housing Benefit/varying wages??

Jummy

We have recently started to get HB as my partner changed jobs.
We sent in 8 weeks wage slips and have just received an award letter for HB.
They have averaged out my partners earnings over the 8 weeks but on 2 of the weeks he had less wages due to time off so at the moment there is roughly 20.00 difference between what he actually earns and what they have put down as his weekly earnings on the award letter.
Do we have to keep handing in wage slips or leave it as it is.
We do not want there to be an overpayment of HB but are unsure of whether we have to inform them on a weekly basis of any change in wages which is more than what is on the award letter.
hope that makes sense.

shykins

this happened with a friend of mine (who is self employed)and when they found a discrepancy they actually called her in and gave her a formal caution after an interview with a legal representative... i went with her and we tried to explain that u as yr earnings change all the time when self employed its hard to say what u will earn... they kept banging on about well how do u budget and u must know what u are going to get etc etc

my advice to her was keep taking in yr payslips every month or so then they cant say u are not keeping them informed......shes been doing this ever since but have now told her shes to have another investigation

so i would say the same to u keep updating themevery time yr earnings change that way they cant accuse u of 'fraudulently claiming'

HTH

mad-mum_3

Go back in with a further payslips as it is your responsibility to check that the amount they have used in the calulation is correct. If they are told thta a particular weeks earnings are abnormal they can isolate them formt he normal calulation and calulate those weeks separately.

[Deleted User]

There is a misconception about how HB calculate entitlement involving wages. Generally LAs will use an average of the last 5 weely wages or 2 monthly. There are exceptions but best not to go into them as it's complex. They then grant benefit for a future period using the 5week/2 month calculation as a basis for a prediction of what you will earn. You are obliged to notify changes such as a change to your contracted hours. Hoever if the LA reviews a past period of benefit and finds out that you've done some overtime, then strictly speaking they shouldn't recalculate HB/CTB and create an overpayment. Odd system but there you go.