Finding Examples of Voluntary Payments for Tribunal Case

ASmallBeanToe

I am heading to a Council Tax Support and Reductions/Benefits tribunal case against my local council for wrongly calculating my income for years. They use the 20% taper scheme. They initially correctly told me that a family member paying my food bill didnt count as income as it's voluntary payments. Their scheme excludes all voluntary payments and charity payments from income.

They initially wrote this up as me working for a family member and requested I provide proof of employment and I corrected them. They still included the amount and then claimed it was because parents giving money is included as income but the guidelines referred to state this is about parents giving money for care of children under the care of the applicant. (They tried to say it's included as income if its money given by the parent of a child or young person where that young person is a member of the applicants family. I pointed out Im not a "child or young person" and I dont count as a member of the applicants family, I AM the applicant. They refused to respond).

I have several resources showing voluntary payments and gifts given aren't income and are disregarded but they are specific to Universal Credit guidelines and HMRC taxation. I am trying to find any examples of this related especially any directly to a council to bolster the case. I also have the copy of guidance by places like EntitledTo but all of these specify benefits, taxes and universal credit and I'm worried the council will argue guidelines that name other government schemes dont apply to them.

They also told me that if this support stopped I would be investigated and found to have notional income and possibly charged with fraud if they could show my family still supported me.

During this period I had never earned more than £5k a year because I have serious neurological conditions that the council were repeatedly informed of, hence needing and getting family support. I have begun receiving disability support through UC but the council's issues predate this by several years.

My council made numerous other egregious errors (I have shown that their application system automatically changes any negative amounts to positive ones after submission, eg if you say you're bank account is -£500 it only records the number and then puts that you have £500 in savings on file and the council refused to correct this when I pointed out each instance) and at one point asked if I needed help finding a therapist but they were happy with their work so I'm fairly sure at least something will be found in my favour but I'd like as much as possible and they have been alarmingly firm on their redefinition of voluntary payments as income.

HillStreetBlues

What the council is claiming is that it is regular payments, and they are classing that regular payment as unearned income.
Unearned income is calculated differently between benefits. UC has a list is what they classed as unearned income, if it not on the list then it's not unearned income. Gifts from family (or anyone else) isn't included on the list so it's not unearned income and it's certainly not earned income, so it will only ever be capital for UC.

Council tax reduction works in the opposite way, there is certain income that has be be disregarded and only those have to be, and regular gifts isn't on that list.
As they aren't on the list then it's up to the local council if or not they want to disregard them.

You say your food is paid, how does that work? Do you get a set amount at a set date? or does the frequency and amount change?

ASmallBeanToe

The guidelines for my council explicitly list any voluntary payments including ones that are made on a regular or recurring basis as disregarded as income. There is nothing anywhere about including voluntary payments as income if they are regular. The included income section does not list regular charitable or voluntary payments. The included capital section does include one off/non regular charitable or voluntary payments as capital which is then subject to the £6k/£16k thresholds. I've already had this confirmed by the council themselves and by people like citizens advice, its just the council erroneously listen this as paid work for a family member, and then self employed work and refused to stop including it when they were told none of it was work related.

Ive had this checked to death and everyone has confirmed that voluntary payments from family shouldn't have been registered as income and this was the council wrongly saying I had a second job and refusing to correct it, which they did with about a dozen other things as well.

They also told me that any significant monetary gifts would be broken down and reculated as a weekly income instead of marked as savings which made several external advisors very concerned. They're definitely not supposed to take things like lump sums given as christmas presents and break them down as income - that is supposed to fall under savings and subject to those rules.

Sorry but Im staring right at the sentences that says "Income disregards: Any of the following payments; a) charitable payments b) voluntary payments" in the disregarded section and in the capital included section it says "Income treated as capital: Any charitable or voluntary payment which is not made or due to be made at regular intervals". It says one off payments when you have over 16k of capital are the be treated as income. Checking, the only time whether or not a charitable or voluntary payment is regular is mentioned is when it's supposed to be included in capital.

I've already been paid half a grand by my council as apologies for various failing during this. Them making hideous mistakes and refusing to correct them is well established. Included in my complaint is them issuing me an exemption for a year I was a student and then 7 months in sending me to court for failure to pay while I waved a my exemption letter about, the whole thing is ridiculous.

At one point they told me to stop whining and find a food bank and when I made a formal complaint they said they had no record of me ever having contacted the council and questioned if my being disabled was making me imagine things. I've have to itemise my call history and records and collect like a hundred emails to the council provide to several external bodies for investigation.