Urgent Advice needed re HB-refused!

real1314

lindsaygalaxy wrote: »

My tax credits is only £80 because at present my daughter only goes to nursery 2 days a week costing £62 a week ontil this is all sorted.

It says the eligible rent is £90 p/week ( which i dont understand as u cannot erent a 2 bed in newbury for less than £700 minimum and the council wont house me, can i appeal against this?)

thank you for your help

their website calculator says i should get £75 week h/b, and the entitledto.website says £80 so i just dont understand!

I don't understand what you mean about the tax credit/nursery charges in respect of tax credit being reduced for this reason?

However, I made a mistake in the previous posting, as you are allowed a £25 disregard against your earnings, thus reducing your income to £326.95, not £351.95. Also, as you have childcare costs, these are allowed too, reducing your income to £264.95.

Take off the income allowance of £123, leaving £141.95

Then apply the 65% taper, leaves £92.27

Take this from your eligible rent of £132.69, leaves £59.97 payable as HB.

Feel free to print this off and ask them where I've gone wrong (it's possible, but I *think* it's right, based on the facts given, although I do make mistakes now and then). :rotfl:

lindsaygalaxy

Thankyou so much

I send you a big hug.

Im gonna go in on monday on my break, and demand them to recalculate ( this has been going on since i moved in in april).

Will let you know the outcome!

elaine373

I havent got anything else to add except i note you are from Newbury,which means you are most certainly claiming from west berks. When i had dealings with them, i found them to be very difficult to deal with and they assessed my housing benefit incorrectly. All the best with this, I am sure you have enough to deal with since your split.Ask them to reassess your claim.

Mrs_B_12

Have you checked your local council website about housing benefits? Ours has somewhere on it to help you check if you could be entitled to it.

simone83

Also, your child benefit will be disregarded as this is money for the child and not yourself and you will be allowed to disregard your child care costs.

they will work out your tax credits on the latest infomation they have and if you are paying back any sort of overpayment (which lots of people are!!) they will take the amount before the overpayment is deducted - this may make a difference.

If you have been able to pay your rent before this you should also have a 13 week protection period in which they should pay the full rent (regardless of what is the eligable rent). so if you havent claimed in the last 52 weeks ask them about this also.

You can also ask about a DHP. this is where after the 13 weeks you can ask the coucil to make up some of the difference from the shortfall in your rent based on your circumstances - this is at their disgresion though!

Good luck.

real1314

child benefit is NOT disregarded.

Tax credits should be based on the amount being paid, regardless of it being reduced due to any overpayment.

13 weeks rule might well apply.

Ross01

On your initial post you say that your tax creditshave not yet been amended to reflect your new circs. Unfortuntely its not the job of the Local Authority to calculate your tax credits. If the tax credit award letter states £170.00 then £170.00 will be used in the Housing Benefit calculations- whioch is why you dont qualify. Anyway this is fair as until the Inland Revenue revise your tax credit claim you are currently still receiving £170.00 a week in tax credits. You will need to wait until the Inland revenue recalucate your claim for tax credits, and then immediately make a new appliation for Housing Benefits based on your new lower income. What the LA have done is correct as they have used the tax credits which you are currently receiving. You should instead be chasing the Inland revenue to find out why it is taking them so long to amend and lower your tax credit.

Morglin

Try this:

http://www.entitledto.co.uk/entitlementcalculator.aspx

Lin

msmicawber

simone83 wrote: »

Also, your child benefit will be disregarded as this is money for the child and not yourself and you will be allowed to disregard your child care costs./QUOTE]

Sorry, but this isn't the case with Housing/Council Tax Benefits, where Child Benefit is counted as income. Small amounts of the total income are then 'disregarded', depending on whether the claimant is a single parent and how many dependant children there are etc.

To the OP: Have you looked at whether your employer has a scheme where childcare costs are taken out of your salary before tax, as that reduces how much to have to pay? Other than that, I think you have to look at how else you can reduce your monthly expenditure - perhaps post a Statement of Affairs on the DFW board for ideas/advice. I'm afraid that this is the reality of working and bringing up a child on your own, but the situation will improve as your daughter gets older and becomes entitled to state nursery provision, goes to school, etc. I sympathise with you as I've been in this position for years and am just beginning to come out the other side.

The 'average' cost of renting is a bone of contention with most who receive Housing Benefit because properties like your previous one are few and far between, usually bordering on uninhabitable, and drag the figures down. It also pre-supposes that the landlords will let properties to someone in receipt of benefit and that there is some sort of level playing field, which is not the case.