Housing Benefit

Cms040889

Hi I am wanting to know if anyone can help me.

I am currently in dispute with my council over the amount of housing benefit i am receiving, as i am disputing the income they are using, my question is as i feel that they is an issue with the amount of benefit i am recieving, should i pay any shortfall in the rent whilst i'm in dispute, as i have been informed that if you are in dispute you should not pay as you are excepting liability

Many Thanks

BigAunty

Who advised you this? Rent arrears are a serious matter and can lead to being evicted through the courts.

Contact Shelter, they are experts in housing advice, and they will tell you your responsibilities and perhaps some guidance on how to appeal.

pmlindyloo

You have a contractual liability to pay your landlord your rent. He/she has nothing to do with the amount of HB that you receive. They expect the rent to be paid come what may.

Claiming Housing Benefit is a separate issue altogether.

If you 'win' your dispute then your HB will be backdated.

Cms040889

Hi, thank you for the replies.

I have checked my first benefit desion notice (BDN) and they have said that I am entitied to full housing benefit.

I then received another one saying that I had to pay, however the figures they used were incorrect. It was saying that I was earning more than I was receiving in my benefits. I then questioned this and all the time the staff at my city council were saying that the figures were correct, even after I suppied them with bank statements and prove of income.

At times that were saying that I have to pay £22 per week, even though the figures were totally incorrect.

Be mindfull that over a period of 7 days I had received 80+ BDN's all relating to past dates. I will ask another question about this shortly.

Do I still have to pay it if the councils workings are totally incorrect?

paddedjohn

If you put some figures up on here then someone may be able to advise you better.

tomtom256

Cms040889 wrote: »

Hi, thank you for the replies.

I have checked my first benefit desion notice (BDN) and they have said that I am entitied to full housing benefit.

I then received another one saying that I had to pay, however the figures they used were incorrect. It was saying that I was earning more than I was receiving in my benefits. I then questioned this and all the time the staff at my city council were saying that the figures were correct, even after I suppied them with bank statements and prove of income.

At times that were saying that I have to pay £22 per week, even though the figures were totally incorrect.

Be mindfull that over a period of 7 days I had received 80+ BDN's all relating to past dates. I will ask another question about this shortly.

Do I still have to pay it if the councils workings are totally incorrect?

Yes regardless of any housing benefit award or no, you will still be liable to pay your rent, as above the two are not linked.

You are liable to pay rent regardless of what benefits you do or do not receive and none payment could/will end in eviction.

Cms040889

Hi,

Prior to me posting any figures on here, I would like raise another question.

As stated in my last comment I mention that I recived 80+ BDN over a period of 7 days. At lot of these relate to a few years ago (received them in 2009 but were for years backdating to 2007).

Alot of these say that I should be paying rent, however these are issued 2 years after I should of paid it.
Should I still pay this rent as 1) I no longer live in the property and 2) (the most important one) I have internal comms from the council from their system, saying that someone has tided up the accounts.

From where this person has tided up the accounts, 3 days later I received all these BDN.
So in essance should I pay the debt from this property?

tomtom256

Cms040889 wrote: »

Hi,

Prior to me posting any figures on here, I would like raise another question.

As stated in my last comment I mention that I recived 80+ BDN over a period of 7 days. At lot of these relate to a few years ago (received them in 2009 but were for years backdating to 2007).

Alot of these say that I should be paying rent, however these are issued 2 years after I should of paid it.
Should I still pay this rent as 1) I no longer live in the property and 2) (the most important one) I have internal comms from the council from their system, saying that someone has tided up the accounts.

From where this person has tided up the accounts, 3 days later I received all these BDN.
So in essance should I pay the debt from this property?

Right so the rent owed is from a few years ago and not a recent thing? That's a different kettle of fish.

Who is saying you owe rent the council or the landlord?

Was it a council property or private rented?

If you have evidence that you do not owe this money, then appeal and state your facts why you don't owe it and provide any evidence you have.

However if the award was based on incorrect figures and you could have reasonably been expected to know the figure are wrong then yes you may be liable to pay it.

Cms040889

tomtom256 wrote: »

Yes regardless of any housing benefit award or no, you will still be liable to pay your rent, as above the two are not linked.

You are liable to pay rent regardless of what benefits you do or do not receive and none payment could/will end in eviction.

Whilst I understand the above, at the time we had extra money to pay the rent with, the council had income forms to back this up.

Cms040889

tomtom256 wrote: »

Right so the rent owed is from a few years ago and not a recent thing? That's a different kettle of fish.

Who is saying you owe rent the council or the landlord?

Was it a council property or private rented?

If you have evidence that you do not owe this money, then appeal and state your facts why you don't owe it and provide any evidence you have.

However if the award was based on incorrect figures and you could have reasonably been expected to know the figure are wrong then yes you may be liable to pay it.

Yes, the rent the council are saying is owned from from 2006-2007

The landlord (ll) is saying that there is rent outstanding, however, dur to the Data Protection Act, I have requested all my details from a few departments from the council. Inculded was a account statement from the ll and the council. We have transfered this data into an excel spreadsheet and it only shows a shortfall of £15 and not an unknown amounts as per the ll (the ll has never gave me a figure in writting, he has also stated there was arrers verbally but the amount kept changing)

During the timescale that the BDN were issued, the council knew what I was earning from the state, but years down the line, the accounts have been tided up and now it states that I shoudl pay rent.

pmlindyloo

You need to separate out these 2 issues.

First of all you need a statement from the LL showing the rent paid with the dates. Then you need to check this with your bank statements/receipts to show what you have actually paid. This should tell you what the arrears are. ( if any)

This is what you owe to the landlord. If there is a dispute with the figures then maybe CAB will help you sort this out.

The matter regarding the HB is a separate issue.

This is based on my understanding that you were receiving the HB and it was not being paid direct to the LL.

If it was paid direct to the the LL then this makes the whole thing more complicated.

Can you let us know?

It might be a good idea to get a third party involved - CAB for instance - as you seem to be going around in circles and without the paperwork in front of us it is very difficult for anyone to help further.