Housing Benefit Court Case

SGee

It's just one frustration after another, isn't it. There are enough hurdles without having to deal with basic incompetence.

Thanks for the advice on going to the local councillor or MP - worth a try!

Hmm71

topaziem wrote: »

Let me tell you what I was told when I helped my parents claim pension Credit. After 8 weeks of waiting they had heard nothing, so I telephoned the Pension Service for them. When i pushed the fact that 8 weeks was far too long to wait, the lady on the other end of the telephone asked me if my parents were in receipt of any other money. I asked her why would she ask that as all of the information had been submitted along with the claim form.

The answer came back "well if they haven't got any money coming in from anywhere then I could ask the processing team to see if they could hurry things up a bit. If however they do have something coming in, then they will have to wait the estimated 20 week period"

"Forget it" I told her, "my parents are not going to wait another 12 weeks not knowing" - then I put the telephone down in anger.

6 days later my parents received a letter from the pension service telling them that they have now closed the claim as requested!!!!!

Good grief, that's even worse than my husband's claim. He just had to wait three months for them to get his initial claim sorted out. I lost count of the times we phoned and emailed them chasing it up. When it was finally sorted they decided we had £3,000 more in capital than we actually had so we sent bank statements to them and asked them for a change of circs, that took another month or so to be sorted. It all has, finally been done but he started the claim at the end of April and it has been finalised just this week.
Anyway, sorry OP, didn't mean to hijack your thread.
Councils can be appallingly slow on sorting claims for benefit but so quick off the mark when it comes to taking legal action.
I'd agree with going to your MP, it usually wakes the council up a bit when they get an MP complaint.

coffeelover65

Hi SGee, I work in Housing Benefit admin and surprised to read your case.

I'm assuming you're a council tenant rather than a Housing Association or Private tenant based on your post. In the councils I've worked the Housing Offices/ALMOS etc have direct access to the benefits system so can see if a claim is submitted and if any information is outstanding.

There's a lot of nonsense I've seen on various topics about the staff in HB administration throwing up hurdles to prevent paying money out and delaying payments but that's the complete opposite of what happens. The reality is the HB department have national and their own targets to reach in terms of how quickly claims are processed, and unfortunately many claimants fail to provide evidence when they make their claims which causes delays. The workload across all HB departments have increased by around 10% over 3 years due to unemployment and people having their hours cut but staffing levels don't increase to match due to the council tax freeze.

In your case, the delay in processing your claim seems unreasonable and I don't understand the data protection response. In most councils, writing to your MP will more than likely have the head of HB department running round like a headless chicken and I wouln't be surprised if your end up having the court costs paid to you as compensation.

Notmyrealname

twstmoka wrote: »

Why is it the original claimants responsibility to chase the payment when in all likelihood they were told that there was a backlog of many months and to sit tight.

Because they're the ones who have to pay the rent.

Notmyrealname

coffeelover65 wrote: »

Hi SGee, I work in Housing Benefit admin and surprised to read your case.

I'm assuming you're a council tenant rather than a Housing Association or Private tenant based on your post. In the councils I've worked the Housing Offices/ALMOS etc have direct access to the benefits system so can see if a claim is submitted and if any information is outstanding.

There's a lot of nonsense I've seen on various topics about the staff in HB administration throwing up hurdles to prevent paying money out and delaying payments but that's the complete opposite of what happens.

My brother was a HB manager and when he increased efficiency to get payments out quicker and advised customers about "Rule 92??" to get payments on advanced as per housing benefit regulations, the council sacked him.

Why haven't you mentioned the regulation which requires a council to pay out Housing Benefit "on account" within 14 days of a claim being made providing all information requested has been received??

coffeelover65

Notmyrealname wrote: »

My brother was a HB manager and when he increased efficiency to get payments out quicker and advised customers about "Rule 92??" to get payments on advanced as per housing benefit regulations, the council sacked him.

Why haven't you mentioned the regulation which requires a council to pay out Housing Benefit "on account" within 14 days of a claim being made providing all information requested has been received??

It will be regulation 93 you're referring to. Its a pretty pointless regulation in all honesty as a HB department would have to be pretty bad to be aware of a claim that has all the info required to pay it sitting around for anything like 14 days. At the councils I've worked in they've all had their own schemes for priority processing, only the council in question can answer whats caused the delay in this case.

CIS

The workload across all HB departments have increased by around 10% over 3 years due to unemployment and people having their hours cut but staffing levels don't increase to match due to the council tax freeze.

And in most cases staffing has been cut to save money.

Credit-Crunched

CIS wrote: »

And in most cases staffing has been cut to save money.

"The workload across all HB departments have increased by around 10% over 3 years due to unemployment and people having their hours cut but staffing levels don't increase to match due to the council tax freeze.
And in most cases staffing has been cut to save money."

I personally don't think that asking a person / dept to be 3% more efficient year on year is that much to ask?

My targets in the private sector have increased 150% in 3 years.

The already inefficient and bloated public sector can moan about cuts, however the processing and administration that is around in the public sector would have a private firm closed down in 6 months.

Before you ask, I am a project manager and I have had dealings with Private and Public sector alike.

CIS

I personally don't think that asking a person / dept to be 3% more efficient year on year is that much to ask?

Its not, but when in real terms case load has increased by over 6% in about 18 months, staffing has been cut by over 30 people in 3 years (about 20%) and its being cut again by a further 50% over the next few years it gets to the point where no business could run .

My targets in the private sector have increased 150% in 3 years.

Any business that can ask for that is either way too ambitious with expected productivity, was grossly inefficient or has expanded massively to achieve it.

Credit-Crunched

CIS wrote: »

Its not, but when in real terms case load has increased by over 6% in about 18 months, staffing has been cut by over 30 people in 3 years (about 20%) and its being cut again by a further 50% over the next few years it gets to the point where no business could run .



Any business that can ask for that is either way too ambitious with expected productivity, was grossly inefficient or has expanded massively to achieve it.

Or its a business that HAS to increase by that volume to carry on trading, without the cushion of the public coffers to prop up its under performance!