They lost my housing benefit claim

CJPW

Hello. I need some advice on my housing benefit claim. On the DWP website, you can apply for JSA, housing benefit and council tax benefit all at once. I did this around the last week of june. I've been receiving JSA for the entire period. Every time I went to sign on at the job centre, I would ask them how my housing benefit claim was going, they would look into some internal system and they would say that there was no update on my housing benefit.

So, I waited. and waited. 2 months later they advised me to ring the housing benefit office. So I did, and they claimed they have no record that I applied for housing benefit. Now they've booked me in for a new housing benefit claim in October. Naturally I asked whether they would backdate the claim to when I originally made the claim back in June. She told me that I would have to provide evidence that I applied for housing benefit (thereby putting all the responsibility on me).

Problem is, I never received any letters or other confirmation that I actually applied. This was due to a change of address. When i first claimed, I lived at a temporary address which I told them would change on the 1st of July. They screwed that one up as well, delaying my JSA for weeks. So, it seems possible that I will lose out on 2 months worth of housing benefit because their systems and records do not seem to gel across the board. The job centre has records that I applied but not the housing benefit office.

Does anyone have any advice? I am in dire need of 2 months of housing benefit

peainapod

Ok take my advice, ALWAYS keep a record of every tiny thing remotely to do with your claim. ANYTHING you give them, for example your tenancy agreement or bank statements, ask them for a receipt. Whenever you ring them, keep a little note book, and write the date, name (first and last and their department) and also what was said in the conversation. I had a 6 month battle with HB, they lost my claim, told me I didn't give in this and that, it was a nightmare and to top it off I was pregnant at the time. In the end I had a (wait for it) 10 page essay (I'm talking A4 pages front and back ) with the different stories I was told everyday when I call to check the progress on my claim, oh yeah ring them everyday too, I had to, if I hadn't I think the mess would still be going on now ! Good luck with it all

peainapod

When you claimed HB online did they not send you some kind of confirmation email ???

feelex

Unfortunately something similar happened with my partner - they ignored his claim and pretended it had never happened - and we couldn't claim any money back. I hope you have more success, though.

Hammyman

Its not that they ignored the claim. It is that Housing Benefit has nothing to do with the DWP at all and is paid for by the local council. The council can only process a claim if they get the information for that claim (not your employment status) from JCP. If that doesn't get passed on then they won't open a claim. For whatever reason, the DWP computers sometimes don't talk to the council ones (surprise, not).

This is why you are always best putting in a claim directly to the council for both HB and CTB.

fluffymovie

I'm afraid that the jobcentre have no access to HB systems so when you say they checked, this isn't possible I'm afraid.

I work in HB btw.

spikeripley

If there's one thing I have learned on here it is don't trust the DWP. They seem to go out of their way to make it as hard as possible to find out what benefits you are entitled to, which is ridiculous considering they go on about how much benefit money is not claimed a year that people are entitled to. You claim benefits for not working from the DWP but if you want benefits for rent and council tax you have to apply to your local council direct where I live. There two different departments and they don't talk to each other which seems stupid to me. I recently had to deal with both and I felt they had the attitude of 'well you don't work so you have nothing else to do do you so chop chop ' if you want us to sort your claim out. Oh and by the way we will do it at our leisure