Housing benefit changed?

emmam202

Hi

I have just had a new housing and council tax benefit through and it has completely got rid of my council tax benefit and reduced me housing benefit quite a bit. I've compared it to my last one and other than a few small changes to the applicable amounts the main change has been to the amount of capital which has been included. I have another property with a mortgage on it and a little bit of money in an isa. Has anything changed in the way they calculate these? I know they had taken a percentage off the value of the house for selling expenses previously.

If anyone knows if something has changed I would be grateful of you could explain it because it's going to really affect me each month now that I'll have to pay more council tax and have less money coming in!

Charityworker

Have you got a child who has just left full time education?

benefitbaby

More info needed I'm afraid....
How long ago were you last assessed for HB/CTB?
Has the value of your owned property increased (or the equity you have in the property)?
Do you rent out this property?
What has changed in your applicable amount?

nannytone_2

they will only disregard the capital held in the mortgaged property for a short period ( approx 6 minths)
after this they will expect you to realise the capital and support yourself

benefitbaby

nannytone wrote: »

after this they will expect you to realise the capital and support yourself

However if you choose not to then they will follow set criteria to establish the value of the capital in the property, less selling costs (as noted by OP) and the balance may impact entitlement.

emmam202

Thanks for the replies

My son isn't 2 yet so not even in education yet!

Was assessed in April last time, claim only started in feb

Property valued at 85k, mortgage is about 70k now, it is rented out, income last year on tax return was £73.

Applicable amount for lone parent and child under 11 have changed by a few pounds each. Lha looks to have gone down slightly too.

benefitbaby

As you only claimed HB this year I do not believe any of the rules have changed regarding calculating capital on second homes.

- Capital is valued at its current market value (obviously if you were to sell it with tenants in situ a buyer would not spend as much as if the property were empty), and
- 10% is deducted from the property value towards sale expenses.

You may need to ask for written reasons for how your capital has been calculated by the council/LA.

As you have tenants in the property you may want to get it valued to find out what it is worth if you sold it with them still in there. As this may impact the council's decision.

If when you receive their reasons you disagree then you can ask for a review of their decision and/or appeal.

princessdon

As you have £15K capital in your property, plus savings, plus rental income that is why.

Even if you only made £73 rental income - they look at the capital in the home as well

emmam202

Princess - I don't have 15k equity in the house, they reduce it by 8500 for expenses.

They have basically increased my capital from about £6800 to over 10k! Apparently that means I have £19 per week income from that capital which is rubbish!!

I had the property professionally valued when I did the original claim? That's where the 85k comes from

benefitbaby

emmam202 wrote: »

I had the property professionally valued when I did the original claim? That's where the 85k comes from

Was this the value with sitting tenants?

House prices have not been doing great so you may want to have another one done.

Have you checked the value of your ISA, has this increased?

If they are wrong and your valuation, ISA statement and bank statements prove this then make a written request for a review of their decision on the basis of the statements etc.

benefitbaby

PS, the law says that you have an income from savings of £1 for every £250 (or part £250) of savings/capital. This is called tariff income (i think).

So if they are saying you have £19 tariff income then this equates to actual savings/capital of approx £4,750 - although this does not match the info you mentioned.