Housing benefit claim terminated

Darksparkle

Has she spoke to Royal Mail? Can understand 1 letter going missing, but 3 is ridiculous.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/post/post/problems-with-post/problems-with-lost-damaged-or-delayed-mail/your-mail-was-lost-or-hasn-t-turned-up/

tazwhoever

Once you report a change in circumstances, how long does it take to receive letter with the amended housing benefit?

nannytone_2

there is one more puzzling thing ...
she should have had her claim suspended before it was terminated.

was she still receiving HB until she received the termination letter?

sunshine1980

Darksparkle wrote: »

Has she spoke to Royal Mail? Can understand 1 letter going missing, but 3 is ridiculous.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/post/post/problems-with-post/problems-with-lost-damaged-or-delayed-mail/your-mail-was-lost-or-hasn-t-turned-up/

It is concerning she has not received these letters. I assume the first one would have been sent beginning of December so there was a lot of post over Christmas but she received all other letters fine. Thanks for the link.

sunshine1980

tazwhoever wrote: »

Once you report a change in circumstances, how long does it take to receive letter with the amended housing benefit?

I am at my sisters now. She has the personal email address of the HB officer who deals with her claim who she says is really good and it is usually sorted within 2 weeks. There has only been one time when she has not received her award notice.

sunshine1980

nannytone wrote: »

there is one more puzzling thing ...
she should have had her claim suspended before it was terminated.

was she still receiving HB until she received the termination letter?

Thank you nannytone, good point! She received her last payment on 8 January. She is expecting her next one this Friday. The termination letter is dated 12 January but was only received today.


The termination letter states her benefit started on 28 Jan 2013 and ends on 10 Jan 2016.

Darksparkle

sunshine1980 wrote: »

It is concerning she has not received these letters. I assume the first one would have been sent beginning of December so there was a lot of post over Christmas but she received all other letters fine. Thanks for the link.

A lot of post or not, it's unacceptable. She should be complaining about financial hardship she could potentially face due to their error.

micky2phones

Plus imo depends on the person, i have spoken to my local council three times in the last two years.
Two out of three were great knew what to do and sorted it out there and then.
The other one didnt wanted to sort it out but needed help too, after 10minutes they asked if they could ring me back.
Never did i phoned the next day someone esle sorted it there and then.
Imo never be afraid to ask for help the customer will thank you for it.


Hope you get your problem sorted

FBaby

That is quite worrying as my sister has genuinely not received anything from them until this termination letter today.

No offense but how can you be absolutely certain about this? You are clearly close to your sister, but people sometimes do stupid things and are then too ashamed to admit that they have and deny things as a result.

Surely you yourself as to question how three letters would have gone missing except for the crucial one. In any case, she is where she is now, so she will have to make her case to her officer and hope that he either somehow believes her (after all, if it happened to her, it is likely that it has also happened to others too) or not believe her but somehow prepared to be flexible on this occasion.

sunshine1980

micky2phones wrote: »

Plus imo depends on the person, i have spoken to my local council three times in the last two years.
Two out of three were great knew what to do and sorted it out there and then.
The other one didnt wanted to sort it out but needed help too, after 10minutes they asked if they could ring me back.
Never did i phoned the next day someone esle sorted it there and then.
Imo never be afraid to ask for help the customer will thank you for it.


Hope you get your problem sorted

Thank you. Hopefully she will get it sorted tomorrow. It would be less hassle for the Council to get the information and reinstate her claim rather than them having to process a new one. Hopefully she will speak to someone who is helpful and knows the process.