Less and less money - then they cut housing benefit

gaogier

Hello

Person in question is about 45. This is not me, I am 23 and disabled due to leg problems.

Before August they received Child Tax Credit, Incapacity, and CSA with housing benefit who paid about £85 per week on the rent.

The persons child turned 19 - and left college. That wipes out Child Tax Credit and CSA.

Due to the 19 year old now has a part time job (15 hours at 6.09) they said they are going to remove 9.40 from the housing benefit. Again thats fine, I have worked that out to be about £75.

The person has lost CSA, and CTC, however this is where it gets stupid - the housing benefit has been halved - which has not been paid.

The person has found this out with a court notice no post sent saying they are paying or not paying.


So, due to not paying the rent and only paying £35. The 45 year old has to find an extra £70 to pay off the arrears due to a deal with the rent.

so the 19 year old gets £90 per week, the 45 year old gets about £95 per week. Rent now at £85 per week due to underpayment by council. As the rent is £100 per week.

How is this family meant to live? Surely the housing benefit should pay more?

I am going to phone them later, what do I tell them?

Total money for food, gas, electric, council tax, food, is a grand total of £10 per week. Its impossible to live on that.

BigAunty

Yes, child benefit, child maintenance and child working tax credits routinely stop when the person is no longer classed as a dependent, all fairly usual basic stuff and the responsibility to pay towards household keep transfers from the state onto the new adult. Also, where the now non-dependent has an income, there is usually a modest deduction from the tenant's housing benefit. You can double check the sum is correct on the following link.

I believe some local authorities will deduct the maximum sum if no proof is provided about income - could this be a factor? I think this is around £60 per week. Perhaps for some reason the local authority do not know that the adult child has limited earnings or they've done an admin error?

http://www.brentwood.gov.uk/index.php?cid=186

Is your friend a private tenant or social housing tenant? And if they are a private tenant, do they receive housing benefit (under the old system) or did they transition to the new LHA system?

There has been masses of changes to HB/LHA in general. You can double check if they've been impacted by them here

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/housing-benefit

You can double check full benefit entitlements on the Turn2us online benefit calculator.

I don't quite understand how if they both receive £185 per week, and their rent is £100 per week (albeit incorrectly calculated) this leaves them with a tenner a week for all other living expenses...?

Killmark

The numbers you posted don't add up to £10 a week and a statement of affairs would be helpful.

CSA wouldn't affect other benefits as it isn't discounted from means tested benefits so makes no difference.

Why shouldn't CTC/CB/CM stop when someone ceases to be a child?

But anyway, £95 (IB) + £90 (wages) + £42 (HB) = £237 - £85 (rent + arrears)

= £152 to live on a week?


HB figure and rent figures are based on:
housing benefit who paid about £85 per week on the rent.
the housing benefit has been halved - which has not been paid.
Rent now at £85 per week due to underpayment by council.

My best guess though is that they haven't updated the LA that CTC is no longer being received, its possible that if not then their HB may increase as the NDD is only £9.40 but they would have been getting £59 in CTC previously?

Once the arrears are cleared though they will have more disposable income available.

NotSuchASmugMarriedNow

Could the 19 year old get another 30 hours work a week somewhere, either from his current employer, new job or additional job? This would substantially increase his income.

gaogier

Thanks for getting back to me guys.

The 19 year old is trying to get a job working for the police - some forensic science thing - thats why they went to college.

Sometimes he gets an extra hour a week, but thats sometimes.


I didn't tell you, when the person was forced to leave work due to the arthritis in the neck, it took months to get the rent to be paid by housing benefits in the first place. They had working tax, who kept paying when the person was on sick leave - then they said they shouldn't of and took that money back (which is being paid slowly) £40 per month. They also are paying off the rent that was not paid, housing benefit refused to pay as the person was still in work tech, although they wouldn't pay the working tax.

If you add up all they where paying, before on the arrears and working tax credit, then they are left with just £10 per week. They know both sets are being paid off, they understand that working tax or housing benefits should of been paid. Both say it should of been the other. To top it all off, the IB keeps being "stalled", every 2-3 months they don't pay for 2-4 weeks, All without backpay.

BigAunty

Perhaps they may benefit from a visit to the local Citizens Advice Bureau to go over their benefits history to see if they can help them reclaim any money that's owed in backpay, deal with the repayment of legitimate overpayments and arrears to renegotiate them lower, help advise on their entitlement to HB. That way they can take all the relevant paperwork with them.

Probably because you are doing it on behalf of someone else, it's not very clear to me what has happened. I'm not aware of the position of claiming working tax credits when receiving sickpay from an employer but perhaps other forum members may know. Also, not sure when the person applied for state sickness benefits - new claims come under ESA as IB is getting phased out. Is your friend definately getting IB?

You haven't indicated if they are social housing or private tenants either.

A HB claimant is entitled to request an interim housing benefit from a local council if the council hasn't processed their claim 2 weeks after submitting it and they have provided all the relevant information, as far as I know, but I don't know if this applies to private or social housing claimants.

Killmark

My advice is get a Statement of Affairs sorted.

Income
benefits (types and rates)
wages

Outgoings
rent (Social or Private rented housing)
electric
gas
water
council tax
food
arrears

Stick the details into a benefits calculator to check they are in receipt of the right benefits and rates. If there has been overpayment previously then it may have a major effect on incoming and outgoings and with that the 2 best options are to ensure entitlements were received. To do this you'd need to check all the paperwork ensuring that changes of circumstances were correctly reported and that there aren't any mistakes. Secondly if its the arrears causing the hardship then it would be advisable to negotiate the rate at which the arrears are cleared at and for that a SOA will be essential.

gaogier

I don't know whether they are private or social - I don't think they are council... so I am not sure.

I know they was council and exchanged for the house, they been living there for 16/17 years now.

BigAunty

gaogier wrote: »

I don't know whether they are private or social - I don't think they are council... so I am not sure.

I know they was council and exchanged for the house, they been living there for 16/17 years now.

Well it would help forum members to understand what type of tenancy they have.

Many social housing tenants swap via a mutual exchange - they move properties but retain their social housing tenancy status.

[Deleted User]

too much of this third hand story doesnt add up or make sense

NotSuchASmugMarriedNow

woodbine wrote: »

too much of this third hand story doesnt add up or make sense

I agree, I'm especially tickled by the fact that because the 19 year old once filled in a form to join the police this means he can't work full time. :rotfl: