Anyone had any experience with Legal Aid..?

thesnowdog

Hello everyone, I'm looking for a bit of advice please.

My rent went up on 9th October 2009, and as I'm currently on Incapacity Benefit and unable to leave my flat due to illness a friend of mine has very kindly been helping me with my Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit issues. My friend picked up the letter from my letting agents informing me of the rent increase and my new contract and brought it to the Housing Benefit place, they told him it'd take 6-8 weeks to process...and it's now been 58 weeks and 2 days since my rent went up, and they still haven't processed my rent increase!!! I'm paying the rent shortfall of £18 per week out of my Incapacity Benefit but I'm really struggling at times and have had to borrow some money from my Mum a couple of times which is making me feel terrible.

They've now had 6 or 7 copies of the documents over the last yearshanded in in person, sent to them by registered post and faxed to them. So in total they've had at least 18 copies!

I've now had to get a solicitor involved and he's just issued Haringay Council with a Court Summons that they have 21 days to respond to. I can't see myself losing if this goes to court as it's quite clear that Haringey Council have been negligent, but should the unthinkable happen and I do lose will Legal Aid cover this..? And can I get Legal Aid while I'm receiving Incapacity Benefit..? Should I start applying for Legal Aid now or do I have to wait until I get a court date or something..? I've absolutely no experience with taking anyone to court so I haven't a clue what I'm doing!

Thnaks in advance for any help!

dmg24

Did you follow the LA's complaints process before instructing a solicitor? Have you not discussed payment arrangements with the sol? You cannot apply for Legal Aid retrospectively.

Breast_Cancer_Survivor

I was of the impression that you don't get the full LHA rate when your on IB as you get more money than you do on IS.

You may well be entitled to an IS premium if you receive middle rate or higher rate DLA for care which will give you further entitlement with LHA.

Have you chased the Council up to find out why it is taking so long to process or whether they have just turned you down?

thesnowdog

dmg24 wrote: »

Did you follow the LA's complaints process before instructing a solicitor? Have you not discussed payment arrangements with the sol? You cannot apply for Legal Aid retrospectively.

My Mum has been paying the solicitor so far but I don't think she can afford to do so for much longer.

Breast_Cancer_Survivor wrote: »

I was of the impression that you don't get the full LHA rate when your on IB as you get more money than you do on IS.

You may well be entitled to an IS premium if you receive middle rate or higher rate DLA for care which will give you further entitlement with LHA.

Have you chased the Council up to find out why it is taking so long to process or whether they have just turned you down?

I had the letter about the rent increse on 3rd October but wasn't in a fit state to deal with things at that time, my friend was worried about me as he hadn't heard from me for a while and came around to see me. This was on 25th November. So he basically helped me out by getting the documents over to them and told them that I wasn't well enough to see them and that he had just found out about the rent increase that day. They then told him it'd take 6-8 weeks to process it.

I was hoping that they'd backdate it from 9th October due to me not being well enough to address the issue, but was certainly expecting them to have processed it from 25th November onwards at least.

The staff in the Housing Benefit place have been embarrassed every time my mate goes in to see them! They told my friend it might have something to do with reassessing everyone's rent in November and my documents coming in after the time that they reassess things. I don't really understand it tbh. I mean a rent increase is a rent increase, isn't it..? The Housing Benefit should always process a fair rent increase (which is deemed by the Rent Officer as far as I remember) whenever it happens, shouldn't they..?

I hadn't heard of LHA until one of the people in the Housing Benefit gave my mate a form. I've applied for that 3 weeks ago and have told them that I want it backdated from 9th October 2009 onwards as I've had so many problems with the Housing Benefit.

It's really awkward as I'm currently having mental health problems which is making it embarrassingly difficult for me to understand things properly most of the time.

Breast_Cancer_Survivor

thesnowdog wrote: »

My Mum has been paying the solicitor so far but I don't think she can afford to do so for much longer.



I had the letter about the rent increse on 3rd October but wasn't in a fit state to deal with things at that time, my friend was worried about me as he hadn't heard from me for a while and came around to see me. This was on 25th November. So he basically helped me out by getting the documents over to them and told them that I wasn't well enough to see them and that he had just found out about the rent increase that day. They then told him it'd take 6-8 weeks to process it.

I was hoping that they'd backdate it from 9th October due to me not being well enough to address the issue, but was certainly expecting them to have processed it from 25th November onwards at least.

The staff in the Housing Benefit place have been embarrassed every time my mate goes in to see them! They told my friend it might have something to do with reassessing everyone's rent in November and my documents coming in after the time that they reassess things. I don't really understand it tbh. I mean a rent increase is a rent increase, isn't it..? The Housing Benefit should always process a fair rent increase (which is deemed by the Rent Officer as far as I remember) whenever it happens, shouldn't they..?

I hadn't heard of LHA until one of the people in the Housing Benefit gave my mate a form. I've applied for that 3 weeks ago and have told them that I want it backdated from 9th October 2009 onwards as I've had so many problems with the Housing Benefit.

It's really awkward as I'm currently having mental health problems which is making it embarrassingly difficult for me to understand things properly most of the time.

I'm confused tbh.

Are you saying that you only applied for LHA 3 weeks ago or a year & 3 weeks ago?

What are you actually wanting to sue them for refusing to pay you any LHA, failing to pay you any extra LHA or taking too long to decide.

Just because your rent goes up (mine did in May this year by £25 a month) it doesn't mean that your LHA will go up (mine actually went down) as they base the rate on the average price of homes in your area not how much your actual rent is.

It also depends on how many people live in your home i.e children etc for example I live with my 2 sons & daughter so we are entitled to the 3 bedroom LHA rate even though there are actually 5 bedrooms (well 4 plus a kind of study) in my home.

You can check your LHA rate at this website but remember that you are only entitled to the LHA rate for the number of bedrooms you actually need not that you actuall have https://lha-direct.voa.gov.uk/Secure/LHARateSearch.aspx?SearchType=PostCode

bestpud

If you have put in a new claim for LHA, does that mean your original claim has been refused? Or have you cancelled it?

I'm with BCS on this one - totally confused!!

Have I got this right:

You were receiving housing benefit (in full?)

You rent privately (ie not social housing)?

You had a rent increase but ignored it initially and then your friend took it in to the council? You received nothing from them in return and did not write or call them yourself to chase it up?

What have you actually sent by fax and/or recorded delivery?

You haven't followed the complaints procedure?

You've gone to a solicitor, paid for by your mum, and he has issued a summons to the council? You haven't discussed ongoing fees and/or what this may achieve?

And lastly, have you worked out your entitlement? Are you actually eligible to have your HB increased or does the rent increase mean you need to top it up yourself?

DX2

Did you follow any of the advice you were given on this thread?
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/35986391#Comment_35986391

thesnowdog

Housing Benefit and LHA are 2 very different things as far as I know? Housing Benefit rent is deemed fair by a Rent Officer and LHA rate is decided by the average rent for a flat in the area based on the number of bedrooms it has. It's supposed to take the Council 6-8 weeks to process a Housing Benefit increase after the rent has increased. I'm guessing that the LHA will take the same amount of time. I've now completed an LHA form because they haven't increased my Housing Benefit in 58 weeks. I'm pretty sure my friend has followed the complaints procedure as he had a meeting with the management of the Housing Benefit and they assured him that the matter will be resolved in 2 weeks. And that was months ago. The rent went up from £455 per calendar month to £520 per calendar month and before that hadn't increased in years. I'm pretty much confused about the whole thing tbh, I'm guessing I'm taking them to court for negligence seeing as the management there said that it'd be sorted out in a couple of weeks a few months ago. He also had several staff behind the counter at the Housing Benefit place telling him it'll be sorted in x days time and time again but it's never happened.

Jowo_2

It's not clear what written records you've kept about your case (copies of letters, dates and outcomes of meetings, etc) as a full audit trail would definately help you. If you have submitted all the correct info for the changes in HB and migration to LHA, and the council have not processed them despite receiving multiple copies and muliple reminders then this is truly atrocious.

Have you escalated this to your local MP? - this is where copies of your dealings with the council would come in handy. Some people recommend contacting their constituency MP for issues such as these, others say it has no impact because the DWP/local council staff members will not process paperwork any quicker because they feel it is unfair to let the MPs intervention mean their cases leapfrog forward for attention.

Look into applying for an interim housing benefit payment. This is something a claimant can do after 2 weeks if they've submitted all the correct paperwork but the council has not got around to fully processing the claim.

thesnowdog

My friend has the original copies of the letter from my letting agents and my contract and has the recepts he was given each time he handed in those documents personally as well as the registered post receipts and fax receipts so he has proof that they've received at least 18 copies of each document. I'm not too sure if he has documented phone calls and meetings but he's quite good at doing these things so it wouldn't surprise me if he has. And the Council haven't processed anything as far as I know as I've had no communication from them at all apart from a letter from them saying they'd stopped my Housing Benefit altogether (when someone moved into one of the other flats in the building and stupidly got the address wrong) and another letter once that had been sorted out saying that they had restarted my Housing Benefit at the same rate once they realised I was still living there. I've had no contact from them whatsoever regarding my rent increase so I've no idea if they've started processing it, if they've processed it and have refused to increase my rent or what is going on. Now that I've had a solicitor involved the staff behind the counter in the Housing Benefit place arern't allowed to comment on it apparently so I've no idea what's going on. All I know is that my solicitor told my friend that Haringey Council have 21 days (20 now!) to respond to the Court Summons.

This really is ridiculous and really hasn't helped my mental health problem that I've been having for the last two years. I've started to consider suicide again at times, think I might have to get a letter from my doctor telling them about that so that I can give it to my solicitor...but it's quite an embarrassing thing for me to admit, I've only mentioned it here because of the anonimity of an internet forum...none of my closest friends and family know anything about it. Don't worry though, as I know that if I'm going to do something like that I need to go into the Psychiatric Hospital which luckily is a short bus ride away, I promised my doctor that I'd do that.

I'll also look into contacting my MP, I haven't got a clue who he/she is tbh!

Jowo_2

thesnowdog wrote: »

...
I'll also look into contacting my MP, I haven't got a clue who he/she is tbh!

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/

Out of curiosity, what is the basis of the court case - what are you claiming for and why?

On this forum, I've never come across a benefit claimant suing a local council or the DWP for a delay in processing a benefit claim so I am nosey about the grounds you are using and the compensation you seek.

Typically a person would launch a small claims case against a business if they were not happy that the goods/services provided fulfilled the terms of their contract or breached consumer law. However, I am not aware of the contractual nature of a benefit claim so this is why I am being nosey.