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Income decrease so rent benefit and C/Tax benefit entitlement gone down ?
Crisp_£_note
Posts: 1,525 Forumite
I received a letter today from the local council benefits department informing me they have overpaid my Housing Benefit and also my Council Tax benefit due to a change of circumstances.
Am a little confused here as I have not informed them of any change of circumstances as of yet. Their letter stated it was a change in my Tax Credits.
Well in fact my husbands Tax Credits have been decreased lately so we have less of an income.
Despite this I am managing to keep up the monthly payments on both rent and council tax to date so no problems there until now as the new reassessed bill they now are asking £193 :eek: a month when we were (until this month) paying just £65 a month!
They are also advising me that they will be taking the money out of any further payments to the landlord to claim back the overpayment which they are chasing me for when the payment for rent goes direct to the landlord. Surely they need to ask the landlord to pay it back and not me as they have already received it in a lump sum? This now means I have to pay more rent obviously to make up the amount their claiming back. Their reasoning for asking me is because its my change of circumstances. The ones I havent told them about as they have never needed / wanted to know before about any changes in our Tax Credits.
They have given us an income and expenditure sheet and requested I complete it and provide evidence within 1 month. Therefore I can hope it will revert back to what it was due to the fact our income is now lower than what it was a few months ago, despite them reducing the benefit. Surely if our income goes down (which is has by at least £40 a month Tax Credit wise) then our entitlement should stay the same or increase? :huh: :think:
Any advice please?
Am a little confused here as I have not informed them of any change of circumstances as of yet. Their letter stated it was a change in my Tax Credits.
Well in fact my husbands Tax Credits have been decreased lately so we have less of an income.
Despite this I am managing to keep up the monthly payments on both rent and council tax to date so no problems there until now as the new reassessed bill they now are asking £193 :eek: a month when we were (until this month) paying just £65 a month!
They are also advising me that they will be taking the money out of any further payments to the landlord to claim back the overpayment which they are chasing me for when the payment for rent goes direct to the landlord. Surely they need to ask the landlord to pay it back and not me as they have already received it in a lump sum? This now means I have to pay more rent obviously to make up the amount their claiming back. Their reasoning for asking me is because its my change of circumstances. The ones I havent told them about as they have never needed / wanted to know before about any changes in our Tax Credits.
They have given us an income and expenditure sheet and requested I complete it and provide evidence within 1 month. Therefore I can hope it will revert back to what it was due to the fact our income is now lower than what it was a few months ago, despite them reducing the benefit. Surely if our income goes down (which is has by at least £40 a month Tax Credit wise) then our entitlement should stay the same or increase? :huh: :think:
Any advice please?
Failure is only someone elses judgement.
Without change there would be no butterflies.
If its important to you, you'll find a way - if not, you'll find an excuse ! ~ Easy to say when you take money out of the equation!
Without change there would be no butterflies.
If its important to you, you'll find a way - if not, you'll find an excuse ! ~ Easy to say when you take money out of the equation!
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