Court date for repossession and housing Benefit confusion

Giraffeseeker

Hello, I am posting here in the hope of finding some help for a panicking friend and will try to be concise with the information I have - it is a little confusing though.

Friend is a young single Mum who was on benefits until DD started school. Friend found an apprenticeship in childcare to start when DD went into reception. Apprenticeship was L2 but due to friends age and already having GCSE and AS levels she was moved onto L3. This took 18 months to complete. In this time she received HB, WTC, CTC and her apprenticeship wage, and received this in the school holidays too despite only working term time.

At some point she seems to have built up a little bit of rent arrears on her council house - not sure why but she was paying this off (she is supposed to contribute £12pw towards rent and has been paying £20pw - so £8 towards arrears).

In March her apprenticeship officially ended. Has been offered place on a L5 apprenticeship - great news - and her employer extended her contract, so she continued working as before (no pay increase I don't think).

Sometime in April HB wanted sight of her wage slips. Her employer hadn't been providing them. Several weeks went by as my friend chased for these. During this time no HB was being paid. At some point she received a some kind of notice to quit or notice before court action or something, and this meant her boss finally sorted out the payslips. The council explained it was a kind of warning notice.

She was then told she had to now pay £74pw as she was no longer entitled to as much HB as she was earning too much (despite earnings remaining the same), and a sum of £270ish was paid by HB but by this point, with no HB for 9 weeks her arrears had become huge.

She was confused, but at the same time school term ended and her end of July wages were only 50% of what they should be. When she queried with her boss she was told her contract had only been extended to July 14th and would restart at the beginning of September = no summer holiday pay.

She went to CAB who told her to go on jobseekers, which she did on July 28th, saying her last day of work was 14th July. She was told there would be a 4 week run-on of her WTC, which she has had. She expected jobseekers this week but she won't get it until a week on Friday apparently.

Meanwhile, she informed the housing office that she wouldn't be able to pay the £74pw (but assumed full HB would kick in over the summer) but she continued to pay the £20 she had previously been paying, as she knew there was arrears. She is still not sure if she's received the correct HB payments or not, her statement from the Council is very confusing and unclear.

Yesterday in the post she received a "Claim for possession of property" and she is expected in court next month. She has 2 weeks to file her defence. The court documents claim she is in receipt of £63pw HB. They also claim they have tried to recover the arrears by "arrears letters, home visit and telephone calls". She has had arrears letters but no home visit or calls (or missed calls) - hence this was a big shock for her to receive.

Arrears are claimed to be £1200 up to one week ago.

Where do we start trying to sort this out?

She is not stupid and she doesn't hide from things - she would always deal with something like this if she knew it was imminent - by visiting the council or ringing them. She is as smart as she can be with the little money she gets and knows which bills to prioritise. She has been trying to work and establish a vocation/career to get herself off benefits, but is in a panic as previous communication from the Council stated if they evicted her they would not rehouse her. She doesn't want to lose her house and therefore her job and her L5 apprenticeship opportunity. I have no experience of this and need to try and help with this as there is no one else who really can.

Is there anyway to stop this or will she have to go and plead her case in court?

Thanks to anyone who can help and sorry for the long post.

Housing_Benefit_Officer

1) your friend needs a full statement from Housing Benefit as a matter of urgency showing what income and household circumstances have been used to calculate her benefit entitlement so she can understand her awards and if they have made any errors in the calculations.
2) She needs to speak to her landlord before the court date and try and arrange a satisfactory payment arrangement.
3) She needs to speak to CAB so they can intervene to prevent any possible eviction.

Giraffeseeker

Thank you very much. Is it possible the CAB can intervene with this and get the case stopped? We can go there tomorrow.