Housing Benefit Decision Question

TUS

I applied for HB after doing some calculations on Newcastle City Council web site which showed I would be entitled to claim it. The information I entered reflected by normal income (i.e. monthly salary).

When I submitted the actual claim forms with supporting documents, I had to provide the previous 2 months pay slips which I duly did.

The decision was return that I was entitled to £0. I can only think this is because one of my pay slips for January included a small Christmas bonus I was awarded. This bonus is clearly marked as a bonus on my pay slip and doesn't form part of my base pay. It is a one off payment.

To me it sounds like they have just taken the total amount I was paid for Jan and assumed that's my "standard" monthly income whereas it is not. Decembers pay slip has my "standard" income but doesn't seem to have been considered - unless they've averaged the two?

Should a one off bonus be considered on a HB application? I am going to ask them to reconsider and submit Feb's pay slip which I receive tomorrow to show that my pay has returned to that of December.

What are people's thoughts here?

Vader123

All earnings are taken into account for means tested beenfits, it should be on yearly salary (inc the bonus).

Whats your income? Have you tried entitledto.com?

Vader

TUS

This is a joint claim with my partner (it is in her name as the claimant).
She is unemployed, stay at home mum.

I work full time, earn £16,000 pa before deductions and the bonus I received in Jan was £800 before deductions.

I used entitledto and that stated we are entitled to HB (around £40 pw) however it asks for my earnings for 2008/9 which I entered. As this is the first bonus I have received, my earnings for that period did not include anything additional to my salary.

Likewise ... if I use Newcastle City Councils own calculator it shows the same entitlement.

Seems odd that they've used my last 2 months pay slips to calculate this if its meant to be calculated over a years income?

Other info if relevant:

2 children (one 7 years old, one 10 months old)
Child Tax credits she receives comes to £435 every 4 weeks

pandaspot

they should take an average of your normal pay. I would send in your feb payslip and ask them to look at it again.

they shouldnt use a one off bonus payment in working out your average wage

kidcat

You can ask them to relook at your earnings and supply new wage slips. You could also ask them to use your yearly figure and include your bonus in your yearly total. I know of someone who recently did this as their claim included a weeks pay slip which had two weeks wages payable on it, due to a problem the week before with the wages dept at her husbands employer. Its taken her several letters and calls but she was telling me this weekend that its now all sorted.

TUS

I've just re-done entitledto.co.uk adding the £800 bonus to my annual earnings and it hasn't changed the amount we'd be entitled to £43pw to be exact).

So it seems to me they have taken the 2 months pay, averaged them and multiplied by 12 to get what they assume to be my annual salary. Which it isn't.

pandaspot

in hb/ctb we average the two months pay into a weekly figure. they certaintly included the bonus in the calc and shouldnt have.

i would definitely send in your feb payslip and ask for them to recalc your claim. They were wrong including the bonus

however if you do receive a bonus regularly then they should be included in the calc

tazwhoever

Ask them re-consider when two normal payslips arrive...

TUS

Thanks everyone

Macro_3

The bonus should be included for the period that it covers - so an annual bonus should be included over a year.