Help with Housing Benefit/LHA

confusedofstow

I wonder if anyone has come across this, we are a family of five (two adults and three children) living in Stowmarket in Suffolk, the council that controls are Housing Benefit is Mid-Suffolk. Upon reviewing our housing benefit and council tax benefit entitlements it appears that the council are calculating what we are entitled to using the amount of rent which we pay, rather than using the LHA for our property, upon doing some brief research it appears that this is an old way of calculating housing benefit.

The wording in the letter is thus:

The rent you are charged is £x every month. I have converted this to a weekly figure of £x.

Your housing benefit has been calculated under the new LHA scheme which bases the calculation on a rent level set by the Rent Service blah! blah! The amount of rent you pay is not used in the calculation.

However, because of your circumstances, your housing benefit is protected for 13 weeks from x to x. This means I can use the rent you are actually charged £x each week, to work out your housing benefit.

I really don't understand the above and what is protected housing benefit and how is it protected?

Hope someone understands,

Cheers
John

Caz3121

I don't believe they automatically moved those people that was already in receipt of housing benefit to LHA. I think you would have to either move or close your housing benefit claim and reapply for LHA (you would need to do your sums on whether you are actually better off or not as there will be a gap in between where you would need to pay all the rent yourself)

keet83

I know that when you turn 25 then your housing benefits are worked out with the LHA although i have never come across it changing the other way. Has there been a change to any of your incomes, other benefits, occupants in the house or a particular age of your children? If any of this has happened it may be the reason for the change.

also there should not be any weeks that you are not entitled to the benefits, if there is then you will/should be back dated. It would be best to contact the benefits office or even the CAB for more information.

confusedofstow

Caz3121 wrote: »

I don't believe they automatically moved those people that was already in receipt of housing benefit to LHA. I think you would have to either move or close your housing benefit claim and reapply for LHA (you would need to do your sums on whether you are actually better off or not as there will be a gap in between where you would need to pay all the rent yourself)

Hi Caz

Well my query is why the text says it one breathe that they are calculating our benefit via LHA then in the next sentence it says that because our benefit is protected (whatever that means!) that they can use our rent instead??

Any ideas? What does it mean that it is protected?

Cheers
John

confusedofstow

keet83 wrote: »

I know that when you turn 25 then your housing benefits are worked out with the LHA although i have never come across it changing the other way. Has there been a change to any of your incomes, other benefits, occupants in the house or a particular age of your children? If any of this has happened it may be the reason for the change.



also there should not be any weeks that you are not entitled to the benefits, if there is then you will/should be back dated. It would be best to contact the benefits office or even the CAB for more information.

Hi Keet

The only changes was a little overtime that I did but that wasn't of huge value and didn't change the way the benefit was calculated, there have been no other changes with regards to benefits or occupants in the house.

Cheers
John

afc80

If you have not been on Housing Benefit/LHA for the preceding 52 week period and could afford your rent when you moved in no rent restrictions are applied to your HB/LHA for the first 13 weeks of your claim.

However from your post you seem to have been on HB/LHA for some time as you say that you benefit was being reviewed so i am a tad confused by the text on the letter that your council have issued to you.

Benefits_Bod

Ask the LA for a formal statement of reasons ("SoR"). As the legislation currently stands, specifically for HB/CTB, there is no time limit in which a SoR can be requested.

If still in doubt, follow the SoR up with an appeal - it costs nothing (apart from time). Note: Currently, an appeal can be properly made within 14 days of a SoR - even if the SoR is provided years after the decision in question. The DWP keep making noises about closing this HB/CTB loophole but, so far, nothing of substance has happened.

If you have been continunously on HB through and since April 2008 (assuming your LA was not a "pathfinder" authority for LHA (i.e. a guinea pig!)), then your award won't fall to be reassessed under LHA until / unless there a new claim is submitted or you move. It is open to debate whether a gap is needed between the end of an old award and the beginning of a new award (based on a new claim) in order for LHA to kick in on the new award.

However, if the old/new claim is the key, think very carefully about switching - especially if you are likely to be on HB long term. The government has already made it clear LHA rates are going to be substantially reduced in 2011.

Apologies if the above appears to be a touch disjointed. HB legislation is not exactly the easiest to convey in plain English.... If any of the above causes confusion, say what the confusion is and I'll do my best to clarify.