Help needed!

sy2511

I am trying to help my in-laws out of a very difficult situation. It's quite complex, however I'll try and stick to the point! My Dad in Law is in receipt of ESA (contribution based) due to ill health with the added 'support group' benefit which means he is too ill to return to work - to cut a long story short he was receiving £168 per week aswell as being able to claim Housing benefit and council tax benefit at the maximum level - my Mum in law is working 25hrs per week and earns approx £600 per month. They were managing to get by and coping financilly, At the time of applying (2009) the DWP were told that my mum in law was working, (we have proof of this) the DWP are now saying that as she is working the ESA benefit has been reduced to £105 per week. The local council have now been told by the DWP that my mum in law is working and they have stopped all housing benefit and council tax benefit! All this even though all depts were told at the time of applying!! We have appealed to the council to ask why a reduction in income has resulted in benefits being stopped and basically we have been told to go away! The position is that the income from employment will pay the rent of £495 per month and £100 council tax which leaves £105 per week to pay Gas, Elec, Water, Phone etc and eat. We are currently looking at every avenue, and we have been advised by CAB that they would be in a better position if my Mum in Law were to give up work and become a full time carer for my Dad in Law (which in my opinion he does need). How can she go about this, as if she just quits she they will not be able to claim anything? We would be grateful if anyone could offer any advice / help. Thankyou

xylophone

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/benefitrates2012.pdf

Are you saying that an administrator at the DWP has realised that an error occurred; because it was a departmental error, no repayment is being claimed; the PILs are now on the correct rate with no CTC/HB because household income is too high?

sy2511

That's the start of it yep! I think our main gripe is that when they initially applied for HB and CTB back in Nov last year (moved to smaller property) they/we told the council about income and provided wage slips etc..and they awarded full benefit based in these figures, when we told them that ESA had been reduced by £61 per week they immedietly stopped all benefit and said that they were not entitled to anything - I imagine that there is nothing we can do, however it is annoying that my wife and I made decisions to move them etc, to give a better quality of life based on the decisions DWP and the council had made!

xylophone

Have you put all the figures into a benefit checker (turn2us)?