Cancelling Housing Benefit

minsteve001

Hi, Hoping someone can help. I've had a payrise and have calculated that this will now mean I'm no longer eligible for Housing Benefit. So I want to cancel my claim. However, I had an overpayment a few years ago (not through my own fault) and they have been claiming this back out of my HB at a rate of £10 a week. I'm not sure how much of the overpayment is left but whatever it is I won't be able to clear it in one lump sum or even at the current rate of £10 a week as my income is still relatively low. My question is will they allow me to pay this back over time at a very low rate? I'm thinking £10 a month would be all I could afford initially. I have a lot of debt but someone told me they could take me to Court over it so I'm quite scared.

flick24

They will probably just ask you to fill out an ingoing/outgoing expediture form, from which they will determine what they think you can afford, depending on the council and what they are like they may be happy to just keep the arrangement you have of £10 a week. Don't be scared you can only afford what you can and any court would agree. Depends on debt priority too.

minsteve001

Thanks for the response. I won't be able to afford £10 a week, only £10 a month. As my payrise has only put me just over the threshold for claiming HB. Do you think they will accept that?

flick24

I can't say yes or no but imagine if they have been taking that so far they will, like said you can only afford what you can as long as they are getting their money they should be happy with that, personally I can't see it being a problem

tazwhoever

While you are claiming HB, they will take away overpayments from that. Once you cancel HB, they will bill you with complete overpayments.

tboo

minsteve001 wrote: »

Hi, Hoping someone can help. I've had a payrise and have calculated that this will now mean I'm no longer eligible for Hoad an overpusing Benefit. So I want to cancel my claim.However, I had an overpayment a few years ago (not through my own fault) and they have been claiming this back out of my HB at a rate of £10 a week. I'm not sure how much of the overpayment is left but whatever it is I won't be able to clear it in one lump sum or even at the current rate of £10 a week as my income is still relatively low. My question is will they allow me to pay this back over time at a very low rate? I'm thinking £10 a month would be all I could afford initially. I have a lot of debt but someone told me they could take me to Court over it so I'm quite scared.

If the above wasn't your fault then the overpayment shouldn't have been collected - they must have determined it was so HB was reduced.
They will need a wage slip to calculate and then it will end the claim.
Any outstanding amounts will be invoiced and you will have to make an arrangement at something you can afford to pay back and what they agree to.
If you don't pay them then they can go down the route of attachment of earnings etc

minsteve001

Thank you. I have a letter stating that it was a miscalculation a few years ago when I stopped using childcare and although I did notify them they didn't take it into account. I have no issues with paying back the overpayment..if I owe it I owe it fair enough. But there is no way I would be able to pay it in a lump sum so my concern was that they will insist on a lump sum repayment . Someone told me if I don't repay in full within 28 days they will definitely take me to court eve if I made a reasonable offer of repayment which scared me.

Ci_bach

If the overpayment was caused through 'official error' you are not liable for repayment.

You state that you have a letter advising it was their miscalculation. You may find it useful to make an appointment with CAB or similar and seek assistance in challenging the overpayment. Take that letter with you to CAB and also any receipts you may have that prove you handed the relevant information in. You may even be refunded the amount you have already paid

If, on the other hand it is not 'official error' you will be liable for repayment. So, submit a completed Income and Expenditure form with a covering letter stating that you are requesting to make payments at £3.80per week on the grounds of financial hardship

(I believe that £3.80 per week is the minimum deduction that DWP would make if a person's income was solely benefits).

In that minimum repayment scenario, the 'debt' would last longer but your budget would be easier to manage. You could even arrange with Housing Benefit, to set up a weekly, fortnightly, 4 weekly or monthly standing order to cover the instalments you pay, to coincide with your payment of wages cycle.

Let us know how you get on.

Good luck

HTH

CB

jadex

minsteve001 wrote: »

I've had a payrise and have calculated that this will now mean I'm no longer eligible for Housing Benefit. So I want to cancel my claim.

Hey,
You don't cancel your claim.
You got a rise so you then provide council with your new salary.
They will then calculate your eligibility and if you are no longer eligible will produce final bill.
If you cancel today and you already got paid for current period then you owe that money back pro-rata from today (at the time when your rise is only on paper?).

tboo

Ci_bach wrote: »

If the overpayment was caused through 'official error' you are not liable for repayment.

You state that you have a letter advising it was their miscalculation. You may find it useful to make an appointment with CAB or similar and seek assistance in challenging the overpayment. Take that letter with you to CAB and also any receipts you may have that prove you handed the relevant information in. You may even be refunded the amount you have already paid

If, on the other hand it is not 'official error' you will be liable for repayment. So, submit a completed Income and Expenditure form with a covering letter stating that you are requesting to make payments at £3.80per week on the grounds of financial hardship

(I believe that £3.80 per week is the minimum deduction that DWP would make if a person's income was solely benefits).

In that minimum repayment scenario, the 'debt' would last longer but your budget would be easier to manage. You could even arrange with Housing Benefit, to set up a weekly, fortnightly, 4 weekly or monthly standing order to cover the instalments you pay, to coincide with your payment of wages cycle.

Let us know how you get on.

Good luck

HTH

CB

The op will have received detailed notification letters with their financial details on them

Customers are then expected to view these and contact the LA if they believe them to be incorrect

You only have limited time to appeal overpayments and as this happened years ago I doubt it will be even looked at now

The rate of collection isn't the DWP rate of £3.80 it's the LA rate currently £11.10 (they will sometimes accept £5.00 per week (mine do) but that's up to them)

As the claim will be likely stopped this rate won't apply - offers acceptable to the op and the LA will therefore have to be agreed on

Link

McKneff

If you could afford a tenner before, why cant you afford it now if you are fetting more or less the same .