LHA q, is this right?

Survivor

Hello,
both me and my (adult) DD have been on JSA for the last couple of months.
My rent is £595 PM and my HB was £444, meaning i was forking out a huge amount of our JSA to supplement my rent.
LHA would be £550 PM, but meant me finding £137 for the one weeks rent that they won't pay out for the time between HB and LHA.
My parents said they would fund this to help me, so, i went ahead and cancelled the HB then went over to LHA.
I've now recieved a bill for £20 for council tax. They said this is for the one week where i wasn't in reciept of HB or LHA.
surely this isn't correct?
Can anyone ease my mind before i contact them tomorrow please.

[Deleted User]

I would assume that if your h/b claim was closed for one week then you might have to pay c/tax for that week,at least you are £106 a month better off with your LHA,and in 2 months will have more than made up for the £157 you have lost out on.

Survivor

Very true, i will be so much better off, but as both of us were out of work at the time of the claim, should we have to pay council tax?

[Deleted User]

Survivor wrote: »

Very true, i will be so much better off, but as both of us were out of work at the time of the claim, should we have to pay council tax?

I`m afraid you`ll have to get onto the council for the definitive answer to that one,i`m just assuming that as you had to let your h/b claim lapse for one week they automatically took you off c/tax benefit

socrates

If you stopped your claim and restarted you must bear all the costs but as said previously you will catch up as you have less top ups to pay. Eventually you will catch up!

hippy-chicy

This is correct . When you changed from and ROD to LHA you had to cancel your claim for one week. This would have included your council tax benefit as well, this will be why you have a bill for one weeks council tax.

You need to contact the council tax department, if this is too much for you to pay all in one go. They will allow you to spread this over the rest of the financial year. Whatever you do dont ignore it , it wont go away.