Housing allowance.

toxic1990

I have checked online and it says I am eligible for £59.00 a week HA. I signed on yesterday and asked the advisor to check up my claim and it says its been approved at £50.90.

My rent is £15 more than that.
Im on JSA so zero income.

Am I missing something obvious that might affect the amount? I have literally been in to the benefits office 7 times over the last two weeks, because they kept needing more and more information.

Its kind of !!!!ing me off with it all, I don't know why people wish to live on benefits long term, its horrendously stressful.

Im thinking that its one of those decimal place mix ups.

karenx

Your income is not zero, you are getting £64 per week JSA or am I missing something?????

fluffymovie

It is likely that if the OP's username gives a clue to date of birth, that he is only receiving £50.95 JSA

LHA is based on the area you live in and the type of accomodation you live in. If you are under 25, you would only be entitled to the Shared Room rate and thsi may well be below the rent that you are charged and you need to make up the shortfall from your JSA.

Indie_Kid

If your rent is more than lHA, it's your responsibilty to make up the difference.

toxic1990

Thats it. My rent is about £60 a week.

Online the website says the shared room rate for my area is £59.00, but on the benefit system at the jobcenter it said £50.90.

Surely I should be getting the full amount as I am on jobseekers, sorry im new to this so forget to call it income.

Im just wondering if there is a reason why I would receive less than what the LHA website I should get, and what I am getting. Because all the right digits are there makes me think that someones just typed abit to quick and hasn't double checked,

bunny999

Have you put in a claim for Local Housing Allowance ?

toxic1990

Yeah. There has been alot of confusion about it all due to my student status, I had to put in a claim for backdating which is being reviewed.

I had a call from the benefits people who said they had checked on the benefits system and couldn't find my jobseekers 'account'. and need me to prove it.

I had sign on the next day so when I went in and I explained to the adviser it all she checked on her system and showed me that I had been awarded £50.90 a week housing allowance, and than something else which she said was most likely the backdating still being considered.

£50.90 seems like an odd amount no?

Oldernotwiser

toxic1990 wrote: »

Yeah. There has been alot of confusion about it all due to my student status, I had to put in a claim for backdating which is being reviewed.

Are you a full or part time student and at what level?

fluffymovie

If you are in receipt of JSA Income Based, you would receive full HB up to the LHA rate for a single person in your area.

It sounds as though they may be using other income and didn't know that you were on JSA IB and so you aren't getting maximum LHA. If you check your local council's website and get the LHA rate, it may help.

As soon as you get an award of LHA, you get notification letters. If you are able to post on here what it says under the section for income and applicable amount as well as rent, we may be able to help a little more. You can always pm me if you don't want to post on open forum

Macro_3

Are you sure that she was referring to your LHA? Being able to check your LHA award at the jobcentre is a new one on me - LHA is administered by the Local Authority and I have never worked for a LA who share information in the way you describe with the jobcentre.

£50.95 is very similar to the under 25's JSA rate - I wonder if you might have your wires crossed?

toxic1990

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

toxic1990 wrote: »

Yeah. There has been alot of confusion about it all due to my student status, I had to put in a claim for backdating which is being reviewed.

Are you a full or part time student and at what level?

I am neither. I am a student doing a year without residency. I was ill over exams (university) and have to take a year out until next exam period before I can progress to next year.

I am still enrolled at the University so have been exempted from Council tax, but I don't receive any student fiance from the student loan company (£6k a year).

There has been confusion about whether I fall into a bit of a black hole. classed as a student so don't pay CT but not eligible for HB/JS.

I have signed on no problem, its just HB there is issues

Where I should stand using pragmatic logic is that I should be entitled to jobseekers and HB as without that I wouldn't be able to survive, I only have been just due to parents. I was originally told I was unable to claim any benefits at all.

Although I think its pretty generous that I am allowed of CT, not that I think its a fair system at all, but I think I got a bad deal if I have been let of £800 CT at the expense of £3500 pa housing allowance.

It seems my circumstances, which aren't completely rare, seems to have fallen into a gap that not many council workers know about, at least not at the front line who give out advice.

Macro wrote: »

Are you sure that she was referring to your LHA? Being able to check your LHA award at the jobcentre is a new one on me - LHA is administered by the Local Authority and I have never worked for a LA who share information in the way you describe with the jobcentre.

£50.95 is very similar to the under 25's JSA rate - I wonder if you might have your wires crossed?

At the job center she said she has access to two systems, the job seekers one and the housing/council tax benefit system. She showed me what she said was housing benefit and im pretty sure I did see that at the top of the screen.