Council tax underpayment!

vickiv55

Hi there,

I am needing help with reclaiming council tax benefit. if it is at all possible???
I applied for both housing and council tax benefit when the new legislation came into place, that child benefit would not be used in the calculations.
I was told that I was entitled to £0.20 council tax benfit for the first month and nothing thereafter, and £146 per month HB.
I accepted this and did not quibble with the figures.

Recently, I have been looking at taking on a new job which would mean I would be claiming more benefit, and in a phone call to the council, I was told that I should have been entitled to more CT benefit and to reapply. However I can only have this to be backdated 3 months.

I have been mis-paid for 11 months through no fault of my own.
The council were supplied with all my details but due to their error, I did nto get paid my council tax benefit.

While 3 months of back payment is appreciated, it in no way is anywhere near 11 months of MY money that the council were happy to debit from my bank account.

I think this system is ludicrous.
Surely if the council can see that they have made a mistake, the they should hold their hands up and backdate is fully?

Can I appeal? Or should i just take the 3 months and be happy that an honest member of the council pointed out the error?

CIS

If they have had the information all of the time and mis-calculated it then you need to challenge them on it and ask that the award be re-considered as their error.

Shnookina

It all needs to be in writing and if possible go to their centre. The council are experts at messing things up. I took down all my info to them and they photocopied it in front of me but a week later i had a letter says some was missing! um no i dont think so. But got it sorted!

The main thing is you have to get all the info together to prove your income on the time they underpayed you. if you show them that how can they argue other than its their fault?

nottslass_2

Appeal against their decision not to back date benefit in writing.

The regulations state that CTB can only be back dated 3 months - but you can appeal against this decision.

Put every thing in writing,enclose copies of your original paper work,make sure that they are aware that "you are appealing against their decision not to back date benefit and the reason is due to an administrative error on their part"

missdemeanour

If you originally made a claim for both benefits and already have a live HB claim then you shouldn't have to reapply for CTB.
As long as you have given them details of all changes of circumstances as they happen they should automatically check to see if these changes would give you CTB entitlement.

vickiv55

Thank you for all your points! I'm planning a letter writing and paper work searching night ahead (joy)
Hopefully this should be sorted out soon