Housing benefit

slim1690

I got sacked from my job in April, appealed against the decision and just received notice that my appeal has failed. Anyway I signed on for JSA online in mid May, stating that I wanted to claim Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit. I signed off again this week due to starting a new job. However, I have no means to pay this month's rent, when I phoned my local council's Housing Benefit people they said the Jobcentre had not passed the claim through yet, and that it would be at least two weeks before they could do anything about it. I'm a private tenant and now need to magic £500 out of nowhere by Monday and really don't know what to do. I thought about applying for a Crisis Loan but a mate of mine reckons I've got no chance, my bank won't help me despite me being a good customer for many years, I've got a feeling the new job will get terminated once they speak to my previous employer (I was sacked for gross misconduct, which I intend to take to Employment Tribunal), and basically have no idea what to do going forward to sort out my rent and avoid becoming homeless...

dseventy

Hi
Does your LL know you are on benefits?
Can you borrow the money off friends/family?

Being realistic I can't see how you can get £500 BY MONDAY from the state given your predicament with eligilibilty.

D70

fluffymovie

Ok, take a breath!!!!

When you sign on for JSA, you are asked if you wish to claim HB and CTB. If you say Yes, a form should go to the council but sometimes this doesn't happen (it's electronic) so you need to make a claim directly with your local council on Monday or if you can do an online claim, today.

I would also suggest you e-mail them today to explain things and state that you would like your telephone call of x date to be noted on your file.

If you make a claim with the council within a calendar month of the date that you claimed JSA and it was income based, your claim can start from the Monday following. If not, you can ask for it to be backdated and something like the LAID (Local Authority Input Document) was not passed on from DWP to HB would normally be sufficient.

We can check the system we share with DWP to see the date you claimed with them and also any notes about the appeal.

Worst comes to worst, you will fall behind with your rent and will need to let your landlord know the issues you are facing. Being late in itself is not usually grounds for eviction so that really is worse case scenario.

slim1690

I'll look into the claim online and email them, as when I spoke to someone on the phone she was really dismissive and annoyed me. I can't do a lot on Monday as I'm supposed to be at work.