why i do not recieve council tax benefit

ceecee1

Do you live in this house??

Its not clear from your post whether you do or not. It sounds as if you dont. If that is correct they will be classing the valuation of the property as capital as well as the £30K.

fluffymovie

I would suggest you contact the council and ask for a statement of reasons regarding your last application.

Deprivation of capital is a nightmare to calculate. What we do is take the capital value, then deduct an amount for each week. This amount is made up of your applicable amount, rent and council tax each week. As soon as this means that the capital we are treating you as, comes below £16,000, you can claim again.

To be refused for 6 years would suggest to me that they may not have made this calculation at all or that they consider that you still have the £30,000 tucked away somewhere.

Capital held in your house, as long as you live in it, is not used.

handyman27

I live in the house and i am owner occupier, which i saved 30k to be used for the renovation of the house.

I do not have a mortage. In these 6 years they are only going to reduce council tax i pay and nothing else like the cost of living, bills, maintenace, car cost, insurance, contingency un expected repairs.

ceecee1

I would have thought that they would have accepted that you had spent some money on making the house habitable (providing that you had the receipts).

I would ask them for a detailed explanation of how they had calculated your capital

Sorry cant be much more help

handyman27

Thank you for your reply.

I showed them the inovice, but like the fluffymovie said above, as i did not notify them they are not interested, as they are still classing me as having the capital even though i showed them the recipet. I even told them to come and see the work which was carried out in the house and today date they have never been or intrested.

I went to the appeal process i did not win regarding the savings which i spent, as i should of shown the savings to the council, as i went on my own no CAB or Welfare right officer would assit me due i was found Guilty.

Now it is 6 years and i have spent majority of my savings on the building work.

fluffymovie

Hi Handyman

I am a bit confused as if you were found guilty, this is not an appeal tribunal but more a prosecution.

If you make a new application and the council refuse it, they have to notify you of the reason for their decision. In this case, you then ask for a statement of reasons and if you disagree, make an appeal.

Any appeal is looked at by the Appeals Tribunal and you go to the tribunal (or do in writing) and put your case. It does sound to me like your council have not given you the opportunity to appeal against their decision and I would ask them tomorrow for a statement of reasons and confirmation that they have applied the rules for capital deprivation as I detailed earlier.

The council have made a decision that you deliberately deprived yourself of savings in order to claim benefit. However, 6 years down the line, I would be surprised if the calculation that I have detailed (Applicable amount e/g £64.30 for a single person over 25 + Council Tax weekly) from £30,000. You are eligible to claim benefit when your capital is below £16,000 would mean that you aren't eligible so it would seem to me that you should ask to see a breakdown of the capital amount.

If they say that you are still considered to have capital of £30,000 then it would be clear that they have not done the calculation required by regulation and so you would have very good grounds for an appeal and possibly a complaint.

real1314

If you post full details of your income and details of who lives at your address (ages/relationships) people can give you a rough calculation of what you "would" have been entitled to and how this might affect a "deprivation" calculation

However, with a council tax rate of £30 a week or £1500 a year, you'd need over 9 years to reduce £30k down to £16k if they allowed the full CT rate, which is iirc the usual way to do it (the "potential" CTB rate is what is allowed as a "spend" rate).

How did you manage to amass £30k with a family too?

handyman27

Hi All,
Thank you all for your replies.

I was prosecuted for not telling the council i had savings, which they found out later and got convicted of the benefit fraud back in 2006 at the court, as this was found out in 2004. However the savings which i had belonged to the whole family savings, but in my name. I started working for the company in 1989 and i was on good income, i used to earn 300-400 a week, as the work was booming and busy. Since the Labour Goverment came in power then the work slowly started to slow down.

In 1999 i had a gap and went to college to learn a trade and in them years we had savings of 30,000. We saved towards the cost of renovating of the house due to very old house i brought in 1994, as i brought it from an old couple who never looked after the property due to thier age and they had no money to look after it, so they sold the property and went in to care home.

I earn a week £93.28 and working tax credit and child tax credit £110.

My self and my wife lives at the house and my child aged 7yrs. We are over 35yrs of age.

My council tax is band B and we pay approximately 1220 a year.

I had the money saved up from 1989 -1999 and my mortgage was paid by the whole family, as we worked this way to save from the interest payments. Then we do the same for the other family member for the same value of house.

Property was worthed 30k in 1994

handyman27

This is the letter i drafted out to the council and they still refuse to give rebate this was going back 2008, as i applied rebate for the year 2008/09

Benefit Section,

Thank you for your reply.

Ref to your letter dated on the May 2008 regarding the rebate for the year April 2008 to March 2009.

I would request if you could look at the claim again, as I have already submitted the invoices to you for the work carried out on the house

I no longer have the savings which you have mentioned on the letter dated April 2008, as it has already been spent on the property and invoices have already been submitted.

The Tribunal was referring to the decision from June 2006 to March 2008. But this is fresh claim for the Financial year April 2008 to March 2009 and the decision is nothing to do with the previous appeal for June 2006 to March 2008, as you now have all the invoices in hand and it should be calculated as diminishing Notional capital.

I have been advised by the Welfare Right that you should be entitled for the rebate for April 2008-2009, as you have already provided invoices and it under council tax regulation they have to take this in consideration, as this is a fresh claim and now council have all the invoices and the amount £27,130.20 needs to be reduced.

I strongly believe this decision can not be made by you, as I think the council is being prejudice over this decision and we need to work together and move forward.

I do not mind going to appeal again for the financial year April 2008 to March 2009, but before we take this step I am sure this can be resolved between me and the council.

However I need to show this to independence or complaint of ombudsman, as I feel like I am being victimised by the council instead working together ethically

fluffymovie

Hi Handyman,

This is what I would suggest to take this forward.

1) Speak to someone like Welfare rights or CAB
2) make a new claim and await outcome of that.
3) if new claim is refused, you will be given notification letters. At that time, you ask for a statement of reasons and ask that they detail the deprivation of capital calculation they have conducted.
4) lodge a formal appeal and take this to tribunal
5) Make a complaint, in writing, to Head of Benefits, your local councillor and MP.

I don't think saying that they council are prejudiced will help your cause at this stage but perhaps contact and ask for a formal meeting with a team leader or benefit manager. It does depend on your local authority but my manager saw someone yesterday who had spent a lot of money and was able to explain our decision and the way forward.

The LA can't pick and choose which rules it follows so you always have the right to make a claim and if refused, appeal.