Housing benefit payments stopped, worried sick

Lady_of_the_Flowers

Hi,

I've just found out my housing benefit payment is not going into to the bank as usual on Monday and I'm worried sick as its Christmas in four weeks and I'm already struggling. As the benefits office is closed until Monday I was hoping in the mean time someone might be able to help shed some light on what could have caused this. I'm not sure if any of these things are connected but here's what I know.

I'm in a full service area for universal credit.

I still haven't heard anything from my wtc/ctc renewal back in July. I check online every few days and it's saying it will be processed by 30th November. Obviously payments have continued in the meantime.

I'm self employed and recently had to do a review for housing benefit. I submitted my accounts for the year 17-18 as requested, via email on the morning of the day it was due by. I called the office at 10am to make sure they'd received it which they had. This was two weeks ago on Monday.

My accounts showed a slight increase of £6 per week average across the year but the monthly breakdown was inconsistent, as it would be being self employed. This has never been an issue for them before, they just use the average weekly figure over the year.

Is the issue here likely to be the increase in income? And if so why stop the payments instead of adjusting them?

Or is there something here that could trigger universal credit migration? And if so does that mean I'm about to lose all my benefits four weeks before Christmas?

Thank you so much in advance for any advice.

Craig1981

basic changes like you have mentioned will not have triggered migration to UC

if your income has increased, albeit £6 a week, they will usually suspend the claim/payments while the reassess it - this is normal practice to avoid overpayment of housing benefit

the suspension could also have come from a data matching exercise with DWP, something they may want to look at

i wouldnt worry too much about it over the weekend, nothing you can do about it now. call them first thing monday morning, find out the reasoning (which should have been included in the suspension letter) and supply whatever other information is needed as quickly as possible.

if payment missed is going to cause detriment, ask them to fast track the re assessment

Lady_of_the_Flowers

Craig1981 hi, thanks so much for that. It's a relief it's not UC migration. I've been unable to sleep with worry because I was scared we would lose everything for six weeks and Christmas would be ruined.

I've just realised upon reading your post the figure WTC have for the same period 17/18 will be an estimate because I don't usually finalise my accounts until January for submitting online. It's then when I contact WTC with the actual figure. As housing benefit wanted these accounts for the review, I've had to do it earlier than I normally would, so the actual figure will not match the estimate, although it won't be massively different. Is this what you mean by data matching?

If it's normal practise to suspend claim due to increase in income, what additional info could they need? A more recent breakdown of earnings? Or will they just reinstate the claim once they've assessed it without requiring extra info?

Thanks again.

poppy12345

It wouldn't be data matching from DWP because you're not claiming any benefits that have anything to do with those.



Most Likely it's your pay increase as has been advised. It could also be tax credits, it's possible that HMRC share information with your local council.


Anyone here would only be guessing what it could be. You really need to wait until Monday morning and then ring your local council who will tell you what the problem is. You may even have a letter today.