Bedroom Tax, late to the party and didn't bring a bottle!

terryw

OP

It is highly unlikely that the council would have deliberately not informed you about the changes and your new payment. After all, thousands and thousands of such letters will have been sent out.

It is far more likely that the notification has been lost in the post.

You are right to complain about not receiving the notification, but I feel sure that they will be inundated with such complaints and have a procedure in place to accept payment of the arrears by instalments.

gazter

Sir_Pac wrote: »

Thanks for asking paddedjohn,


So whilst I’m still reeling from the shock that my rent is about to quadruple,

No, your rent isnt about to quadruple, its the same amount is has always been, you are just been asked to make a slightly larger contribution to paying it.

fluffymovie

I am very surprised, like other posters that you have not received anything although each council did deal with this differently.

In my LA, we have 962 people affected both Council Tenants and housing associations.

I wrote to all of them in January 2013 and drafted a leaflet which was issued with the letters. Each then got their annual HB notification letter which showed their new award of Housing benefit and Council Tax Reduction.

Did you get your end of year HB notice OP?

DomRavioli

Did you not receive a notice of HB award in April? As this would have been the letter which stated how much HB you get, and then you take your rent amount and take it away from your HB. They are sent to all HB recipients.

nannytone_2

bloolagoon wrote: »

I'm not convinced on that one. For example very few child benefit claimants I know have been informed by letter they will lose their child benefit. They still need to repay the child benefit from jan to April despite no letters, no notifications etc. they were informed the onus was on them, and to do a self assessment, despite admissions that no letter was ever sent.

although my council hasnt told claimants that they should use their DLA to pay for the reduction in housing benefit, they have made it clear that any application for DHP will use the fact that the claimant receives DLA, and so has an additional source of income, when making a decision

Sir_Pac

terryw wrote: »

OP

It is highly unlikely that the council would have deliberately not informed you about the changes and your new payment. After all, thousands and thousands of such letters will have been sent out.

It is far more likely that the notification has been lost in the post.

You are right to complain about not receiving the notification, but I feel sure that they will be inundated with such complaints and have a procedure in place to accept payment of the arrears by instalments.

Thanks Terry, I will make a compaint about lack of notice regarding the changes. If only so it's on record that I'm claiming such.

I have a Monday appointment with Solihull Housing and will put this matter to rest until then so as to not muddy to waters.

I fully expect to have to pay the diffenence caused by the benefit changes, however, my argument is that I paid the correct weekly contribution as per their last communication.

I am going to scour my flat for any/all communications from both the benfits office and solihul housing, just to cover myself. If (and its a big if) I find anything that pertains to the increase then I would take full responsibility for the arrears and make arrangements to pay it back.

:beer: Cheers everyone for your comments!

Now to finish tiling the kitechen

fluffymovie

So to confirm, are you saying that you did not receive your annual HB letters?

Have you been on HB for more than a year? If so, you could have known that a letter would be sent out to you for your new award so did you not chase?

Not intended to sound like I am having a go, just trying to understand the situation.

Sir_Pac

fluffymovie wrote: »

So to confirm, are you saying that you did not receive your annual HB letters?

Have you been on HB for more than a year? If so, you could have known that a letter would be sent out to you for your new award so did you not chase?

Not intended to sound like I am having a go, just trying to understand the situation.

Hello fluffymovie, you're not coming across like you're having a go at all.

I have a system for handling all mail (both real and virtual) and it is unlikely I recieved a letter and not act on it.

Everything is on hold now until my meeting with Solihull Housing monday. I'm not back in 'working on the flat' mode, one kitchen wall to tile, tick

red_devil

its not easy to downsize there are not enough properties. Its just a tax on the poor.

People should not pay and maybe they may scrap it.

itch_for_a_glitch

red_devil wrote: »

its not easy to downsize there are not enough properties. Its just a tax on the poor.

People should not pay and maybe they may scrap it.

You advise already poor people to dig themselves into(further ?) debt ?
And risk eviction and homelessness, brilliant.