Initial two weeks rent on housing benefit

Goldwing1

My Granddaughter is 22 and a single mum.

Last week she was offered a council flat having been in sheltered accomodation. The Council pays her rent.

On the Moday she received an e-mail, the important bit for this states;

“You will need to make a payment of £XXX by clicking HERE (equivalent to two weeks’ rent and service charge) using the following details:

 ·    Account Number: XXXXXXXXX

 Please send a copy of the payment receipt to me by 5 December 2025. Alternatively, if you have completed a change of circumstance form for Housing Benefit, please provide proof (a screenshot is acceptable) via email. Keys cannot be released until this step is completed.”

The amount due was far more than she had in savings but she did complete the change in circumstance for housing benefit form and sent a screenshot as directed above. She received an acknowledgement by return from the Housing Officer she has been dealing with throughout. All seemed well.

On the Friday the Housing Officer insisted the e-mail was a mistake and full payment was due or the offer of the flat would be treated as rejected. In a panic she called me. I had not seen the e-mail but understood between the three of us that the money would be returned once the system had caught up. I revisited this three times on the call and, having received the same answer I transferred the funds to my Grandadughter who then paid.

She moved in and all sorts of problems started separate to this issue (Now resolved).

Yesterday we contacted the Housing Officer via e-mail to document all the issues. I had also by now seen the actual text of the invitation e-mail and referred to the "Alternatively, if you have completed a change of circumstance form for Housing Benefit, please provide proof (a screenshot is acceptable) via email." comment. I asked when the money would be returned and received a reply which stated;

“Finally, regarding the rent payment, all tenants are required to pay two weeks’ rent in advance regardless of circumstances. This was explained during your sign-up and stated in the email:
“You will need to make a payment of £XXX by clicking HERE (equivalent to two weeks’ rent and service charge).”
This requirement was also confirmed over the phone with you when we arranged your viewing. Therefore, the payment will not be refunded. I apologise for any confusion caused by the wording later in the message, and as advised on the day, I will make sure this is changed.”

This is absolutely NOT what we were told during the phone call.

Through my Granddaughter we have made a formal complaint but I have been in the fortunate position not to have rented since 1975 and am out of my depth. Clearly I should have got everything confirmed in writing but there was little time and I foolishly expected a Council to act professionally and honestly.

Can someone advise what should have happened please? The Council in question is Ashford, Kent.

sgthammer

The change of circumstances is the glitch here. It's normal for councils and housing associations to demand rent up front (although usually less than in the private sector), whereas benefits are paid in arrears and take time to catch up.

How this goes will depend on how your granddaughter's HB is paid. If it goes into her account, then out again, then the first two weeks should be included in her first payment and it's up to her budgeting skills whether she can pay you back. But if, as is often the case, her HB is paid direct to the landlord (or from Peter to Paul within council departments), then there will be no refund as such, she'll just end up two weeks ahead on her rent.

Councils could be better at communicating this stuff, but there's a natural tendency for people who do these things every day to assume the public is as familiar with the system as they are.

Goldwing1

With her previous flat and this one, the money was/is going straight from one Council department to another.The previous flat was owned by a company that had a contract with the Council.

If they had simply said “two weeks up front” we would have had the best part of a week to sort it out and, to be fair, I would still have paid as her parents aren’t in a position to help and I am.

What she(And I) latched onto was the statement; “Alternatively, if you have completed a change of circumstance form for Housing Benefit, please provide proof (a screenshot is acceptable) via email.”

She did that and, when it was acknowledged, there was no further comment to say the rent would still be due, simply “Thank you”.

During the panic call on the Friday I treated it as a short term cashflow issue, not a down payment. To that end I was reassured by the Housing Officer THREE TIMES that the money would be returned once the system had caught up. Now she is denying she ever said that and that the text in the e-mail quoted above was “a mistake”. Hence my complaint.

 

 

Goldwing1

I just thought I'd provide an update.

The upshot is that Universal Credit did pay for the full first four weeks. That meant my Granddaughter could (And did) pay me what she'd borrowed. 

What has become clear via the complaints process is that the Council should have accepted the scan of the completed change of circumstance form as their e-mail stated it was acceptable.

We've now escalated the complaint to the second stage as, although I've got my money back, they are now not accepting they've done anything wrong - despite the documented audit trail. The whole point of this is that, in the main, people going into Council accomodation are among the most vulnerable and Council officers need to be doing better when it comes to honesty and accuracy.