Help with WTC

centi

Ok, so my situation its just a mess right now.

Up until 13/05/19 I was claiming the disability element of working tax credits, and due to this there was a disability premium on my Housing benefit of roughly £33 to £35 per week.
Plus I was working 16 hours a week, so had that wage coming in.

In April my employers asked me to do an extra 1 day per fortnight (so increasing my weekly hours upto 20 per week), to which I said yes and took on these hours.

My Housing benefit then got in touch on 13/5/19 and said I was no longer entitled to claim housing benefit now due to the extra hours worked, so this stopped completely.

I was then short of money, so on the 24/6/19 I phoned up my council with the view to inquiring about any council tax reductions i was entitled to, if any.
Whilst on the phone to them I mentioned my housing benefit being stopped on the 13/5/19, and they told me 'if your housing benefit has stopped you should be claiming universal credit' to which i replied 'My housing benefit stopped over a month ago, and not one person has even mentioned universal credit to me?', and she said 'you need to claim universal credit'

So on the afternoon of 24/6/19 I claimed Universal Credit.
What a mistake that was.
As soon as I had my jobcentre appointment a couple of days later I immediately knew this was a mistake. I tried stopping my UC claim, and the lady in the jobcentre told me to immediately phone up WTC and see if I could stay on that. But it was too late, the wheels were in motion.

since then, the Council have written to me through my citizens advice bureau advisor, and admitted that my HB being stopped on the 13/5/19 was wrong, and that It should have been in the region of £29 per week that I was still getting.
If the HB wasnt stopped incorrectly in the first place, this catalogue of errors would not have occured. And then the bad advice to top it off.
They are still looking into the phonecalls of when they told me to claim UC, and im waiting for them to get back to me.

What im really struggling with is getting back on the WTC of £415 per month that i was getting. This error has left me seriously short, and over £100 per month worse off.
Im being given conflicting information regards this WTC. WTC claim that is is not possible at all to rectify this and get my WTC back, but my MP and citizens advice are saying that it is possible in exceptional circumstances.
When I ring WTC though they are basically refusing to budge.

Is there any advice from anyone who has been in a similar situation? or advice as to what I should be doing myself to try and sort this out?

Thanks in advance

centi

I should just add, the council have awarded me a discretionary HB payment up until 23/09/19, with a view to seeing where my situation is then.
These DHB payments though are not a long term solution to this, just tiding me over until something gets sorted.

Icequeen99

It isn't legally possible to get back into tax credits, there is no mechanism in the regs to allow it once a valid UC claim has been made. I have heard of a couple of cases where HMRC have used their general management powers to do it but not recently. Really you will need to complain - and ask for compensation. If anyone can get them to reinstate tax credits, it would be your MP - but again some have tried recently and failed.

IQ

centi

thanks for the reply @Icequeen99
I think my only complaint is against the council, and isa double complaint about the incorrectly stopped HB and then some very very bad advice.
I did try putting in a complaint with WTC too, but they said I wouldnt get far as they had done everything correctly their end.
I just have no idea how the council will be able to fully sort it looking into the future

calcotti

centi wrote: »

I just have no idea how the council will be able to fully sort it looking into the future

I don't think they can. Whether you can seek compensation from them for maladministration I don't know.

Sheepski

Hmm it's a shame that it was the council specifically that mis-advised you. If it were the DWP then there would be grounds for at least getting transitional protection applied to your claim so that you wouldn't be worse off on UC, which they will do in these types of situations. But I imagine their line will be that the council made the mistake, not the DWP

centi

Thanks for the replies.

I find it extremely frustrating that I could realise what a mistake it was 2/3 working days later whilst in the jobcentre and yet there was absolutely nothing I could do to stop what was happening. You would think there would be a grace period, especially if it was blatantly obvious that it was going to be wrong.
I pretty much had a meltdown at the time in the jobcentre, and the jobcentre lady couldn't believe I would be worse off. She kept checking the figures. Then kept saying I was the first person she had come across that wouldnt be better off on UC. (Which according to CAB, is nonsense)

sheramber

I don't think the employee was giving you personal advice.

Rather it was general advice that you cannot now make a claim for housing benefit . You have to claim Universal Credit.

So , she was correct in giving that information.