Council demanding overpayment for employment without payment

konark

If you were only working 16hrs a week I'd have thought you'd be entitled to some HB, depending on what you were paid , which you haven't stated.

The problem is for those weeks you were off JSA but not working; you needed to let the council know and declare zero income, at the time, otherwise they won't backdate any claim.

[Deleted User]

As already stated, i.e. run on.., you should be claiming HB for the first four weeks you are working. Otherwise I'm afraid you will lost HB both ends of the employment.

It might be worth going to HB personally and querying how they allocate salary and make HB calculations so you can understand, figure out where the problem is and maximise what you are able to get. You will have same problem with council tax.

GR2014

A run on would be appropriate if you had been on Income Based Jobseekers Allowance for 26 weeks and the employment was the cause of the cessation of JSA. The work would also have to be expected to last longer than five weeks.

The issue of working over 16 hours a week is a red herring. You can work over 16 hours per week and still qualify for Housing Benefit.

Relatively new case law has established that wages must be taken into account over the period that they were earned. If you were paid after two months for a period covering the previous two months, then that is the period that the wages must be used for HB assessment.

cts_casemod

I am now confused. You talk of Council A and Council B and moving.

Please elaborate on which Council or Councils you claimed Housing Benefit from and the dates and the dates you lived in each council area.

Also how much were you paid?

JSA is irrelevant here. They simply told the council I was working, I wasn't claiming benefits due to my partners work.

My contract of employment runs from the 6th of July to the 14th August.
My payslips cover the period from 1st August to 30th September

In effect council A, which I lived up to the 17th August, started to charge me HB over-payment from the 6th July, based on my contract

Council B, which I started living from the 25th of August charged me over-payment up to the 30th September, based on my payslips.

QUESTION: Which one is on its right and from which one should I request a refund?

pmlindyloo

If council A used the whole of your payments for the period you were living in that council then council B cannot use those payments again.

What you need to get from council A (or you may already have it) is a letter with a breakdown of how they assessed your income. This should show council B that they have taken those earnings into account already.

With this information and your pay slips and your bank statements council B then can see that all of your earned income has already been taken into account.

However, is could be that they could argue that the amount you earned during the 10 weeks should have been split into 10 separate weekly payments any of which would disallow you HB from either.

So get all the information from council A (ie. the award letter) and take it to CAB with your tenancy agreement. bank statements and ask them to sort this out for you!

By the way, if your partner is working doesn't that make you ineligible for HB anyway?

cts_casemod

This is my contract, which will hopefully shed some light into this matter

pmlindyloo wrote: »

However, is could be that they could argue that the amount you earned during the 10 weeks should have been split into 10 separate weekly payments any of which would disallow you HB from either.

I would think that too. It is on my belief I was working like a contractor with payment received after project completion. I wasn't guaranteed payment as a normal contract does (hourly rate * number of hours), in fact the contract doesn't even specify a number of hours.
How much I would earn would only be dictated after project completion, which questions why on earth was council A charging me in the first place.

pmlindyloo wrote: »

... any of which would disallow you HB from either.

Correct, what is in stake are the dates this would occur.

pmlindyloo wrote: »

By the way, if your partner is working doesn't that make you ineligible for HB anyway?

No, it only makes us ineligible during the period we were both working, otherwise we can claim some (not all).

marliepanda

Show the second council.

That clearly shows you were paid £200 a week, regardless of when you were actually paid.

If it has been taken into account twice you need to go to the second council and explain your mistake. You weren't paid (for example)!£1000 in August, you were paid £200 per week for those weeks.

The mistake had clearly come from you telling Council B one thing (the version you are saying here about not being paid for those weeks) and council B accepting that.

However council A do not accept that and they said you were paid £200 a week, which affects their payments.

Council A are correct so you need to correct your income statement with council B to recoup any under payments you feel you haven't received.

cte1111

OK so you were earning £200 a week for the 10 weeks from 6th July to 13th September. It is irrelevant when the money actually hits your bank account, it is when it is earned that counts.

So from 6th July, your housing benefit should have taken into account your wages of £200 a week. From 14th September, your situation changed again. Not sure if you were signing on, but it looks like Council B should only consider you to have been working and earning £200 a week up until 13th September. However it does sound probably that you gave them the wrong information, based on your own misunderstanding of the dates.

Other posters have mentioned Housing Benefit run on, which is definitely worth an investigation.

cts_casemod

I haven't told anything to council B, they got the PAYE info from HMRC and send me a revised note cutting the benefit for that period to take account of my supposed undeclared earnings

With that being the case Ill get in touch with them again and explain the payment was for previous earnings which were already deducted.

Thank you all for helping clarify this and apologies if the post was somewhat confusing.

Housing_Benefit_Officer

cts_casemod wrote: »

I haven't told anything to council B, they got the PAYE info from HMRC and send me a revised note cutting the benefit for that period to take account of my supposed undeclared earnings

With that being the case Ill get in touch with them again and explain the payment was for previous earnings which were already deducted.

Thank you all for helping clarify this and apologies if the post was somewhat confusing.

Then that's your own fault for claiming benefits and failing to properly declare your circumstances isn't it.

Irrespective of when you were paid and the dates on your wage slip your contract shows a payment of £200 per week for 10 weeks.

Council A should have your income as £200 per week from the following Monday after your contract started.

Council B should have your income as £200 per week from the date you moved into their area to the following Sunday after you ceased work.

Both Council A and B should be holding earned income irrespective of the period you were paid. Housing Benefit legislation states earned income is for the period it was earned not the period you were paid.