Housing Benefit Reduced

chrisehb

Hello,

So every year at work I receive a bonus and our local council use bonuses in their calculations which is fine. This year we received additional shares which the company taxed us on through our payslip but we are entitled to the shares for another 3 years of employment.

Now as part of the renewal I had to send Feb and March payslip to HB. On Feb was the shares tax (Gross looked way higher) and March had the bonus (Same as previous years). Now the issue is, that for some reason our HB council use this income going forward for the 2021 - 2022 claim. I told them that the Feb payslip is higher due to how they did the shares at work, but it appears they have used this for calculations going forward so our payments are reduced a lot as this is not standard income. Essentially a one off.

I guess my best option is to phone them Monday and advise, but assuming they will want Aprils payslip which will show my normal amount of payment and get them to recalculate it off this?

Thanks
C

poppy12345

chrisehb said:

I guess my best option is to phone them Monday and advise, but assuming they will want Aprils payslip which will show my normal amount of payment and get them to recalculate it off this?

Yes, that's exactly what i would do.

calcotti

When income varies send in payslips so they can recalculate. Do as often as necessary.

MalMonroe

When I was on Housing Benefit I always told them whenever there was a 'change in circumstances', however small or large because that way, I was always upfront and honest and I was, quite frankly, terrified of being accused of committing fraud. (I know, neurotic!) 

The council will use any increase in your income to recalculate your benefits and that's just the way it is. Same as they will use any decrease to recalculate. It does all balance out in the end because you won't be paid benefits at the same rate if your income has been increased by your employer, for whatever reason and however it is paid. Any increase in your pay will be cancelled out by the fact that your housing benefits are lowered - and I know it appears that you can't win because, sadly, you can't.

The fact that your Feb payslip is higher simply means that your benefit will be reduced. As it was a one-off, when your circumstances change again then you have to contact them again so that they can recalculate and pay you more. It's a faff and you may have to wait for the benefits to go down and then up again but that's the system and if you try to buck it you end up in court. (Thankfully I didn't but I did tell them every single thing that happened, money related or not. They never said 'don't tell us any more' so I assumed that I was doing it right.)

So basically what I'm trying to say is yes, do contact them on Monday and submit your April payslip (keeping a copy for you, of course).

In my experience of dealing with the housing benefit system, they are always correct in their calculations. That's just my experience of course but they never did get it wrong.

tboo

chrisehb said:

Hello,

So every year at work I receive a bonus and our local council use bonuses in their calculations which is fine. This year we received additional shares which the company taxed us on through our payslip but we are entitled to the shares for another 3 years of employment.

Now as part of the renewal I had to send Feb and March payslip to HB. On Feb was the shares tax (Gross looked way higher) and March had the bonus (Same as previous years). Now the issue is, that for some reason our HB council use this income going forward for the 2021 - 2022 claim. I told them that the Feb payslip is higher due to how they did the shares at work, but it appears they have used this for calculations going forward so our payments are reduced a lot as this is not standard income. Essentially a one off.

I guess my best option is to phone them Monday and advise, but assuming they will want Aprils payslip which will show my normal amount of payment and get them to recalculate it off this?

Thanks
C

Different assessors calculate differently for some reason so I would ring them as soon as you can and ask for an explanation on how they have calculated the wages.

I may have used the Feb wage as a separate calc as it's a high wage. (but I would have queried the shares tax)

Then I would have taken off the March bonus and used the wage as a calculation, then used the bonus as a separate income going from March 21 to Feb 22 (then asked for the next years bonus wage slip)

Then going forward ask for April and May to combine as an average.