Housing Benefit

mchaggismuncher

I have a question as I am trying to help my friend out.

She is a single parent at the time and was not working, I assume she would have been entitled to full housing benefit at the time, she had no savings etc so can't see why not.

During this time she took ill and had to have her mother move in to help look after her and her daughter. The mother was also claiming disability benefits at the time.

Once she got her feet back on the ground the mother moved out but she wasn't taken off the Housing Benefit claim for some time which was her own fault, but to be fair she had just had a brain operation and her memory has not been the same again.

Anyway it turns out a few years ago she was given an IUC because she had not told the council about her mother moving out of the property, she agreed under duress to sign the letter but again, is not clear as to what she really signed. It states on the form that this was because she did not disclose a non dependant moving out. As far as she can remember, no further action was taken, although the form does claim a loss of 2k from the council for the period her mother was still on the form.

She now has now been working for a few years and gradually getting rid of old debts, she owed Council tax as well which she has finally paid off, although I could never understand why she was paying 700+ in council tax some years, and maybe 250 in others, while on full benefits.

Just when she thought she was debt free after a long struggle, the council sent her an invoice just stating that she owed 1250 in over paid HB.

I can only assume that this is due to the IUC that she had and the council are trying to claim this back after 6 years!.. I don't understand why the value is less than was originally claimed, and I don't have details as to what the over payment is actually for.

Sorry to go on, just trying to paint a picture.

The question I have is this, would her mother moving out have made a difference to her housing benefit claim back in 2007-2009. As I understand it, she would have been entitled to full HB as she was unemployed at the time and had a 14 years old daughter. Can anyone confirm if I am correct?

I aim to help her as much as I can but I do not claim benefits and do not really understand how they work.

If I am correct, should this mean that the IUC should now be revoked, even though she has signed it, due to being put under pressure, not fully understanding the situation she was put in and general confusion from memory loss due to her brain operation.

Many thanks for any help.

Edward

pmlindyloo

mchaggismuncher wrote: »

I have a question as I am trying to help my friend out.

She is a single parent at the time and was not working, I assume she would have been entitled to full housing benefit at the time, she had no savings etc so can't see why not.

During this time she took ill and had to have her mother move in to help look after her and her daughter. The mother was also claiming disability benefits at the time.

Once she got her feet back on the ground the mother moved out but she wasn't taken off the Housing Benefit claim for some time which was her own fault, but to be fair she had just had a brain operation and her memory has not been the same again.

Anyway it turns out a few years ago she was given an IUC because she had not told the council about her mother moving out of the property, she agreed under duress to sign the letter but again, is not clear as to what she really signed. It states on the form that this was because she did not disclose a non dependant moving out. As far as she can remember, no further action was taken, although the form does claim a loss of 2k from the council for the period her mother was still on the form.

She now has now been working for a few years and gradually getting rid of old debts, she owed Council tax as well which she has finally paid off, although I could never understand why she was paying 700+ in council tax some years, and maybe 250 in others, while on full benefits.

Just when she thought she was debt free after a long struggle, the council sent her an invoice just stating that she owed 1250 in over paid HB.

I can only assume that this is due to the IUC that she had and the council are trying to claim this back after 6 years!.. I don't understand why the value is less than was originally claimed, and I don't have details as to what the over payment is actually for.

Sorry to go on, just trying to paint a picture.

The question I have is this, would her mother moving out have made a difference to her housing benefit claim back in 2007-2009. As I understand it, she would have been entitled to full HB as she was unemployed at the time and had a 14 years old daughter. Can anyone confirm if I am correct?

I aim to help her as much as I can but I do not claim benefits and do not really understand how they work.

If I am correct, should this mean that the IUC should now be revoked, even though she has signed it, due to being put under pressure, not fully understanding the situation she was put in and general confusion from memory loss due to her brain operation.

Many thanks for any help.

Edward

What a mess.

I am not sure that you have the full story.

if she advised the council that her mum had moved in with her then she may have had a non dependent deduction from her HB if she didn't advise the council that her mother had moved out then this non dependent deduction would still have been taken.

if this is the case then I cannot see how she would have an overpayment in these circumstances. it is she who would have lost out financially!

Of course she may have informed the council that her mum moved in and this would have upped her HB and then this continued and she was being overpaid HB when her mother moved out.

So, you need to find out if her HB increased when her mum moved in or whether it decreased because they only applied a non dependent deduction.

Is she in social housing (how many bedrooms?) Or in privately rented housing (how many bedrooms?)

OK, so what to do now.

Gather together all the paperwork/all her benefit award letters for this period and go to CAB and ask them to help her with this.

It would be a good idea to make a time line of when her mum moved in and when her mum moved out as CAB then can check whether the overpayment is correct.

The they can help negotiate a repayment plan for the overpayment or appeal the overpayment, including the signed statement as she was mentally unwell at the time.

mchaggismuncher

Hi pmlindyloo.

I do not have the full story, I have asked my friend as much detail as she can remember, but sadly because of her brain operation, she has no real long term memory and is not able to give me all the facts. This is actually part of the problem in my view. I think she should have been given more help because of this, although my friend does try and cover it up understandably.

Yes indeed it is a bit of a mess. To be honest, if she is due to pay the money back she is prepared to make a repayment plan offer as she is now working, but she is unable to pay the amount in full in 14 days as they have demanded.

I have seen some old paperwork from 2009 towards the end of her benefit claim and her mother is indeed listed as a non dependent deduction. I didn't really understand this, it would seem logical to me that she gets full HB and her mother living there would have no effect. As she has only kept a couple of the last letters, there is no indication if her HB increased due to her mother being there, but certainly is about her being a deduction.

Why would her mother be a non dependent deduction? Surely the HB is to pay the rent which would be required if she lived there or not.

She was living in a 2 bed flat at the time.

marliepanda

Non dependent deductions don't work like that. If there is an adult in the house who could feasibly pay their own way then why would they continue to subsidise them?

However, her mothers disability benefits could make this not applicable. Was this situation declared fully to both the mother and he daughters benefits?!

mchaggismuncher

I think so, it does mention DLA on the HB next to where her mother is listed is a non dependent deduction.

pmlindyloo

This is too complicated to offer exact advice here as we really do not know all the details.

I can only reiterate the need to go to CAB and let them sort this out. They will be able to telephone the council on your friend's behalf and find exactly what has happened. Perhaps you could go with her?

Just so that you have a little understanding of how non dependent deductions work have a read of this:

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/housing_benefit_and_local_housing_allowance/applying_for_housing_benefit/housing_benefit_when_other_adults_live_in_your_home

mchaggismuncher

We intend to do that pmlindyloo but unfortunately for us our local CAB is 90 miles away so we have to wait until we can both get some time off work to make this trip which wont be until next week.

I was just looking for some ideas in the meantime.

Thanks for your help.

dippy3103

Sounds to me as if your friend signed a formal caution. Was this at a separate appointment to the IUC?
As a formal caution remains on record for 5 years (as in it can be cited in court), if it was longer ago than this it's not worth worrying about.

mchaggismuncher

No believe it was all done at the same time, I don't think she was told that it was an IUC but she ended up with a formal caution. This was December 2009.

pmlindyloo

Have you checked to see if there are any CA outreach services near you?

Use this link:

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/how-we-provide-advice/advice/

dippy3103

She will have had to have an IUC to be cautioned. Did she have a taped interview?