Just received 'Housing Benefit changes' letter, not sure of the implications.

MissMoneypenny

Sandwich wrote: »

So you don't think the LA has a responsibility to inform people on benefits in good time that there are going to be cuts to those benefits that will mean that they will have to move house?

As whitelabel said, not everyone reads the budget or keeps up with the papers so you can't just say, 'oh well it's your fault, you should have read the papers'. I do keep up with the news for the most part and I didn't see anything on this.

I recall that Birmingham had a demonstration in the streets by 500,000 welfare claimants', about the welfare cuts.

From your council's (Birmingham) website
http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/importantchanges

Important changes to Council Tax and Housing Benefit


Local Housing Allowance

The Government changed the rules on how Local Housing Allowance is calculated on 1 April 2011. The level on which the room rate for Local Housing Allowance is based has been reduced and this will mean that the amount of Housing Benefit/ Local Housing Allowance that you receive may also reduce.

Everyone who will be affected by this change will have been sent a letter to explain these changes and what they will mean to them. These were issued towards the end of October 2011.

Changes to Housing Benefit for single people aged 25 to 34

Housing Benefit is changing from 1 January 2012 for single people aged 25 to 34, living in accommodation that they rent from a private landlord.

Currently single people under the age of 25 have their Local Housing Allowance calculated by using the shared accommodation rate. From January 2012 this will be extended to single people under the age of 35.

This could mean that your Housing Benefit/ Local Housing Allowance will be less than the rent you have to pay to your landlord. If you will be affected by this change we will contact you nearer the time to give you an explanation of what this change will mean to you.

Sandwich

onlyroz wrote: »

When I was doing a PhD I was paid £1100 a month tax free - and the vast majority of my fellow students lived in flat-shares. Have things changed in the last 6 years?

Well you were lucky then because I don't get paid anything.

But anyway, to get back to the point of the thread, there's still one question that hasn't been answered.

If my annual review was in July, and I had 9 months notice until the cuts kicked in, then why hasn't my HB been cut 10+ months later?

onlyroz

Sandwich wrote: »

Well you were lucky then because I don't get paid anything.

I wouldn't say I was lucky - unless I'm missing something surely it is the norm to receive a grant from a research council when doing a PhD? And some PhDs come with additional industrial sponsorship ontop of this (and freebee jollies to overseas conferences each year).

tooldle

onlyroz wrote: »

I wouldn't say I was lucky - unless I'm missing something surely it is the norm to receive a grant from a research council when doing a PhD? And some PhDs come with additional industrial sponsorship ontop of this (and freebee jollies to overseas conferences each year).

Not quite so much the norm these days. I work in the field, in recent years we have seen an increase in self funders. RCUK still finance a large number of studentships, although rates have been frozen for a few years now. Back when I was a PhD student, it was highly unusual to come across anyone who was not funded by RCUK, industry or equivalent.
Generally speaking the self funders I have come across, are those who would lose out to others in a competition scenario. Arts and Humanities I'm told suffer from low numbers of studentships, and hence have a far higher number of self funders. I guess it is more palatable for the tax payer that research funds are spent on "useful research" than in a field that is not perceived to be so useful.

onlyroz

tooldle wrote: »

I guess it is more palatable for the tax payer that research funds are spent on "useful research" than in a field that is not perceived to be so useful.

Seems fair enough that the most useful research should be given the most funding.

Just looking at the EPSRC funding rates (who funded my own PhD) and I can see that the rate has been at £13590 for the last 3 years.

Sandwich

onlyroz wrote: »

Seems fair enough that the most useful research should be given the most funding.

Just looking at the EPSRC funding rates (who funded my own PhD) and I can see that the rate has been at £13590 for the last 3 years.

I wasn't eligible to apply for research funding because the MA I did (IPE) didn't fall within the jurisdictions of any of the major funding councils.

onlyroz

Sandwich wrote: »

I wasn't eligible to apply for research funding because the MA I did (IPE) didn't fall within the jurisdictions of any of the major funding councils.

Sorry, I thought you were talking about a PhD rather than an MA?

Sandwich

I don't see what you're getting at. Changes were announced in April 2011, came into effect in January 2012, and the grace period was nine months from your last review, which in my case was July 2011.

Sandwich

onlyroz wrote: »

Sorry, I thought you were talking about a PhD rather than an MA?

No, I was talking about a PhD, but in order to apply to ESRC for PhD funding you need to either go straight from a recognised undergrad degree (e.g. Econ) or from a recognised postgrad degree. IPE isn't recognised. Only stuff like Econ or PolSci is.

Sandwich

I just wanted to update this thread to let anybody else in the same situation as me know what's going on.

I spoke to the council and they said that what has happened is that they were supposed to notify people of these changes in April 2011, but that they failed to do this in some cases, and as a result they have delayed the timing of these changes for the people who weren't notified, so people have in effect been given an additional 9 months or whatever.

So the letter, despite how poorly it is worded, is right in saying that for myself and whitelabel's friend, the changes won't actually kick in until next year. In my case, that means March 2013.