Another Housing Benefit claim question! sorry

fmhm

Hi

so after much deliberation I have decided to go ahead and complete our claim for HB, the letter has come through to ask for proof of everything.

The questions that I have are:

it says i need to provide proof for any bank accounts that we have.

Do i have to send the statements for accounts (which are actually just pots tied to our joint account with Barclays?) that have pennies in them? (we keep them to transfer money between through out the month as an aide to budgeting, i.e a rent pot, a nursery fees pot etc and at the end of each month they are emptied when each respective bill is paid)

Do I have to send statements for accounts that are referenced as my children's accounts? (we receive child benefit into one account in my name but clearly referenced to my son, his child benefit stays in there and then we transfer the remaining amount to two other accounts for each of the other 2 children.) They are Childrens savings accounts but in my name with a clear reference to each child.

If i DO need to send these statements will their contents be classed as savings? we do not use the child benefit money as we deem it to belong to our kids and are planning to give them all these savings when they are adults.

One child has approx £2,500, another approx £1,600 and the last one around £600. If classed as 'my' savings (even though they aren't) will this total amount (approx £4700) affect the amount of HB we were to receive?

Thanks so much in advance.

Vejovis

yes to the accounts with pennies in them, they'll just ask for them again, and it'll delay your claim.

not sure about the other, i dont give them the one for DD, DS has one in purely his name, and they've never mentioned it even though there are constant transfers between the two.

fmhm

thanks for the reply (love you profile pic and signature btw lol)

i was thinking of including everything and sticking a post-it note on the top to explain each account and the multitude of transfers between them, as they are always for the same amounts.

What do you think?

Vejovis

it'd certainly stop any delays. i once forgot an account the ha a single penny in, just because it'd been so long since i used it. and it delayed my claim for another 4 week.

nannytone_2

are the accounts in the childrens names?
if they are in your names, they are your accounts and any money in these accounts is classed as yours regardless what title you put on the 'pot'

Vejovis

nannytone wrote: »

are the accounts in the childrens names?
if they are in your names, they are your accounts and any money in these accounts is classed as yours regardless what title you put on the 'pot'

accounts for children under 13 are in the parent's name but with the child referenced, they are children's accounts, not adult ones.

fmhm

ok so just sat and did all the post its! have now decided once all this is done to close the pots/accounts we're not using!!!! lol

also, when i log in online the pots are clearly marked with kids names, but on statements only one of three accounts shows up with name, and the other is marked a childrens account. so should only get confusion on one account which the smallest amount of approx £600 this should be easily explained when I go to the Neighbourhood office.

Thanks so much for your help