Housing Benefit

Wiggly_Worm

Yikes, so many letters :mad:

I can be your benefits buddy if you like we could do this together!

btw I got rather too much pleasure out of scouring the house for every last bit of paperwork I could find that might be relevent to my claim (2 yrs bank statements, ditto payslips, random letters from them, ANYTHING) and slapping a vast sheaf onto their front desk - "photocopy THIS" :rotfl: See how they like it :rolleyes:

I would recommend making an appt at the hb office anyway though, as even if they don't help much it is extra arsenal to be able to say you've been in to see someone.

Oh, and I just remembered - if you're feeling really bleah about it all, try phoning Credit Action. I've never used them, but I've been to a talk by them, and they do sterling work - somewhere between CAB, MSE and The Samaritans They may be able to help you out with your immediate landlord crisis.

Good luck with it all.

Wiggly_Worm

Hi Peter,

Just got back from the HB office :j :j and my advice is Go There Now!

If I'd replied to the letters I would have been toing and froing with months' worth of payslips, statements, you name it, probably for all eternity. As it was I went in with my tax credits award and an October payslip (the others are in a "safe place" - oops), and it was fine. The guy looked through all the most recent letters, made some disparaging noises, phoned up some big cheese who actually sets the payments and talked to her for a while on what needed doing, explained in simple terms exactly why this decision had been made, and so on. The big cheese told him I could fill out another expenditure form as the last one had been done almost a year ago (this may only have happened because i was listening in on the phonecall and was able to correct a couple of points during it). So then he printed a form and filled it out with me. I had put down £4 a week each for gas and electricity, and he said gosh that's generous of you, you're allowed up to £30 a week on these. I said yes gas prices had gone up but I couldn't off the top of my head work out the weekly amount from a half remembered quarterly bill. He said never mind I'll put £10 on each, that should help. :rotfl:

He also, completely unprompted, suggested I apply for a discretionary housing payment. He explained how they work, said they usually run for six months and cover your rent, then get reviewed, and phoned through to the right office and ordered a form for me which should arrive in 3 days! AND he told me about all this getting your bank charges repayed (see http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=102 ) - what a nice guy!

I would say it doesn't matter what else you're doing, or who else you're seeing, go and see someone at the benefits office. They know exactly who to phone, and what you're entitled to, and how to apply for it. Just go for it. This guy couldn't say for definite whether I'd be entitled to a discretionary award, but thought probly yes. But he said it's a short form, and if they say no they say no, but at least you've asked.

Hope this offers some encouragement.
All the best, and let me know how you're getting on.

reason_2

Wiggly,

Well had meeting yesterday with advisor. She said theres little she can do until the appeal has come through. She said that rental prices in the private sector have indeed soured over the last few years and that Housing Benefit believe the prices are unreasonable and are unwilling to pay. Hence why we've gotten the same rent we did 2 years ago. She thinks that we'll not get any more.

However, she asked if we had debt and I said yes, that we'd recently wrote off to our creditors and said we were in finanical difficulty and offered them reduced payments.. she asked how much and she almost had a heart attack, "what?! you're on income support you should be paying them 10 pounds at best!! - and your circumstances have changed, you've got to pay £125 towards rent a month now.. rent is more important that debt." So shes told us to pay our creditors a minimum and she's going to write off to them on our behalf telling them about our change in circumstances... she reckons she'll hold more water than us writing off, as we had a lot of hassle getting them to agree to freeze the interest and accept the payments we could afford in the first place.

Rang HB twice, supervisor has received our appeal but they have a backlog (as usual..) still no word on DHP either. they've not even asked for a budget sheet yet.. I will fill one in and send it in anyway.

Glad to hear you're getting somewhere Wiggly.. have you applied for DHP yet?

Peter.

deary65

I find it very difficult to comprehend in a welfare state that people have so much trouble claiming benefits. I find the fault here is not with the benefit agency, the rent officer landlord or tenant, but is in the legislation subjecting a scarcity value to market forces.
I have written to the rent service asking them to provide me with certain information, I have yet to get a reply


The rent officer

15th November 2006

Thank you for your email.

Can you direct me to an act of parliament which specifically authorizes the rent officer to set a market rent. The reason, freedom to contract is a constitutional right enjoyed by all who have the capacity to do so. Therefore only an' act of parliament per se' can be employed to disturb it.

The information you have provided for me is in the form of a statutory instrument defining the rules and regulation for housing benefit which is secondary legislation. This is authorizing the referral of rents to the rent officer for valuation purposes only i.e an opinion as to the property’s rental value. There is no authority here vested in the rent officer to set a rent or otherwise. For the reasons stated above I need the authority of an act of parliament in order to clarify the law on this matter which has been the cause of much confusion and distress to many people

So if you could forward to me the information requested it would be most appreciated, notwithstanding you are under a statutory duty to do so.

Thanking you

peter999

reason wrote:

Well had meeting yesterday with advisor. She said theres little she can do until the appeal has come through. She said that rental prices in the private sector have indeed soured over the last few years and that Housing Benefit believe the prices are unreasonable and are unwilling to pay. Hence why we've gotten the same rent we did 2 years ago. She thinks that we'll not get any more.

That's a joke in this property owning/property speculating democracy.
The government has allowed property prices & rents to soar.
It keeps the people under the thumb of debt & housing insecurity.

The councils must know that their HB assessments may not be realistic.

Most people probably accept & backdown.
Whatever they say, stick in there.

Someone always has to be the first to make them see sense & adjust their HB assessments.

peter999

peter999

deary65 wrote:

It is interesting to read how none lawyers discuss legal matters.The frist thing a lawyer would do is ask to be directed to the primery ledgislation authorizing the setting of a market rents.
I myself, have been unable to find such ledgislation, may be someone on the board can quote the sorce.Any time i have asked an LA housing department for this information,I have had no reply and the rent has been payed in full.

Maybe you need to play hardball & try this person's advice, if result of your appeal is not satisfactory.

This sort of tactic may be the only thing officialdom will understand to review & increase your HB sufficiently.

peter999

deary65

Please feel free to copy my letter and send it to your benefit agency or by email.I can assure everyone that without an act of parliament vesting legal authorty in the rent officer the courts will consider this to be nothing less than
constitutional abuse.
I would be interested in any replies people get.

It also would be a good idea to sent a copy to your m.p. Here is a link to your m.p.

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/

kelloggs36

What I find unbelievable that Housing Benefits can make decisions such as the rents are too high! I'm sorry, but who are Housing Benefits to make such a decison? Are they the market forces? No, they are not, hence, they have to RESPOND to the rents set by market forces, not try to buck the trend. Whilst I may agree that rents are too high, this is not the way to deal with it! The HB claimants aren't the ones who can dictate to landlords how much they can pay because the landlords can kick them out in favour of privately paying tenants. It would take for a total revolution for this tactic to work. Perhaps the Councils might like to buy back the stock they sold on in previous years? Then they can set whatever rent they like in respect of their own properties.

Jet

reason wrote:

Plus that £300 in the old place was for unfurnished. This place is partly furnished with white goods.. so technically they should be paying slightly more? Guess they don't take that into consideration.

Peter.

They will deduct an amount for the use of furniture or white goods if it's included in the rental price.

real1314

kelloggs36 wrote:

What I find unbelievable that Housing Benefits can make decisions such as the rents are too high! I'm sorry, but who are Housing Benefits to make such a decison? Are they the market forces? No, they are not, hence, they have to RESPOND to the rents set by market forces, not try to buck the trend. Whilst I may agree that rents are too high, this is not the way to deal with it! The HB claimants aren't the ones who can dictate to landlords how much they can pay because the landlords can kick them out in favour of privately paying tenants. It would take for a total revolution for this tactic to work. Perhaps the Councils might like to buy back the stock they sold on in previous years? Then they can set whatever rent they like in respect of their own properties.

1. Housing Benefit don't make the decision. It's the "Rent Officer" (RO) which is an independant body that's currently part of DWP.

2. What people miss is that the RO looks at the average rent for the locality (the Local Reference Rent or LRR). People generally only know of the current private rents being asked for on empty properties however there will be many Council (LA) properties with lower rents, also Housing Assoc properties and, causing the greatest impact, Assured Tenancies that have had the same occupant for over 15 years.

So, you might find that a current private rent is £100 per week, but the LA properties will be £65 per week, the HA properties £75 per week but the Assured Tenancies might be £50 per week.
The private rented are fewest in number so they have least impact.

And just to note, the Rent Officer doesn't set the rent. Market forces do that. The Rent Officer sets the amount of rent that can be paid as HB.

As for the comments about whether this is legal or not (dreary65), I'm no expert on Parliamentary protocol, but I thought that Statutory Instruments were part of the law, and that's what the decision is done under.