How do i get Housing Benefit?

Alice_Holt

kie101,
When you say "benefits office" - is this your local council's Housing Benefit dept?
As you were in receipt of HB this can continue, if you update your local council's Housing Benefit dept with your new situation. As you have been told you may have to complete a nil-income form, and supply bank statements.
It is the local council's Housing Benefit dept you need to speak to, I would advise you keep notes of all conversations, and information given to them, and keep the acknowledgement slips.

If the person you care for is successful with their PIP / AA appeal, then providing you reclaim CA and IS within 3 months of the successful tribunal hearing decision - both CA and IS should be backdated to the reinstatement of the qualifying benefit (i.e PIP or AA).
Normally IS can only be backdated 3 months, but where it has stopped as a consequence of the qualifying benefit stopping, it can be fully backdated if the appeal for that qualifying benefit is successful.
The regulations (if you need to quote them) are C & P Regs, reg 6(19)-(22).


What I'm not sure about, is the process of getting IS backdated when you are in a UC area.
I think it's worth your while understanding the process of reclaiming IS (in a UC area) before you get to that point - so you can be very clear on the steps you need to take immediately after a successful PIP / AA appeal.
Your local CAB may be able to help, or one of the very knowledgeable posters on here may have info on this.

Is the person you care for getting help with their appeal?
What benefit are they appealing?
Are they aware of the appeals process?
This guide may be useful to them:
https://www.advicenow.org.uk/guides/how-win-pip-appeal

calcotti

Alice_Holt wrote: »

What I'm not sure about, is the process of getting IS backdated when you are in a UC area.
I think it's worth your while understanding the process of reclaiming IS (in a UC area) before you get to that point - so you can be very clear on the steps you need to take immediately after a successful PIP / AA appeal.

You raise an important question. If the IS is treated as suspended pending the outcome of the appeal on the qualifying benefit then it could be reactivated. If the IS claim has ended such that a new IS claim would be required I do not believe this will be possible in a a UC area even though the regulations you refer to say that a claim in these circumstances should be treated as made on an earlier date. Unfortunately I think the latter is more likely. Although OP could choose to claim UC they would miss out on the backdating because the UC can only be backdated one month (and the DWP may not agree to this).

Be very interested to know what others think.

calcotti

Have just found a discussion elsewhere which suggests that it may be possible to go back to IS and request an anytime revision of the decision to end IS rather then make a new claim. Unfortunately no one came back to say whether that tactic worked.

pmlindyloo

A rapid reclaim for Income Support can be made if it is made within 26 weeks of it ending and providing the circumstances haven't changed.

But I agree that there is no information that I can find which tells us whether this would count as a new claim (and so having to claim UC) or not.

Of course it would depend on how long the appeal for PIP takes and whether the 'cared for' person has the PIP reinstated.

It is a bit of a catch 22 situation really.

If it goes over the 26 weeks or the 'cared for' has the appeal refused then the OP would be sensible to apply for universal credit now. Otherwise they would be missing out on money. If the OP made that decision to apply for UC now then a carer's element could still be added at a later stage (although not normally backdated)

It is also possible that the OP would have a 'light touch' regime as they would still be caring for the person going through the appeal - would certainly hope so.

Perhaps the OP could tell us at what stage the PIP appeal is at. Has the mandatory reconsideration been done? Has an appeal date been done?

It may be useful to contact this organisation about whether a rapid reclaim for Income Support can be done in a full Universal Credit area. At least that would make the decision easier and the OP could apply for UC now.

https://www.carersuk.org/help-and-advice/talk-to-us

kie101

Hi to answer Alice Yes its my local benefits office that i was incontact with, they have updated their side and as far as they are concerned nothing should effect my H/B for now and the person i care for didnt get help as they mentioned they have been through this before and won but it could take time to hear back as its already been a few months, they are appealing PIP and i do still care for them and having the responsibilities of raising a child on my own i will have to sacrifice my caring time if i went to U.C as i would also need to look for work which if the appeal loses or takes too long i will have no choice but to look for work instead.

Alice_Holt

Kie101,

Do have a look at the PIP appeal guide I linked to above.
https://www.advicenow.org.uk/guides/how-win-pip-appeal

Other online resources for a PIP appeal:
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/sick-or-disabled-people-and-carers/pip/appeals/apply-to-tribunal/

https://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/personal-independence-payment-pip/pip-points-system

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/725533/pip-assessment-guide-part-2-assessment-criteria.pdf

Good luck.