Housing Benefit, overpayment??

kevandkeira

Hi,
My husband went self employed after being unemployed for a long time, we contacted housing benefit giving them notice that he was starting work in april.
They advised us to fill in the self employed questionnaire online to see if we were still entitled to any housing benefit, which we did straight away using estimated figures, in the mean time we were entitled to a 4 week benefit run on.
We haven't heard from housing benefit since & yet we continue to receive housing benefit, even stranger is that after the 4 weeks run on was over we started receiving a higher amount? We are receiving £18.25 per fortnight more then before?
We believe that we shouldn't be entitled to any housing benefit, as my husbands earnings are probably to high to qualify.
Has anyone else experienced similar?

[Deleted User]

Who knows as we don't know any of the income figures involved, your best bet tomorrow would be to tele the council and ask them, at least then if you are being over-paid they can sort it.

Alice_Holt

Contact the HB dept.
Check the income details they have are correct.
If you continue to receive HB make sure you notify them regularly of your actual income.
I would suggest keeping proof / confirmation / copies of your dealings with them, in case of overpayment disputes.

kevandkeira

Well he's earning double what we received on income support, so seems very unlikely that we will suddenly be entitled to more housing benefit.
I shall give them a call tomorrow & see whats going on.
Any idea what happens if they've overpaid us?
Thanks

Alice_Holt

kevandkeira wrote: »

Any idea what happens if they've overpaid us?

The council will ask you to return the overpayment (o/p).

An o/p can be recovered unless:
It resulted from an official error and the claimant could not have been reasonably expected to spot the o/p.

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/housing_benefit_and_local_housing_allowance/housing_benefit_problems/housing_benefit_overpayments

kevandkeira

I've spoken to housing benefit, they are saying the payments have continued as we are still receiving income support, I said we only received the 4 week run on. They are going to look into this further & get back to me.

Anyway I thought I'd log into mine & OH's online banking, my OH has had a payment of £62.08 for the past 2 fortnights from income support. I've rang them but as the claim was in OH's name they wont speak to me, so he will have to call them after work.

On looking up income support rates I can't see anything that would account for a fortnightly payment of £62.08!!

pmlindyloo

I am wondering whether this is something to do with your OH being a carer and not being counted as being in remunerative work for Income Support purposes. (although his earnings would still be counted so he wouldn't be entitled to any IS minus a £20 disregard)

I am also wondering if the payment is the Carer's premium which has (I believe) an 8 week 'run on' when you stop the claim for CA. (although it should be £69.20 a fortnight if it is)

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/524814/dmgch20.pdf

20465 onwards.

However, I may have misread or this doesn't apply!

I am sure it will be eventually sorted - keep some money aside if you can in case there is an over payment.

Perhaps others have experience of this.

Is your OH really self employed as you seem to indicate that you know what he will be earning each week (unusual for the self employed!)

Plus, if you claim tax credits this will make a difference to the HB award.

kevandkeira

Hi, thank you for your reply.

My husband was receiving carers for his son, so it could be that! After returning to work I was told to start a new claim in my name, as I am now his carer.

OH is sub contracting through a construction firm, his friend sub contracted through the same firm last year, so we've used his earnings from last year as estimates for OH's earnings when claiming tax credits, etc. Tax credits said this was ok to do, but we would need to update them after 6 months with actual earnings.

When we looked on entitledto it said we weren't entitled to any HB, only child tax credits.