housing benefit and rent free weeks

bindybell

I have recently come off housing benefit, and found I have a large arrears, I have asked both my housing association and my council to explain how they work the rent out, this has caused me a large amout of confusion.
I uses to get 68 a week in housing benefit
I got 4 weeks a year rent free
After ringing the council I discovered they work out they use the formula below to work out the amout paid monthly

68×48÷12
This seemed right so there payments should have been 270 a month
After looking at my rent statement I find they only pay 207 on a month were there is a rent free week
So that means they are deducting 8 weeks rwnt and not 4
68×48= 3264 per year which I was entitled
But they only paid [8×270]+[4 ×207]= 2988 a short fall of 276 my arrears oddly enough
I keep ringing and asking y this is done and explained my calculations they juat say ita the rent free weeks and there payments was correct
Dose anyone have any ideas on what I can do to solve this

BigAunty

I hope I won't confuse matters.

Sometimes HB claimants get confused by monthly rent versus fortnightly or 4 weekly HB - your rent might be £68 per week but there are 13 weeks in a quarter whereas a lot of people assume that there is 4 weeks in each month and therefore 12 in a quarter. Each quarter a week can be lost if the person confuses 4 weekly with monthly.

I might be on the wrong track but I just want to flag up the potential confusion between weekly HB/rent due and the way that there isn't 4 weeks (28 days) in each month - rounding up the duration can cause figures to go out of synch. We see this confusion on the forum from time to time because HB periods don't synchronise with monthly rental periods.

From your post, you seem to indicate that it is the council/HA that have gone out of synch and haven't covered the entire duration. I must admit I'm flummoxed and can't seem to calculate the maths as well as I should be able to, feeling a bit fatigued today.

Are you definately looking at an annual period and did you truly get 270 or 207 each calendar month on the same day every month or were these 4 weekly periods?

pmlindyloo

bindybell wrote: »

I have recently come off housing benefit, and found I have a large arrears, I have asked both my housing association and my council to explain how they work the rent out, this has caused me a large amout of confusion.
I uses to get 68 a week in housing benefit
I got 4 weeks a year rent free
After ringing the council I discovered they work out they use the formula below to work out the amout paid monthly

68×48÷12
This seemed right so there payments should have been 270 a month
After looking at my rent statement I find they only pay 207 on a month were there is a rent free week
So that means they are deducting 8 weeks rwnt and not 4
68×48= 3264 per year which I was entitled
But they only paid [8×270]+[4 ×207]= 2988 a short fall of 276 my arrears oddly enough
I keep ringing and asking y this is done and explained my calculations they juat say ita the rent free weeks and there payments was correct
Dose anyone have any ideas on what I can do to solve this

It is unusual for the HB to be paid monthly.

Should you be working this out on a 4 weekly basis? (or 2 x fortnightly)

Do you receive the HB or is it given directly to the landlord?

fed_up_and_stressed

The issue relates to the fact there are 13 payments made in an annual period not 12 as housing benefit is paid 4 weekly not calendar monthly.

The wY I think of it is

52 weeks (4 of these at nil) % 4 weekly payment runs =13 times payments are made each calandar year.

You won't have been "charged twice". How it works for housing benefit it is workly out as a weekly entitlement but paid 4 weekly -calendar months don't come into it

For example in a 4 week benefit period where there a 2 rent free weeks entitlement is worked out as

Week 1 - rent 68 entitlement to housing benefit 68
Week 2 - rent nil so entitlement nil
Week 3 - rent nil so entitlment nil
Week 4- rent 68 entitlement to housing benefit 68

So for the 4 weeks actually paid should be - £136 in this example



If one rent free week in a 4 weekly payment cycle

Week 1 - rent 68 entitlement to housing benefit 68
Week 2 -rent nil entitlement to housing benefit nil
Week 3 - rent 68 entitlement to housing benefit 68
Week 4- rent 68 entitlement to housing benefit 68

So for the 4 weeks paid 204

From your figures of 207 being paid when you have arent free week strongly suggests you are being paid 4 weekly not calandar monthly so you will have 13 payments in a calandar year not 12