Council tax benefit without Housing benefits

Angharadz

Thanks to the changes in Mortgage interest rates at DWP, I fell out of Income support eligibility last September (2010) by the huge amount of £1:50 per week.
They therefore instantly stopped making direct payments to my building society, and wrote to tell me so, the letter arriving early in October. This also meant that I was no longer automatically entitled to other benefits - such as Council Tax.
I phoned my council, spoke to a helpful person who volunteered to post out the necessary form, to be returned by the end of October, with a vague guesstimate that I would be liable for a "very small" payment.
I duly returned the double sided A4 sheet, with evidence of my income, and (negative) assets. Mid November I got a stark letter demanding that I fill in their form. I phoned and pointed out they already had it.... they decided it just wasn't loaded into their system, and "not to worry".

Early in December I received a "reminder" saying that I owed them £132 as of now and more later, also I had lost my 'privilege' to pay in instalments, I must pay £100+ now and another £54 in the January...
If I hadn't paid within 7 days I would receive a court summons which would cost an additional £68.
I phoned, once I'd got over the shock, and protested; they kindly agreed that since I had yet to receive a bill it was unreasonable to pursue me in court for the money, however, they require all payments to be in by February, so they would accept that I pay what I could immediately, and the rest in the New Year. I repeatedly said this was not possible, but that was ignored. The lady then phoned me, a couple of hours later, and said that on further consideration, I could take until March to pay the whole amount, to ease things a bit.
I set up a standing order to pay the £6.26 per week they apparently think I can afford ~~though it has to be accrued monthly as their system will only accept it weekly if it is a direct debit!

Since then, to cut the story short, I have had a further threat of summons, because the amounts are behind on their schedule, and they are adamant that I have to pay every penny before 1March, as liability for the new tax year begins on 1 April.

My question is twofold:

• According to DWP, my 'excess income' is £1.50 per week
• According to the Council, it is over £30 per week as they make no allowance for my housing costs. (Were I to be in rented accommodation, they tell me, they would pay up to £400 a week to house me) Since I am apparently so rich, having the £30+ "excess", the Council assesses me as being able to pay £6.26 per week.

Since I have only known of this from December, I would actually have to pay them more like £15 per week to pay off the liability for September- March.

1. are they correct in saying that they cannot make any allowance for my housing costs because I am not in rented housing??
2. can they insist that I pay the liability in full before 1 March, particularly as it is not my fault that they are demanding the payments in such a concertina'd time period??

Their only hellpful suggestion is that I should apply for Disability Living Allowance - apart from minor details like the time lag even if I were awarded it, surely that is supposed to pay Care costs, not fund my council tax?
My present income is Incapacity Benefit (paid fortnightly in arrears) and a monthly pension (£74pcm) as I'm 'retired on Ill Health' from teaching.
Any other advice would be gratefully received - at present it seems I will have to let them take me to court, or go into arrears on the mortgage, in order to pay the bill, as my lender is a great deal more helpful than the council!
~~apologies that this is long, and hopefully turns up on the right place, I'm very new to all this~~

zppp

Welcome to MSE

Unfortunately you have posted this in the wrong section. I suggest you repost in the section here: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=139 as this is the site problems/feedback section.

Angharadz

thankyou very much zppp - especially for the link - finding out how/where to get things to post at all is a puzzle