DSS stopped my Severe Disability Premium

endorfin

I've now heard back from them they are asking me to send in a copy of my tenancy agreement and they want to know if we have separate rent books.

I don't understand why they need to see these if my joint tenant is in receipt of DLA MRC? The tenancy agreement reads my name & her name 'of' her last address which makes it look like we both lived at her last address which isn't the case, its what the landlord put as I didn't really have a recent previous address as I had been homeless to the run up to that.

We don't have rent books, we each pay half the rent by standing order directly to the landlord although thats only been the case since the beginning of April, before that I paid the whole amount by cheque or bank transfer from my bank account and the joint tenant would give me half the rent by cheque which I'd pay into my account. I don't know if this will affect my claim?

If the tenancy agreement is going to be a problem is it worth asking my landlord to do a new tenancy agreement? Thought I'd seek advice here first before giving them the information as I don't want to lose my claim which dates from December. Many thanks for any advice you can offer.

Jowo_2

My understanding is that by law, a rent book is only required to be provided by a landlord when a tenant pays weekly. Check that situation out on Landlordzone or with Shelter.

fluffymovie

Quite correct, you don't need to have a rent book by law.

Perhaps a letter from your landlord to state that as far as they are concerned it is a joint tenancy might help? Have to be careful about getting a new tenancy as this would appear contrived

endorfin

Further to this. They have completely stopped all my payments since 19th March with absolutely no explanation at all. I've spent weeks ringing them to be told it was in the hands of the processing team with no explanation of why. Promises after promises of getting in touch with me by fax or email never materialise.

Finally today they have said it is because they see it as a joint claim, I think they are under the impression that me & the joint tenant are partners & sharing bills despite my never saying this at any point and always making it clear we are NOT partners but purely joint tenants & even sent in separate bank statements to show rent paid separately to the landlord.

The situation now is that they have stopped my SDP since December and have stopped my Income Support and my Severe Disability Allowance since 19th March which means I've had no money & my situation is getting a little desperate. The person I spoke to on the phone today said she will send an email to processing & get them to contact me by email at the end of today (which is what they said the last few times but I never hear anything from them)

Can anyone advise me? I feel completely powerless against them as I always seem to get through to a telephonist who just reads from the notes & can never say anything definite one way or another, its always 'I'll refer to supervisor/manager/processing team or the mysterious decision maker'

endorfin

They are now saying they need to do a compliance visit before they can make any payments. What can I expect from this? I have looked at other people's comments about visits from compliance officers and it all seems to be from ladies who are worried about having their boyfriends stay over. My situation is different as I am living in a flat with someone that is a joint tenant and they seem to think I am co habiting with my joint tenant.