Council tax benefit / exemption / wrong assessment?

tooltime82

Hi hope someone can help.
Was on disability benefit and then went to university to study fulltime degree.
Assessed for housing and council tax benefit and was paid this for year 2007/08.
At the end of 2008 was then told this was incorrectly assessed and had to repay both.
Relating specifically to council tax benefit if I get an exemption certificate from the university will I be able to sort out this part of the overpayment bearing in mind it covers a period of a year ago.
Will the council tax office accept this for a past period?
Will this in turn mean the benefit repayment (for council tax) will sort out between the benefits agency and the council tax office? If not can I sort this out?
The rent benefit is probably a different matter - they have all my details and keep changing their minds.
The whole benefit thing has been a minefield as they have now assessed me as eligible again (now in third year) and started paying benefits again.
Help.
Cheers.
Ben.

michaladaisy

I work in housing benefits and our council tax department would have no problem awarding an exemption back to the period you state. If the housing benefit department knew you were a student, I would have expected them to liase with the council tax dept anyway, the least they should have done is send the exemption form out for you to complete (I'm assuming this didn't happen).

I hope your council sorts it out for you - by the way, student claims are a nightmare for benefits staff!

[Deleted User]

Not related to the OP's question, but in reply to michaladaisy, I'm finding out just how much of a nightmare student claims are as I've been sending letters bsck and forth to my council regarding a claim for H/B since Sept :-)