How long can housing benefits service take / Can they reject if you meet criteria??!

fluffymovie

Just wondering as heading over that way at the weekend! Did you ever hear back from the council as to what they would pay you?

Macro_3

Not strictly true with new council tax liabilities. He has to apply within a calendar month of being made liable, which in this case sounds like it was towards the end of January (when the bill was posted, they're usually generated automatically). So if he had received the bill and applied immediately, he would have been applying within a month of being made liable and the assessor could have gone all the way back to the start when he moved in without it technically being a backdate. A little fiddle with the TAM dates and hey presto.

Too darn late now mind you. I suppose he'd have to show good cause for the time between being made liable and now.

CIS

On monday morning i will phone my local CAB and ask for any advice or hel they can give me about this council tax bill.
And then will phone council, explain to them about how i wasnt aware that i was liable to pay council tax, and that i would be able to claim council tax benefit for it anyways due to being unemployed.

You state in your earlier post that you have received a council tax bill - this was the bill to show your liability, the fact that you received no earlier bills is irrelevant as under Council Tax legislation you are the one responsible for ensuring that the Council Tax liability is paid correctly - assuming the L/L was paying without confirmation of the fact is not valid reason for non-payment.

It is also irrelevant that you may have been due full Council Tax Benefit - the Council Tax bill would be issued completely separate to any eligibility for Council Tax Benefit and the Council Tax Benefit would have to be claimed separately.

Beta89

Ok just a little update, not very good news at all though...

I again phoned housing benefits last week, they said that cos my landlord hadn't signed my tenancy agreement (he was out of teh counrty when i moevd in, estate agents handled it all), that they would have to reject my claim and id have to get him to sign it and then send it to them! :exclamati


Was quite annoying that it took them over 1 n half months to tell me that, even though id sent them the tenancy agreement in 1st week of Febuary and they didnt say anything about it then.


But i sent it to my landlord, got he signed it and posted it back to me, when i got it back i posted it to them the next day on Thursday 12th.

And i also included the letter that i have from JSA, confirming that i am now claiming jobseekers allowance, and so would be automatically entitled to housing benefit anyways.



Hopefully they wont muck around again this time and take weeks and weeks to just 'read the letter' and then start my payments, backdated to the beggining of Febuary.

Its the 18th today (monday), and my rent is due to be in my landlord's bank account by the 23rd (Saturday),
so i really really hope they just do it this time without any further delays.

As im getting really really scared of becoming homeless, which is getting extremely close, since if they delay it again then i physically will endup homeless.



I have a 2nd problem now with Jobseekers allowance though, as my claim is in from Sunday 21st Febuary,
i went to the 1st meeting on 6th march where i showed them bank statements and id n all they asked for, signed all the forms,
and the woman even showed me the computer screen where it sayed 'benefit being paid in'.
(For the backdated 2weeks at before that meeting).

I then had a 2nd meeting on tuesday 10th march, but i was really ill so called in 1st thing in the morning to let them know, and to re-schedule for thursday.

I went in on thursday, had appllied for about 40jobs over the previous week and so signed all the stuff.



However its now 18th March, 1month after i started the claim, have attended 2 sign-on meetings,
Yet i havent recieved any payments whatsoever still!! :eek: :huh:






I phoned their head office last thursday after the meeting and asked what the delay was and the woman said that because i didnt go in on tueday cos i was ill they would have stopped the payment to my bank.

(This is very likely an obvious lie though, since at the meeting on friday the woman showed the money being sent by bank transfer into my account friday morning, and it arrives within 1-3working days max).

So it would have been there by tuesday at the latest. And ive made lots of bank transfers before and so i know fully well that theres no way of ''cancelling a bank transfer'' once its been made, especially not hours before its about to recieve in the bank account of the recipient.


The woman said to wait till tuesday (tomorrow), and if the money isnt in by then for me to call their premium rate number again and hold for about 15mins racking up another big phone bill till they answer,
and to then inform them that the money still isnt in!




Im getting extremely scared now, since even when i finally start reciving the LHA and JSA i will still be over £400 per month short to just cover basic food n living costs.

But without it being paid at all i endup homeless within teh next week.

housebug

ineedhelp2008 wrote: »

Ours was processed very quickly, we went in 3rd january with the form and all the documents and we received a phone call two days later to say we qualified, a letter about 7 days later and a payment about a week later.......

I hope thats what happens with us too! We have all documentation and the 20 page claim form done and ready for our appt tomorrow.

We can scrape up April's rent, but unless our situation suddenly changed, that's all we could do at this point. I'm hoping that living in a smaller borough will keep the wait time down.

We've never had to deal with the benefits system in any way til now. I'm glad its there, but boy doesn't half add to the stress.

Beta89

Ok well i called the jsa head office today..


The man said that even though i made my claim on sunday 22nd Feb, and had jsa meeting on 6th march, that they only got the claim forwarded to them on the 10th march!

And so it will be atleast 2weeks MORE till they actually get around to processing my claim and making the payment.



So a claim made in mid Feb will take till April at the earliest before you get payment!! :eek: :(

(The Jobcentre website is extremely misleading about this, as they say you get paid a few days after signing-on!)





And i called housing benefit to check if the JSA letter and signed tenancy agreement that i sent on thursday had arrived yet...,
they said no.


I asked them how long they would take to finalise the claim and make the payment once they do recieve it...

But there was just silence for about 4seconds, then they sorta choked and then just said 'thanks for calling', and hung-up!

Beta89

fluffymovie wrote: »

Just wondering as heading over that way at the weekend! Did you ever hear back from the council as to what they would pay you?

Heya, ive been contacting them every 5 t 6days,
but they been delaying it again.

Its abit sad at how fast they respond when people dont pay council tax... ect
But for benefits they take months n months, and ignore the legal regulations even about interim payments!


I sent them the signed tenancy agreement n JSA agreement last week on wednesday (10th march i think), its 21st today and still not recieved payment, with rent due on 23rd, and i owe my dad £675 from last months rent.


They said on thursday 19th that they can confirm they have recieved the documents (that they didnt even need), so hopefully on monday morning il get letter in my box saying they finally going to make the payment and will backdate it to 3rd Febuary.




I may be in abit of luck though as ive been contacted by a trading firm (stockmarket) who have heard about me and the sucess and phenomenon i created last year when i was trading,
and they have invited me for a business lunch + for me to take the 1st stage of logic based assessment tests.
And i am managing to still get some disretionary benefits+free access to their services (standard cost is £300 per month) from a few trading related corporations in return for me promoting them when i publish trading posts... ect

So this is quite good i guess to elp me get some money for basic food each week.





P.S Since so many people on here have helped me through this thread, i have decided to contribute to this website forum too and am going to start a thread in the 'up your income' section to try teaching people how to earn money through stockmarket trading.

(Can legally be done and not declared even when your on benefits and JSA, and is totally tax exempt in the UK)

NASA_2

Beta89 wrote: »

(Can legally be done and not declared even when your on benefits and JSA, and is totally tax exempt in the UK)

Are you absolutely certain about that?

KimYeovil

Nice play by the troll.

Beta89

:mad: Ok well i called them up 1st thing this morning to check the status,
as its been over 7weeks now,
when legally they are meant to make a payment after 2weeks!! :mad:


The man again confirmed that they do have my tenancy agreement there signed by my landlord and they ahve my jobseekers letter, and so should process the claim 'soon'.

I asked when id get the payment, and he said that they only make payments 1x per week on mondays, and so if the woman processed and confimed my claim today id get the money by friday.
(Rent is due today)

But i said ok, and he said he would make a note for her to do it today.



I called now in the afternoon and soem other man again tells me that they do have my docuements there, but that the woman hasnt done it yet, but she will do it during the week!! :mad:


So even if she finally manages to do her job to just basic lowest level of competency and does do my claim this week (8weeks late),
i it will be a further 2weeks until i actually get the payment!! :mad: :mad:




Does anyone know if theres a head office that i can complain to about this, and can get the interim payment that i was legally entitled to 5weeks ago???


Thanks