Council tax benefit question.

victoriav

William age 40 ish...friend of a friend , has been injured and gets DLA. He did get IS as well , but his IS claim was somehow mixed up, the DWP quickly informed the benefit part of the council that he was no longer in receipt of IS they (council) then said he qualified for nothing and must pay full whack.(?) He told them what had happened., but it fell on deaf ears. The council sent bailiffs. They didn't get in. He keeps his door locked always.

Then he got information from somewhere (a solicitor family friend I think) to say he must tell council that DWP mixed up his IS and erraneously stopped it, and that whilst he was in this position it was not lawful for them to pursue the assumed debt. They then quickly granted full tax benefit. The bailiffs were withdrawn, minus apology. He asked that a zero bill be sent which they did in a letter which although prepaid, he had to pay £1.00 for, as the royal mail said the cost of posting it was not covered by the pre-pay (another issue!! for a later time) :rolleyes:

The IS was eventually re-instated. No explanation offered. Then 2 weeks ago, the IS stopped again, a mix up which he can't get to the bottom of as yet, now he has another council tax form to fill in, the same form as the last 3 in as many months, if he just fills in the part where it says 'what benefits do you get', with just 'DLA', - will this mean he must pay it all (less single person discount?) or should he say once again, that whilst his IS is pending, they must also be pending, ie take situation into consideration, if that makes sense.

He lives on his own, he doesn't own the house, he lives in it because his younger brother lets him, as he lives abroad currently. He has no savings, or a computer. He cannot walk well so doesn't go out.

The nearest CAB have had their funding stopped by local authority, hence closed, so cannot do a special home visit. They unfortunately didn't have someone trained in this topic either. It was consumer rights, housing, etc which they had people trained for.

In a nutshell, he wants to know, if he would get full CT benefit (ie zero bill) from just receiving DLA and 25% single person discount?

OR will he only get zero bill from receiving DLA and also IS together.

I looked on entitledto.com and it didn't tell me, it only indicated that he would be entitled to IS.

He doesn't want the stress of the council saying they didn't get his explanations by phonecalls/letters, then sending bailiffs. His solicitor friend is in spain for 3 months on a golf holiday.

If he could get council tax zero bill from DLA alone he didn't want to go through the stress of claiming IS again for the same mistakes to keep happening. He said he'd rather do without. He also doesn't seem to come under exemptions as he has not had the house adapted ie stairlift or anything. He uses bannister rails which were already there when need be for balance.

Any ideas to pass on please?

suelees1

His council tax benefit is based on his income. DLA is disregarded so in effect he has no income at present and so should be entitled to full council tax benefit.

The LA get notification from the Jobcentre that his IS has stopped. The LA won't know why - as far as they're concerned it might be for any one of a number of reasons including him working, winning the lottery, having other income etc etc.

If he doesn't tell them they won't know so he must contact them to say his IS is currently stopped/suspended but he doesn't know why but he's hoping it will be reinstated. If it all gets sorted out within a month then no problem but he's as well completing yet another change of circumstances form just in case. He needs to ask.

If he doesn't provide details they'll simply assume he doesn't want to claim council tax benefit and charge him the full amount. This is seemingly what happened before.

It's important he gets to the bottom of the IS mix-up so it doesn't keep happening

victoriav

Thanks suelees, I have passed him the information now., and he seemed hopeful. We are going to see if we can get a 2nd hand computer set up for him, so he can come on this website. Thanks again for your help!