LHA and CT benefit have been suspended - advice needed please

ElleWoods

I work part time (22.5hrs pw) and privately rent a house. As I’m on a low income, I receive LHA to help with the rent, plus some council tax benefit. I don’t get full LHA but I get a significant amount – about £400 of my £500 rent is paid via LHA, for which I’m very grateful.


At the start of April I received a statement of my LHA amount for 2011-12, and on the statement I noticed they still had me down as paying childcare. I no longer pay childcare because my son left nursery at the end of last July, so I had a bit of a panic and wrote to them straight away via recorded delivery, stating I no longer pay childcare but my other circumstances were the same. Yesterday I got home from work to find a letter stating they had suspended my LHA payments and CT rebate with immediate effect, until I provide them with a letter from my son’s nursery stating when he left, plus proof of any other changes. So I’ve called his old nursery and they are doing me a letter, which I’ll pick up after work and take to the housing office tomorrow, along with my last two wage slips (because the tax threshold increased, my salary has gone up by £20 per month and I want to ensure I show them EVERYTHING they might need). I’ll also take my most recent TCs award notice - they have already seen this but I’m taking it again to be on the safe side.


The bizarre thing is, when my son left childcare I rang Tax Credits straight away to inform them and then took my revised TCs award letter to the housing office to inform them of the change in my TCs, but completely forgot to inform the housing office of why there was a change.

I feel SO stupid that I forgot to tell them this, and am desperately worried about a/ how long it will take them to sort out, send me a revised LHA statement and start paying me again, and b/ how I’ll pay back the overpayment. I was just starting to get back on an even keel with regard to my finances, and am so annoyed with myself for forgetting to tell them this. It took the housing office seven weeks to sort out my initial LHA claim and I ended up over a grand overdrawn because I was still paying my rent while I waited for them to action my claim. That was last April/May and I’ve only just paid off the overdraft. I’m terrified that if it takes that long again to sort this out, I’ll end up in loads of debt from paying my rent while I’m not receiving any LHA to help with the cost of it.


Has anyone here told their housing office about a change of circumstances months after it happened? If so, how long did it take them to sort it out? How did they ask you to pay the arrears – was it a lump sum or did they take it off your LHA so it was paid off gradually?


Sorry for the questions but I’m so worried about this that I feel sick.

fluffy70

I'm kind of in the same situation but the Housing office are saying that I didn't advise them of an increase in tax credit (when my childcare costs increased accordingly - I honestly thought that Tax Credits did this but apparently not) and subsequently didn't inform them of a payrise. They have had payslips and bank statements every 6 months as my OH is self employed and they didn't NOTICE that things had increased etc in May 2010 until December last year. In addition to this they told us that they had overpaid us our LHA as one of their clerks had put our rent down as weekly rather then monthly - it didn't give us much more money but they arranged to reclaim £9.93 a week to repay the overpayment. However now they are investigating me for fraud, I've been advised to get a criminal solicitor as this could lead to prison if I'm unlucky and they say that we need to repay £3595!!! My OH is self employed as already said but NO work this month as he used to work for Provident (see another thread on that one) and left them. I work for the Council itself lol, and we have a nearly 4 year old in nursery. We're a struggling big time on one salary and CTC and childcare element of WTC. No LHA and no CT benefit.

ElleWoods

Thanks for replying. That's awful - how can they expect you to pay £3500 back to them just like that?! I really hope you get it all sorted out. I for one, will be telling them if I so much as change my knickers from now on!

briggy

Cuba_Cat wrote: »

Thanks for replying. That's awful - how can they expect you to pay £3500 back to them just like that?! I really hope you get it all sorted out. I for one, will be telling them if I so much as change my knickers from now on!

I know you are being flippant, but that's exactly what you should be doing. You can't expect an assessor to "notice" all your changes, they are generally dealing with approx 20-30 different peoples circumstances every day. The onus is on the claimant to report all changes

Regarding the overpayment, they won't expect it back all at once, if you are still entitled to LHA it will be taken from your weekly entitlement at between £10.20 - £25 per week

fluffymovie

We are required to suspend a claim for HB / CTB when a doubt rises over your entitlement which may lead to an overpayment.

If Child Care costs are being included but aren't being paid, this will mean that your benefit will reduce and so you may have an overpayment hence the suspension.

We suspend claims to give time to amend the claim and to prevent an overpayment increasing.

If you are overpaid, you would be expected to pay back from the money that we send you each fortnight (£10.20 per week 2011/12). If the change means you don't qualify for HB anymore, you will be sent an invoice and need to make arrangements to repay usually within 12 months.

ElleWoods

That's really helpful, thanks. I've taken in all the info they need today and apparently it'll take up to 14 days to do the reassessment. The lady said they would 'claw back' any overpayment gradually but I forgot to ask if any additional repayments could be made if I have any spare cash at the end of the month - do you know if this is possible *fluffymovie*?

fluffymovie

You can ask to pay the overpayment through their sundry debtors account so they'd issue an invoice and you could pay a monthly installment?

My LA does this but not all as it's not certain it'll get the money but worth asking