ESA suspended,no housing benefit paymentand I'm not allowed to take anymore Crisis Lo

Nandoro

I'm getting close to desperate. Me and my partner moved together on the last 5th of April with our 6 months old daughter. Before we were made homeless back in January and we separeted due to the pressure and her post natal depression. Now the DWP closed her Income support claim said she had to be on my ESA,that has been suspended since 14th of March 2012. We've used the 3 crisis loans ,we are only receiving £20 a week from Child Benefit (waiting for tax credits) .The DWP refuses to pay because back in the December i did 16 hours a week as porter in a building. I've lost my payslips and the company refused to give me new ones.They wrote a letter saying the days i worked and what i've earned. In the mean time the council simply refuses to pay housing benefit and we are now 2 months in arrears ,I've made the claim more than 7 weeks ago. What shall i do with my life...:( Jump from a bridge or in front of the tube??:eek:

RAS

Hi

Your benefits need sorting but for this week and next can you check the trussell trust - they run food banks and will give you food and possibly some baby stuff.

http://www.trusselltrust.org/foodbank-projects and also check fareshares.

Anubis_2

Why are the council refusing to pay HB?

Nandoro

I don't know why they don't pay HB,they told me over the phone that they waiting for DWP to confirm that i'm on benefits. which i've been for over one year now. They only suspended.

Anubis_2

Nandoro wrote: »

I don't know why they don't pay HB,they told me over the phone that they waiting for DWP to confirm that i'm on benefits. which i've been for over one year now. They only suspended.

You don't necessarily need to be on benefits for HB as its income based. Ring them, tell them your FULL situation and ask if they can unsuspend then take things from there.

Nandoro

That is the problem,they say i need a income...and at the moment i don't have any income. I've explained to them that the social services were giving me supermarket vouchers, and they got a email from them confirming this. My question is can i ask the council to make a payment on account?? My landlord is calling,emailing and texting me every other minute. I just don't know what to do anymore.

Anubis_2

Nandoro wrote: »

That is the problem,they say i need a income...and at the moment i don't have any income. I've explained to them that the social services were giving me supermarket vouchers, and they got a email from them confirming this. My question is can i ask the council to make a payment on account?? My landlord is calling,emailing and texting me every other minute. I just don't know what to do anymore.

Someone will be along soon hopefully who will know the full ins and outs of zero income and HB - although I think you can have zero income and be entitled but I am not 100 percent.

Have you contacted a welfare rights officer in your area? Do a google search and ring them for advice ASAP - they may be able to assist you.

daimonde

paying HB on zero income might be down to local procedure, not sure, probably should know though, gonna use the 'got a banging headache' excuse but a lot of benefits is down to interpretation of guidance.

I know our LA would do that, its just a case of proving the zero income. Id accept bank statements showing a lack of income going in - actually if they show crisis loans going in or if you have proof of those it would help.

It may be that something the DWP have noted on their system that has caused the LA to put a hold on the HB, thats the unknown from the HB side of this. They can still make their own decision though & pay on nil income but might not want to because of this unknown factor, worth looking at that side of things though definitely.

daimonde

going back to the original point, its been a good few years & a lot of changes since i was a crisis loans decision maker but we were quite hard on the processing teams in this kind of scenario, if benefit was due it should be paid rather than putting someone in debt. We'd certainly want them to make a decision one way or another.


if you've provided all thats asked of you for the ESA - which from what you've said, you have done, a lack of wage slips is a pain in the backside but a letter from the employer is next best (have they seen bank statements for the period, can you get them ?) - then i think you should be pushing them, sounds like you're not having much luck in that area so id ask for a decision maker / get a 3rd party involved on your behalf.

not knowing why they're refusing to pay is always the tricky bit, but at least if theyd make a decision, even if its a negative one, at least then you can move on & try another avenue.

missapril75

You really need to get on to Shelter or the CAB urgently. And your MP.

dreamylittledream

daimonde wrote: »

going back to the original point, its been a good few years & a lot of changes since i was a crisis loans decision maker but we were quite hard on the processing teams in this kind of scenario, if benefit was due it should be paid rather than putting someone in debt. We'd certainly want them to make a decision one way or another.


if you've provided all thats asked of you for the ESA - which from what you've said, you have done, a lack of wage slips is a pain in the backside but a letter from the employer is next best (have they seen bank statements for the period, can you get them ?) - then i think you should be pushing them, sounds like you're not having much luck in that area so id ask for a decision maker / get a 3rd party involved on your behalf.

not knowing why they're refusing to pay is always the tricky bit, but at least if theyd make a decision, even if its a negative one, at least then you can move on & try another avenue.

Wanting them to make a decision is one thing - getting them to make a decision is quite another. And yes I am speaking from probably more recent experience here..

To the OP are you aware that its 3 relevant crisis loan awards each not 3 crisis loans per couple - who has made the applications to date?

Also a 4th and subsequent awards can be made if the crisis has been caused by circumstances that are outside the applicants control. Personally I would strongly argue that if all the infomation required by the benefit provider has been submitted and a decision has still not been made that is text book circumstances outside an applicants control.

A crisis loan is never an ideal solution but I think you should be able to get awarded if there is a complete absence of money in the household and no way of obaining the basics such as food and power.

HB almost always suspend when benefits are not in payment but if you pull the line with them to point out that this is an income based benefit and you can visibly demonstrate you have no income then they do not actually have a viable reason to refuse HB/LHA payments.