... thanks for the answers ....

sourpuss2021

... thanks for the answers ....

poppy12345

sourpuss2021 said:

I also seperately phoned the Council Tax department three weeks ago, to see if they had heard from the HB department about my lodger.  They said that no they had not, so I submitted the 25% student discount claim (and told them I no longer qualified for the living alone discount, so it works out the same).  This also hasn't been processed.

Your 25% single person discount means it won't change because you're still classed as living alone for this purpose because you're living with a student.

If there's an overpayment you will need to repay that back weekly but i have no idea how much they will take for this.

Regarding how long it's taking then all you can do really is ring to ask for an update.

calcotti

sourpuss2021 said:

Or maybe it means that they have received 10000 other review forms at the same time, I'm not special or anything, they are just understaffed and overworked and will process it when they process it?

"understaffed and overworked" almost certainly covers it.

strawb_shortcake

Our local council told me there was at least a 12 week wait for them to deal with changes. I was thinking I'd be top of the pile as I would be giving them more money but not the case

nicx83

It’s certainly the latter I’m in one of those departments we had to send out 1000 reviews in a week at the dwp request. We have one member of staff working through them when they come back. 

nicx83

sourpuss2021 said:

nicx83 said:

It’s certainly the latter I’m in one of those departments we had to send out 1000 reviews in a week at the dwp request. We have one member of staff working through them when they come back. 

Thanks for the inside scoop and my commiserations to that staff member!

Do you know if HB overpayments need to be repaid at the same rate at which they were paid out? 

I.e. if I have been overpaid £400 a month for two months, once the review/change of circumstances is processed will I then get £400 less for the next two months?  Or do they take it all out in one go if possible... or alternatively more slowly?

If you are still entitled to some hb it will be taken back at a standard rate of £11.55 per week. Although if your award is less than this for example hb is £8.00 a week they will always leave 50p in payment so recovery would be £7.50 per week.

if you are no longer entitled to hb an invoice will be raised it will say payment in full but usually speaking to the invoices team they are happy to set up a payment plan