Housing benefit and isa

lavvy

Last year I started to get my occupational pension, I had a lump sum of under £16k which I declared to the council as I was receiving Housing and Council Tax benefit.
My HB & CT was stopped as they said my income from the savings exceeded the amount allowed.
I received a letter from my local council this year inviting me to claim again which I have. My savings have now diminished as I have been paying my rent out of my savings, I now have a lot less than £6k left.
I have been told by the council that I have basically depleted my capital to make the claim. All I have done is pay to keep a roof over my head. My full rent and Council Tax exceeds my Occupational Pension, so I am at a loss at to what I could have done.
I should point out that I am on ESA (support group), DLA (high rate for both) and my husband claims carers allowance for caring for me.
Before getting my pension I was entitled to almost full HB except for the bedroom tax portion which was £150pm.
I am both confused and concerned, have tried to speak to someone, however as usual they are sticking to the decision. Any advice would be welcome.

Housing_Benefit_Officer

How quick did you deplete your savings? Are we talking 3 or 4 years? Whay sum of money are we talking about? £5k? 10k?

Darksparkle

You say you spent £10,000 since last year, when last year?

Housing_Benefit_Officer

You should ask your Local Authority to recalculate your claim using the Diminishing Notional Capital rules.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/365783/hbgm-bp1-assessment-of-capital.pdf

P1.760 onwards.

Most Benefit Officers don't apply these rules when recalculating claims.

lavvy

My rent and council tax are £700 per month. I have been paying that since April last year. Plus I cleared a bank loan of £4k. Also I had a huge vets bill of £900. What exactly am I allowed to spend my money on?

Housing_Benefit_Officer

Spending money on rent isn't deprivation of capital. A vets bill isn't deprivation. Your local council will need to make a determination re paying the loan. Appeal asking for a re determination and for the Diminishing Notional Capital rules to be applied.

lavvy

I did wonder, as at the rate things are going I will have no capital left. The reason I paid off the loan was because I got a reduction in interest for clearing it early, which seemed like the right thing to do. I will start an appeal, many thanks.

Alice_Holt

Appeal it, and see if you can get help from your local CAB.

You will need to do some preparation for the appeal - it might be worth submiiting a schedule showing your savings and what you have spent them on and when.

GR2014

The Diminishing capital rule (mentioned above) exists for exactly these circumstances. An assessment of your capital figure has to take into account that you have had expenses that Housing Benefit would normally cover. These should be disregarded.

With regards to deprivation of capital, that's a notoriously difficult thing for the local authority to demonstrate. They have to prove that a claimant purposely disposed of capital for the specific purpose of wanting to claim benefit. The timescales alone in your case would make it highly unlikely that such a point could be supported.

Your expenditure seems reasonable. Did the Local Authority ask for proof of the spending?

Ask for a review of the decision, quoting the above. If it's refused, then ask for an appeal of the decision to the First Tier Tribunal. You should get the correct decision in the end.