Challenging housing/council tax benefit decision

joshiow

In June I was asked to provide details of my earnings from the previous two months so that I could be reassessed for housing benefit. I sent off my two most recent payslips and this week I got a letter back regarding my benefit.

I have been told that my housing benefit will be cut and that I have been overpaid since April. Because of this I will have a reduction in each payment until December when the benefit will again be assessed. I also received a letter telling me that my council tax benefit has also been cut and that i will need to pay back what i owe from April.

The result of this is that my housing benefit has been roughly halved and my council has gone up a lot too. This means I am running on a big loss each week because my earnings don't cover the shortfall.

My main gripe with this is that the two payslips I sent were not the same as usual. In the first one I was paid approximately £100 that was due from the previous month due to an error a colleague had made with payroll and the next month I received £160 from an annual bonus. I am not sure whether or not I have any grounds to challenge this decision because the projected earnings until the next assessment are clearly going to be quite a bit higher than they actually will be if they use those two payslips to calculate it.

I am frustrated because I want to work more, I'd happily work all the hours I am offered but because of the way the benefit system works the more hours I work past 30 hours a week the less money I get. Now I'm unsure of whether or not i should work as many hours as I can to make ends meet or to stick with 30 hours and lump it until December (assuming I can't get the decision overturned).

My partner is a stay at home mum with our 2 and a half year old son if this helps with my query. If I missed any other relevant information out please let me know!

Thanks in advance for any advice!

CIS

If your income has changed , even for a couple of weeks, your HB and CTB have to be re-assessed for that period.

In April they will have paid an amount of CTB based in your income at that time, this will have been made on the assumption that your income will be , for example, £100 per week for the rest of the year. If your income changes then your CTB will be re-calculated to show you earned £100p/w for the first 5 months or so of the year (until September) however the remaining 7 months of the year have to be adjusted to show your new wage.

Once you can provide them with evidence that your income has changed again then they will again re-calculate the CTB. This should be done every time your income changes.

hjsmum

If you were to work all the hours you could then would you be able to afford to stop claiming altogether? It might be best purely from the point of view that at least you would know where you stood rather than faffing about every few months getting reassessed.

nannytone_2

and lose out on something for nothing?
hush your mouth lol

real1314

joshiow wrote: »

I am frustrated because I want to work more, I'd happily work all the hours I am offered but because of the way the benefit system works the more hours I work past 30 hours a week the less money I get.

Erm, do you expect to increase your income and still gets the same level of help?

Let's say at 29 hours you get £190 wages and £350 state support. And at 30 hours you get £197 wages. Your state support will be lower, but not less than £343.

I have no doubt at all that you would have more money in your pocket, albeit not much.
Do you expect to get the £350 regardless of your wages?
If you had £300 a week in wages, would you still expect £350 of state support?

Q: Who do you think pays for it?
A: taxpayers. That includes some people who earn as little as £150 a week but get no state support.

Q: Why do you think they should subsidise your lifestyle?
A: ?


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