Housing Benefit Stopped - urgent help please.

gemmylou86

Hi all, I hope I'm posting in the correct area.

Basically I recieve Housing Benefit that covers around 75% of my rent. At the end of last week I got a letter from council saying it was being stopped as of 11/11/13 due to not providing them with info they have asked for. Now I am very good at keeping all correspondance and checked my file and they sent NO letter asking for info, nor warning that my HB would be stopped. Went in this morning and they said they needed to see
Proof I was paying my rent to my landlord (I am, of course, so I showed receipts which they copied)
Now the situation stands that my HB
Was supposed to go in today and didn't, and my rent is due out tomorrow. I'm expecting a HB backdated payment as I've done nothing wrong but until then how do I pay my rent?
I'm already in arrears because the council refused to backdate my HB when I moved in (I had to start a new claim and accidentally wrote tenancy started on 26/8 when it actually started on 26/7 - I've shown then my tenancy agreement several times but they still seem to think I'm trying to con them!!)

Anyway I'm very sorry about the ramble, just need to know if there is any kind if temporary financial help out there for someone in my position? Like a crisis loan or something?

Many thanks
Gem

NYM

gemmylou86 wrote: »

Hi all, I hope I'm posting in the correct area.

Basically I recieve Housing Benefit that covers around 75% of my rent. At the end of last week I got a letter from council saying it was being stopped as of 11/11/13 due to not providing them with info they have asked for. Now I am very good at keeping all correspondance and checked my file and they sent NO letter asking for info, nor warning that my HB would be stopped. Went in this morning and they said they needed to see
Proof I was paying my rent to my landlord (I am, of course, so I showed receipts which they copied)
Now the situation stands that my HB
Was supposed to go in today and didn't, and my rent is due out tomorrow. I'm expecting a HB backdated payment as I've done nothing wrong but until then how do I pay my rent?
I'm already in arrears because the council refused to backdate my HB when I moved in (I had to start a new claim and accidentally wrote tenancy started on 26/8 when it actually started on 26/7 - I've shown then my tenancy agreement several times but they still seem to think I'm trying to con them!!)

Anyway I'm very sorry about the ramble, just need to know if there is any kind if temporary financial help out there for someone in my position? Like a crisis loan or something?

Many thanks
Gem

What was the date on that letter ? The 11th was two weeks ago.

gemmylou86

NYM wrote: »

What was the date on that letter ? The 11th was two weeks ago.

Hi,
Letter dated 13th November but it was in my postbox when I checked on Friday (22nd I believe). Letter was crumpled with footprint on it so lord knows where it's been since. As it's from council there's non postmark so can't see when it was sent unfortunately.

NYM

gemmylou86 wrote: »

Hi,
Letter dated 13th November but it was in my postbox when I checked on Friday (22nd I believe). Letter was crumpled with footprint on it so lord knows where it's been since. As it's from council there's non postmark so can't see when it was sent unfortunately.

So it is entirely possible they did indeed write to you previously asking for further information and giving you warning your HB would be stopped unless you supplied it.

Unfortunately, I can't see that they were at fault in this...and I've nothing to say that might help. Sorry

DazzyD75

As a Benefits Assessor, maybe I can be of help here

If the date of the letter saying that your Benefit was being cancelled was 11th November then you have a calendar month from this date to request a reconsideration (RECON) of the cancellation decision. Which it seems you have already done this as they've copied the proof that was needed to assess your claim. When your claim is processed, it will be backdated to the date it was cancelled from.

Now, as it's a RECON, timescales/processing targets are not as tight as for new claims so may take a little bit longer to be addressed by an assessor especially if your Council have a backlog of cases (and with the cutting of budgets in Local Authorities over the last few years it's likely that this will be the case). Just explain to your Landlord that your rent will be a few days late as there was an issue with your Housing Benefit. You can also give the Housing Benefit department your authority to speak to the Landlord directly and they will confirm that the required info has been received. Most Landlords are understandable when Housing Benefit is concerned as they know they will get paid.

Once your claim has been processed, any underpayments/arrears will go out on the Benefits department's next pay run (we do them twice weekly) so you won't have to wait until your next payment cycle (which could be as long as 4 weeks away).

A little trick to speed up processing of these claims is to have your landlord contact the Benefits department and tell them he is going to be issuing a Section 21 due to arrears. This tends to push your case further up the queue to be looked at.

Elvisia

On another note I recently got an empty envelope (looked like a cow had trampled on it) from the DWP! They hadn't sealed it and the letter + contents is now goodness knows where. So the letters do get lost.

tumboodle

DazzyD75 wrote: »

As a Benefits Assessor, maybe I can be of help here

If the date of the letter saying that your Benefit was being cancelled was 11th November then you have a calendar month from this date to request a reconsideration (RECON) of the cancellation decision. Which it seems you have already done this as they've copied the proof that was needed to assess your claim. When your claim is processed, it will be backdated to the date it was cancelled from.

I'm a little confused here and I presume that the law surrounding HB is totally different to benefits that the DWP deal with.

But I had a similar situation a few years back when the DWP closed down a claim because I hadn't sent them some info about income within the 1 month period after they warned me that they intended to close the claim.

Subsequently I appealed and sent the outstanding info in. The DWP wouldn't re-open the case as I had not complied. Sending it in after the event meant nothing - closed is closed.

After all of this back and forth, we lost months of income before I found out that I could have put in a new claim instead of waiting to hear about the re-opening of the old one.

For me it seems that sending the info after the event won't change the event back to what it was before.

Housing_Benefit_Officer

We can reopen a claim within a month without having to fill in another claim form.

MissMoneypenny

DazzyD75 wrote: »

A little trick to speed up processing of these claims is to have your landlord contact the Benefits department and tell them he is going to be issuing a Section 21 due to arrears. This tends to push your case further up the queue to be looked at.

A Section21 won't work if the tenant is still in a fixed contract and has several months to run. As the OP has said she has "shown then my tenancy agreement several times" the council will know her fixed term dates.

Or are you saying that the council workers in the Housing Benefits sections don't know the housing laws and will just think they have to make a claim a priorty when they hear the words "Section 21"?

uganda

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

A Section21 won't work if the tenant is still in a fixed contract and has several months to run. As the OP has said she has "shown then my tenancy agreement several times" the council will know her fixed term dates.

Or are you saying that the council workers in the Housing Benefits sections don't know the housing laws and will just think they have to make a claim a priorty when they hear the words "Section 21"?

A housing benefits assessor might be an expert on housing law, but he doesn't have to be.

A Section 21 is a ground for prioritising a benefits claim in many authorities. Obviously if it is still the fixed period then the 21 won't apply, so yes the poster could have clarified it by saying that the landlord should say he is going to take action to evict, but it's hardly a hanging offence that he didn't, and in any case, the mere mention of a section 21 probably would be enough even if it doesn't legally apply.

gemmylou86

Hi and thanks for the replies.

Yes they did tell me my benefits would be stopped - however I did not have a calendar month to get in touch. Letter was dated Wed 13th Nov (2 days after my last payment) so assuming 2nd class post I should have got it around Monday 18th. However I got it a few days later on 22nd. I've phoned them today and the woman admitted there was a delay in their post going out the last few weeks.

In any case. AS SOON as I knew of a problem I went in person to try and rectify it. HB is not a joke to me and if I genuinely knew if a problem I can't understand why I would just not bother to get in touch, knowing they'd stop my money.
I'm sorry if I sound defensive but the attitude of the first woman at my council offices is that I was pretending I didn't get the letter... Although I don't actually know why I would do that?!

Anyway, I've asked them to contact my landlord to explain to him and they've agreed.
Again, thank you for the advice