General benefit enquiry

crop

Hi. I am a 55 year old male living alone in a rented flat, I get incapacity benefit of £89 per week, I have been receiving this benefit since 1999 due to an accident. the question is since i moved into this flat I ave had to pay almost £70 per month towards the rent and approx £20 per month towards the rates. This is quite a big chunk from my benefit and i have never had to pay this before, normally about £14 a month towards council tax. I have just received a letter from income support giving me £2 per week saying the law says i need £91 per week to live on. Does this take into account the £90 per month i have to pay out.
Thanks in advance for any replies.

Blackpool_Saver

If you are saying you have just been awarded income support then you should get your council tax paid for you. Rent will be paid to the amount allowed for a single person in you area.

karenx

It will go on your LHA rate as the maximum they will pay per week for your rent, so you must be living in a house that is above the maximum therefor you will have to top up the rest of the rent.
Only other option is to move to a cheaper house?

crop

The lha for this area is exactly the same as the monthly rent so its not that and i only got the letter this morning about the income support as i claimed a week or so ago. The reason given by the council is that and i quote "its because you are on incapacity benefit, if you were on jobseekers or income support it would be different" . The same thing happened when i tried to get help with the deposit. I have been told by a lot of people including a solicitor that incapacity benefit is classed as an income not a benefit. Very strange.

karenx

Then if its classed as an income then that is taken into account for LHA purposes.

crop

karenx wrote: »

Then if its classed as an income then that is taken into account for LHA purposes.

In what way and i would still like to know why incapacity BENEFIT is not a benefit.
Also a friend who is in the same position whos rent is the maximum lha gets his paid in full, he only has to contribute an ammount towards council tax.

fluffybunnies

For LHA you can only have so much income before they start reducing your award, if you look at your award notice it should give you the exact amounts but mine is £5 disregard, then 50.95 of my income (i'm under 25) is what the gov says i need per week to live on (and i think would be what i'd get if i was JSA), any 65% of any further income is then taken off the maximum benefit award, meaning that although the rates for my area is £125 per week, I only get about £100.

I think over 25's would be allowed 64.95 (i think same as JSA again), so as your incapacity is more than that, that is probably why you don't get the full amount, it should have the calculations on you award notice (letter to say how much you'd get), if not you should be able to request them from your local council offices.

crop

Then why does the letter i got from income support and from incapacity benefit say "this is how much the law says you need to live on" then its taken away from me by the council. Even a lady i know who has just recently retired from the benefits agency says i should not be paying that much if any.
And where is the justice, the person i referred to earlier who gets all his rent paid has never worked, paid tax, ni or anything his whole life and hes 53 I on the other hand was only ever out of a job for 1 week in 30 years paying a large ammount of tax and ni over that period.

fluffybunnies

I don't know, I'm just offering advice on a possible reason why, you really need to look at your award notice and it should give you a detailed calculation of what they include as income and what is disregarded etc.

I know the system is unfair, and i find it ironic that i think (although i may be reading the figures wrong) that the government sets benefits to be below their own poverty line.

Can I ask if you get DLA or have ever applied for DLA because i think with that you can get a disability premium on your housing.

Blackpool_Saver

Yes but surely if income support is paid that is a passport benefit to full payment up to LHA and full council tax regardless.

Blackpool_Saver

fluffybunnies wrote: »

Can I ask if you get DLA or have ever applied for DLA because i think with that you can get a disability premium on your housing.

That was to be my next suggestion.