housing & council tax benefit overpayment-help!

sairz

recieved a letter this morning stating that i was over paid h&ct benefit for a period of 2 weeks, and they want me to pay £230 back at the rate of £40 per month,
now in september my partner went to sign on and was told he had not put enough info down on his job search sheet so to cut along story short they suspended his benefit for 2 weeks he didnt have to sign off and back on again he just lost the money for that period which left us in the crap,
anyway this is the reason they are saying they have overpaid benefits, i have rang them and explined that he was still on job seekers he just didnt get paid and they said he had to recieve something in a means tested benefit even if it was only 1p or he would stop getting ct,h benefit, so what should i do i struggled enough with the fortnight only getting child tax and child benefit now they are going to deduct ct/h benefit which i realy cant afford to happen,should i also expect a letter from tax credits saying i wasnt elegible for those either during that period i hope not, just dont know what to do pretty peed off at the moment

sured

could he try and claim income support for that period,which would give you the entitlement to h and ct benefit, not sure if you can do it retrospective but surely you need something to live on.

sairz

well the period when they stopped his jsa was in september and the only thing they would let us do was get a loan so thats what we did at the time, but as we was only getting child tax credits on the 2 week period they stooped the housing and council tax credid

bonnie_2

I think there telling you porkeys, we get housing benifit and we work it's done on your income, not just because your getting certain benifits.tax credits won't be affected.

Ross01

When the LA say you have to receive something even 1p in a means tested benefit they are correct. If you are not physically being paid JSA (IB) then the claim immediately switches to standard and will be calculated on your savings and income.

If JSA was not paid for those two weeks you should have immediately informed the local authority in writing of this fact. If you had no income then you should have 1) Provided your bank statements during this period 2) Explained in writing that you had no income and confirmed how you were supporting yourself ( living on tax credits and a social fund loan). Any explanation would have needed to be backed up with evidence (your bank statements, tax credit award letter, and evidence confirming the social fund loan). Then the LA should have assessed your claim based on your capital, child benefit, and your tax credits until your JSA resumed (the social fund loan would have been disregarded)

On the bright side most authorities would have completely terminated your
benefit (and not just stopped it for the two weeks when JSA was not in payment). Under the rules is if JSA was not paid (even for only two weeks) and you failed to provide your savings and income, this should have completely terminated your HB claim. Meaning you would have needed to reapply for Housing benefits ie make a brand new claim based on your new circumstances.

Eager_Elephant

If the decision to cancel benefit in September has only just been made you have 1 month from that date to supply information relating to that period - they should really have sent a new claim form which should be completed for that period.

If they have not get hold of one and complete it as though you are still in that period from September, so put down all your income - so CB and CTC. Make sure you write on the front of the form which period it is to cover.

If more than 1 month has passed then you could still give them the details but you would need to apply for backdating and you would need to have a good reason why you have not informed them before.

Make sure you also ring the Overpayment section to let them know that as you are supplying more information you will not be making any payments until the issue has been sorted.

Any more questions give us a shout

EE