Bedroom tax appeal

Housing_Benefit_Officer

I have spent nearly every spare moment of the past few weeks trying to identify anyone who has lived in their property since 1996 and been continuously in receipt of housing benefit so I can give them full Housing Benefit - and from the 1st April 2014 I have to reinstate the deduction for overlarge property once good old Iain Duncan-Smith lays his SI before Parliament next month and closes the loophole.

cattermole

Housing_Benefit_Officer wrote: »

I have spent nearly every spare moment of the past few weeks trying to identify anyone who has lived in their property since 1996 and been continuously in receipt of housing benefit so I can give them full Housing Benefit - and from the 1st April 2014 I have to reinstate the deduction for overlarge property once good old Iain Duncan-Smith lays his SI before Parliament next month and closes the loophole.

Must be a nightmare!

Our legislation is getting more and more difficult to manage by the day isn't it? I did make this point to my MP, he was a bit baffled by it, how else would we do it he said?!

I'm in favour of giving LA's more discretionary powers especially in respect of disability matters. Which is why I don't agree about changing the reg re carers you mentioned! Plus I'm a little bit attached to that reg. They could easily check this on a decent computer system and link in with Social Services data.

I guess this means you don't know what's happening with the other stuff at the moment?!

Keep up the good work

Dizzyuk

That's the only problem on my part, the fact I have not been in constant receipt of benefits.

My issue is being told that my rooms are to small to rent to an adult and the council telling me to rent out 2 rooms as one?
Surely if I am being told to rent 2 rooms as one this is an admission that it is to small to rent.

I think I may just contact my MP, although Margaret Hodge doesn't have the best track record

nannytone_2

Housing_Benefit_Officer wrote: »

I have spent nearly every spare moment of the past few weeks trying to identify anyone who has lived in their property since 1996 and been continuously in receipt of housing benefit so I can give them full Housing Benefit - and from the 1st April 2014 I have to reinstate the deduction for overlarge property once good old Iain Duncan-Smith lays his SI before Parliament next month and closes the loophole.

stops you getting bored

cattermole

Dizzyuk wrote: »

That's the only problem on my part, the fact I have not been in constant receipt of benefits.

My issue is being told that my rooms are to small to rent to an adult and the council telling me to rent out 2 rooms as one?
Surely if I am being told to rent 2 rooms as one this is an admission that it is to small to rent.

I think I may just contact my MP, although Margaret Hodge doesn't have the best track record

I never hesitate to contact my MP email her. Make sure you put your name and address on thought as they can't respond to anyone who isn't a constituent.

The 1996 rule has nothing to do with size it is to do with continuous tenancy (not benefits) what HBO is saying they will pay it and back date it because of the loophole. But when IDS puts through the loophole closure in March it will stop again. So a lot of paperwork for Councils HB office hence your reply.

I can't see them doing anything about the size thing in your case. But I would ask Margaret Hodge to put in writing that if Labour get back in they will scrap the tax. Be interesting to see if she is prepared to do this, do report back on her reply either way

The Council can re size the property though if they want to but that is as your email says down to Estates not Housing Benefit, they just have to follow orders from above as per HBO's post.

rogerblack

Dizzyuk wrote: »

My issue is 2 of my bedrooms are under this 70 sq feet thing and only suitable for 1/2 a person yes?
<snip>
In any case I have been made aware of the fact that the under section 326 of the Housing Act 1985

The problem with this is you can't just if you find a reference to 'bedroom' in one bit of legislation, go searching for 'bedroom' in another - and take the definition across from one to the other.

http://nearlylegal.co.uk/blog/2014/01/upper-tribunal-on-bedrooms/ is the closest as yet this has got to a decision as to what 'bedroom' means.
And they've basically said that it is 'an ordinary English word'.

This means that it's up to each individual decision-maker or tribunal to decide if - on the balance of probabilities - a given room is, or is not a bedroom.

Using the housing act definition - as if it was actually part of the 'bedroom tax' regulations - is clearly wrong in law, because it's simply not.

Using it as an aid to decision-making as an example of why a room may not be a bedroom might not be.

Morglin

I note that Scotland have voted to pay the tax from another budget, so that tenants in Scotland effectively don't have to pay it themselves.

This was passed after support from the Lib Dems up there, the same LD party that voted for it in England and Wales. (Hypocrites....:mad:).

Northern Irelsnd haven't bought it in yet.

Meanwhile, various moves are afoot from legal bods, in England, to try and stop the loophole being closed.

As this is the United Kingdom, this chaos needs sorting out - as it is unfair for only half the kingdom to be paying this tax, and to be subsidising the other half with not paying it.

If Labour get in, they have promised to abolish this tax in 2015, because it is actually costing taxpayers more than paying the original amounts did, but who knows what will happen at the next general election?

Lin

Anny_2

hunters wrote: »

How come a Housing Benefit Officer has time to post on here when you should be working turning down all these peoples' appeals? What area/council do you actually work for?

I do not post often but read all the time. This HB Officer sounds like a 'power crazy' jobsworth to me. Hope he/she is one day in need of HB and comes up against someone just like his/herself!

Karma and all that!:)

Anny

Morglin

There is little point in blaming the actual workers, either at the DWP, or Housing Benefit offices.

They, like the claimants, have to follow the rules laid down, by Parliament, and they have no autonomy to do their own thing.

All anyone can expect from civil servants and local government employees, is that they do their job swiftly and efficiently (not always the case, I know).

Many of them do their best, and more than a few are worried about their own jobs.

Any complaints, about the system, need to be directed to Duncan Smith, because not only are some of these rule changes not saving money, they are actually costing more, and, as in the case of the 1996 rent fiasco loophole, it us also creating extra work for HB officers. :doh:

As for being on the net in working hours, well perhaps it's on break times or something.

Lin

Housing_Benefit_Officer

nannytone wrote: »

stops you getting bored

So far removed Bedroom Tax from about 30 claimants - 25 of them had got Discretionary Housing Payments that we won't be recovering - only problem come 1st April 2014 I have to reinstate the bedroom tax once Iain Duncan-Smith closes the loophole - he is laying a Statutory Instrument before Parliament in March. Lots of appeals but majority so far turned down as not lived in property since before 1996 and not been in receipt of benefit continuously.