal with your claim - it is important you speak to the correct person about right subject! You should contact your Housing Officer (some social landlords have dedicated teams to deal with anti social behaviour) and tell them the problems you have been experiencing with the neighbours. They will probably ask you to complete diary sheets for a while so they have some evidence. You should report any relevant happenings to the police and give the incident numbers to the Housing Officer. If the ASB gets so bad the Housing Officer can consider putting your forward for an emergency move but there does have to be pretty serious ASB for this to happen.

In the meantime keep trying for a mutual exchange, they do happen, honest! Advertise your property in local shops (dont give specifics, just say what you have and approx area and what you want and give a contact number), advertise in the free paper etc etc

Good luck.

SuziQ

Real is correct,there is no set number of nights you stay in your home/have some one staying which affects your benefit entitlement-it is based entirely on whether you are judged to be a couple and whether you are benefiting from his income. You need to be really careful and ask the question as to whether what you are doing is ok. If it's a regular arrangement you could get into trouble-it seems to vary as to who is reviewing your case but I know someone in my sons school who has had to rethink her 'visits' to her boyfriends house because she was told they considered them as a couple who were sharing resources. It must be horrible to be living with your current neighbours-I really sympathise as you should feel safe in your own home.