Cancellation of Housing & Council Tax Benefit

welshmoneylover

Would have thought so, cos during that time, you didn't seem to be in receipt of any benefit.

Christopherj_2

welshmoneylover wrote: »

Would have thought so, cos during that time, you didn't seem to be in receipt of any benefit.

I've been in receipt of JSA.

Macro_3

A change of address is simply a change of circumstances and so your claim will not be cancelled. What you will probably find is that the claim periods at your new address have been cancelled and new claim periods registered for the new address and pended awaiting receipt of the form and any further information that you have been asked to supply the LA.

When you return the form/tenancy agreement, the overpayment of housing benefit should for the most part be recovered by payment of rent at your new property for the same period. There may be a residual debt/credit depending on if your new rent is higher or lower.

The council tax debt will be put to recover from the council tax account, but as your liability ended when you left the old property your account will be canceled and there should be no outstanding debt once this has been done.

You really must get the form back to the LA as soon as possible.

gfplux

I hope that macro is correct and you will be ok.
However as a few posters have said you did not keep your side of the bargain.
I hope this will be a lesson to all of us that when we have a form to fill in we do it immediately.
There are plenty of posts on this board complaining of slow action by the agency's.
Well this is a case of slow action by a claimant.

TheJC

This is my understanding...

You were overpaid housing benefit from your previous address for 16 days (2 days from one fortnightly payment and 14 days from the final fortnightly payment?)

You were overpaid council tax benefit from your previous address as above, as well as for the rest of this financial year.

As far as council tax benefit goes, if you got full council tax benefit at your previous address you shouldn't owe anything. If it was partial council tax benefit, how much you owe would depend on your payments:

The amount outstanding, £668.65, will be sent to your council tax account on 17/09/2009. You will receive another council tax bill showing how much you will now have to pay.

Only way to know would be when you receive your new council tax bill for your old address. Unless they use a date other than the date you moved, the amount on that bill should be how much is owed to you/them. A council tax account is per home, so assuming you kept your CT payments up to date (if not getting full CTB) then the letter will likely state zero owed on the account.

What did you do with the money from the housing benefit overpayment? If it was all used towards the rent for your new home and your new LHA rate means what you pay towards your rent is the same as where you previously lived, it should even itself out.

As others have said though, you should get the form back as soon as you can because some councils always have backlogs and you may find you have to wait a couple of months before you start receiving payments again.

If the council stamped the form or wrote the date on it, you should be able to get HB/LHA back-dated to the date on the form (if rent is due per calender month) or the Monday after that date (depending on Council) if rent is due weekly/fortnightly/4-weekly. CTB should be back-dated to the date the council stamped/wrote on the form.

If you don't get the form back within 4 weeks (or is it a month? probably depends on council) of the date on the form, you may not be able to get it back-dated depending on how the decision-maker sees the "reason for not returning the form sooner". I've found that 'form took some time to fill in' is usually good enough if the form is returned within 4 weeks of the date stamped on it and you're not asking them to back-date it earlier than that date.

Return the form, any evidence they need (probably only tenancy agreement if no other circumstances have changed - were you previously entitled to 3-bed rate for LHA?) and wait for the decision. If you don't return the form, they won't pay towards your rent or council tax.

The council may speed up the processing if you ask them to because of your situation - my support worker got my council to process my claim when I moved within 2 weeks.

You may have to talk to the council after the decision regarding the overpayment recovery if their terms of repayment don't work for you. e.g. if the overpayment went towards rent and you're up to date with the rent, it'd probably be simpler paying it back when you get your first payment than having your HB reduced for the next 7 months (or whatever period they decide). They may do that anyway by reducing your first payment (inclusive of any back-dated amount) by the amount owed, but I've seen it done a number of ways.

I've assumed you received the HB and then paid your previous landlord... if your LA paid the landlord directly then some of what I've said won't apply.

The only real way to know how much you owe, however, is to wait for the decision after they've got the form and evidence. Weekly HB/LHA entitlement calculations by themselves aren't that complex. I know mine wherever I live (this tax year in 1-bed shared facilities) is LHA-rate - £8.88.

When overpayments and back-dated amounts are added, along with different LHA rates and bedroom entitlements for each, it gets too complex for me and my calculator. Rent due in advance and HB paid in arrears, previous address's rent due weekly and new address's due monthly, are some other things that would give me a headache trying to calculate how much I owe the council/the council owes me/I owe my landlord but will be covered by HB/would be covered by HB but is being recovered for an overpayment/etc.

Christopherj_2

TheJC wrote: »

This is my understanding...

You were overpaid housing benefit from your previous address for 16 days (2 days from one fortnightly payment and 14 days from the final fortnightly payment?)

You were overpaid council tax benefit from your previous address as above, as well as for the rest of this financial year.

As far as council tax benefit goes, if you got full council tax benefit at your previous address you shouldn't owe anything. If it was partial council tax benefit, how much you owe would depend on your payments:



Only way to know would be when you receive your new council tax bill for your old address. Unless they use a date other than the date you moved, the amount on that bill should be how much is owed to you/them. A council tax account is per home, so assuming you kept your CT payments up to date (if not getting full CTB) then the letter will likely state zero owed on the account.

What did you do with the money from the housing benefit overpayment? If it was all used towards the rent for your new home and your new LHA rate means what you pay towards your rent is the same as where you previously lived, it should even itself out.

As others have said though, you should get the form back as soon as you can because some councils always have backlogs and you may find you have to wait a couple of months before you start receiving payments again.

If the council stamped the form or wrote the date on it, you should be able to get HB/LHA back-dated to the date on the form (if rent is due per calender month) or the Monday after that date (depending on Council) if rent is due weekly/fortnightly/4-weekly. CTB should be back-dated to the date the council stamped/wrote on the form.

If you don't get the form back within 4 weeks (or is it a month? probably depends on council) of the date on the form, you may not be able to get it back-dated depending on how the decision-maker sees the "reason for not returning the form sooner". I've found that 'form took some time to fill in' is usually good enough if the form is returned within 4 weeks of the date stamped on it and you're not asking them to back-date it earlier than that date.

Return the form, any evidence they need (probably only tenancy agreement if no other circumstances have changed - were you previously entitled to 3-bed rate for LHA?) and wait for the decision. If you don't return the form, they won't pay towards your rent or council tax.

The council may speed up the processing if you ask them to because of your situation - my support worker got my council to process my claim when I moved within 2 weeks.

You may have to talk to the council after the decision regarding the overpayment recovery if their terms of repayment don't work for you. e.g. if the overpayment went towards rent and you're up to date with the rent, it'd probably be simpler paying it back when you get your first payment than having your HB reduced for the next 7 months (or whatever period they decide). They may do that anyway by reducing your first payment (inclusive of any back-dated amount) by the amount owed, but I've seen it done a number of ways.

I've assumed you received the HB and then paid your previous landlord... if your LA paid the landlord directly then some of what I've said won't apply.

The only real way to know how much you owe, however, is to wait for the decision after they've got the form and evidence. Weekly HB/LHA entitlement calculations by themselves aren't that complex. I know mine wherever I live (this tax year in 1-bed shared facilities) is LHA-rate - £8.88.

When overpayments and back-dated amounts are added, along with different LHA rates and bedroom entitlements for each, it gets too complex for me and my calculator. Rent due in advance and HB paid in arrears, previous address's rent due weekly and new address's due monthly, are some other things that would give me a headache trying to calculate how much I owe the council/the council owes me/I owe my landlord but will be covered by HB/would be covered by HB but is being recovered for an overpayment/etc.

I shouldn't have to pay back anything as I would still be on the same rate as before. Yes, I was overpaid on my old claim, but I would be owed for my new claim, so I shouldn't have to pay back anything. Or am I wrong?

Caz3121

that will depend on when they class your new claim as starting from - when do you intend submitting the form?

welshmoneylover

I would have thought you would only be entitled to the benefit you are claiming.

As you didn't complete the form to apply for benefit, I'd imagine you are not entitled as you are not claiming anything!

If HB and CTB is so vital, why didn't you complete the forms asap?

krisskross

Would the fact that the original HB claim ended mean that the OP is now assessed for LHA?

Christopherj_2

Caz3121 wrote: »

that will depend on when they class your new claim as starting from - when do you intend submitting the form?

It would start on the same day I moved out of my other property. The form was stamped.