Housing Benefit and P60

Carian

Hi all
Just had the HB letter asking for last couple of months payslips to check our claim but have also asked for 12/13 P60's. I thought they were only interested in current earnings as opposed to checking previous earnings like Tax Credits ask for. Anyone else been asked for theirs?

Caz3121

how long have you been claiming? if your claim has been open for a while they may want to check you were not previously overpaid

Carian

Been claiming since Nov 2011, gave them payslips then. They requested last 3 payslips again Nov 2012 which I gave them. Just don't understand the need for P60's.

nannytone_2

seeing as you are working, it looks like theyre just checking on your past entitlement.

Housing_Benefit_Officer

When reviewing Housing Benefit claims I always asked for P60s if there appeared to be a difference between the wages declared on review and the wages previously declared. If there was a difference I would recalculate the claim back to the previous April and sometimes ask for a P60 for another year to try and establish when the wages changed. We can ask for whatever we want to help detect and prevent fraud.

Carian

Yes I can understand that but the wage rise of £5 week I had last year was picked up Nov 2012 and altered my entitlement. I've also had a payrise this April of £5 week which I wrote to them about in May and had a revised entitlement letter through in June so I can't understand the need 3 weeks later for P60's etc.

nannytone_2

theyre making sure that there wasnt any additional income that you didnt inform them about.

Caz3121

some people may get a one off bonus through the year that would not be captured depending on when they ask for payslips but this would appear in the P60 amount

Carian

Ah I see. I've just looked at the P60 and if you divide the net figure by 52 there is a £15 difference from what the HB have down as my weekly pay. But the way we used to be paid ie every four weeks means that the total covers a 53 week period, we changed to monthly pay in Jan this year, so that means a £10 difference, What happens from here then? Do I need to point out to them that this is 53 and not 52 weeks? Is there going to be a big overpayment or even more trouble? Worried look!!

Housing_Benefit_Officer

Carian wrote: »

Ah I see. I've just looked at the P60 and if you divide the net figure by 52 there is a £15 difference from what the HB have down as my weekly pay. But the way we used to be paid ie every four weeks means that the total covers a 53 week period, we changed to monthly pay in Jan this year, so that means a £10 difference, What happens from here then? Do I need to point out to them that this is 53 and not 52 weeks? Is there going to be a big overpayment or even more trouble? Worried look!!

Do the Council realise you have changed from 4 weekly to Monthly paid? They could be looking at your new monthly wage slips and think they are actually 4 weekly?

Carian

Yes they know, because they are actually asking for monthly payslips where they used to ask for 4 weekly payslips.