Hosuing Benefit giving me conflicting information....can you help?

willing2learn_3

I anyone able to help with this? I've been receiving housing benefit but it has now been stopped because of a bonus i received at work. This bonus was a one off. I phoned the HB people and i've been given conflicting information. I've been told my net pay is a certain figure but i cannot see that figure on my payslip. When i told them that they changed the figure, to another not on my payslip.

It appears that they are taking the bonus figure BEFORE deductions and dividing it by 12 to work out a figure that i receive each month........but I don't because they are calculating it from the gross figure! The same with the rest of my pay.......they are calculating that from the gross figure.

The man on the phone this morning seemed to want to get me off the phone. He couldn't give me a straight answer as to how they are calculating it.

Can anyone advise? I don't mind if the benefit has been stopped but not if it's stopped based on an amount that i'm not receiving in my pay.

I think the only way around this is to work it out myself but not sure how, or who to go and check with (as the HB people don't seem to be giving a consistent answer....)

thanks for listening

alwaysonthego_2

It is normally the gross income you give before deductions.

bestpud

I thought it was net income for housing benefit, but I may be wrong.

I have no idea why I have that in my head... :think:

alwaysonthego_2

I know when I do quick benefit checks at work we use gross income, so whether the computer works it out in net I am not sure. Maybe someone in the LHA will be able to confirm it.

hbgirl

your earnings for hb is worked out using your gross income minus tax, NI and half of any pension contributions.

also, income is taken into account for the period it covers, so if it is an annual bonus it might be correct to divide it by 12 as use as a monthly figure.

however, they should still deduct tax and ni.

if it's a one off bonus it could only be taken into account for that month, but usually we average over 2 months / 5 weeks.

you can ask for a written statement of reasons. you have to request this in writing, ask them to give you a full breakdown of how they have arrived at your earnings figure.

if you think it is wrong you can ask for a reconsideration or appeal, this should also be done inw riting, within one month of the decision being issued to you

willing2learn_3

Thanks HBGirl

You've given me a much clearer explanation. I will go away and work this out for myself - i'm just amazed that this couldn't have been explained so clearly to me over the phone and why they were coming up with different figures as they were calculating it

Oh well, we'll see what happens

Thanks to everyone else who responded....i was at work so unable to reply to you guys but i did read all responses :-)

speedfreek1000

I had something similar because I was still owed payments from an employment.which was paid for 2 weeks after I claimed.

I like you was told conflicting advice from the help line and the C.A.B

The one thing the CAB did tell me and I thank them for this was go to the LHA offices with all your documentation and speak to somebody there face to face to get it sorted.

After 3 months of claim rejection letters and being told send this document and bring that document (wait 4 weeks for decision). I sat with somebody, talked to them, they then told me exactly what they required off me and I was paid 2 weeks later.

Anything out of the ordinary like a 1 off payment and it seams that they do a quick recalculation stop your benefit based on those figures and it's a right palaver trying to get it sorted out.

willing2learn_3

If anyone can case their eyes over these calculations it would be helpful:

On my march payslip it says taxable pay = £13216.55

This is also the month that the bonus is received, I'm assuming the bonus is not in the above figure though

So from this i've calculated that, from that month's payslip i earn £920 per month (net pay), when i take away tax of £112.36 and NI £68.72

Now on the payslip it states that £400 was paid in tax and £255 was paid in NI. So from this i've calculated that I've paid £287 tax for the bonus and £156.84 for NI on the bonus.....and that the net bonus received was £953.93

From this i've worked out that the net bonus received per week would be £18.34 (housing benefit have said it would be £29.80 - if it were that it would be £1,549.60 received over the year - i have not received anything like that. The GROSS bonus was £1519 - so surely they've got that wrong.)

Now the only area that i think i might have made a mistake on is that i've put about £250 of the bonus away on an employee share scheme, because no tax or NI is paid on that amount, it actually amounts to £400 in the scheme, as the tax and NI is kept on it if it remains in the scheme). Now i'm wondering whether that £250 should be included in my calculation for the net amount of bonus received.....

if it should be then it still works out as £23.15 per week receieved - not £29.80 that they are saying i'm receiving...

If there are any experts on this area out there that can advise on this last part especially that would really help. I've got tomorrow to get my appeal together as they are saying i owe them over £100....and i don't mind paying what i owe, but i want things accurate.

That march payslip was unique in any case as i've now changed a number of things at work and am receiving less money than in march. So i will send them the new pay slip for april as well.

thanks for listening anyone who did

willing2learn_3

I'm worried about one other thing now, they give you 3 choices: 1) ask for an explanation, 2) ask them to look at the decision again or 3) appeal against the decision, an independent tribunal administered by the appeals service will hear the appeal.

I guess the best thing is to write to them and ask them to look again at the decision, because if they disagree then i have another month to appeal.

I guess i will do that.

I think what's bothering me most is that two different people gave me two different figures for my net income on the phone......and when i pointed it out to the second guy he was completely lost. When i pointed out that he was using a gross rather than a net figure he seemed confused and then he said 'well whatever the figure is, your pay has gone up and you will still be out of benefit.'

but i've lost my confidence in them because they haven't been consistent.