Housing/Council Tax - please help.

jayneuk

Please can someone help. According to entitledto I should be getting £209 housing benefit and £19 council tax benefit per week. But I have just had my notification through and it says £127 housing benefit and 55p council tax benefit.

Is entitiledto accurate? What should I do?

I am a lone parent and have gone back to work following a lone parent interview where they worked out I would be about £80 a week better off, but I am now about £60 a week worse off.

Help

dmg24

I would imagine that the LA's assessment is more accurate than entitledto.

It is possible that your rent is deemed too high, and this would explain the difference in HB.

If you post some figures we might be able to work out something more accurate?

mitchaa

Entitled to is just a website, do not take any notice of it.

jayneuk

I've done the online calculators on council websites too and they say the same as entitledto.

I will have to stop working then, because I am only earning £96 per week and I am now having to pay £90 towards my rent and £25 towards my council tax, plus I have lost free school meals for the children. So I just can't afford to work. Plus I have now got into £300 debt with the council tax because the council took 4 months to review my claim.

Wish I had never gone to the lone parent interview :-(

mitchaa

jayneuk wrote: »

I've done the online calculators on council websites too and they say the same as entitledto.

I will have to stop working then, because I am only earning £96 per week and I am now having to pay £90 towards my rent and £25 towards my council tax, plus I have lost free school meals for the children. So I just can't afford to work. Plus I have now got into £300 debt with the council tax because the council took 4 months to review my claim.

Wish I had never gone to the lone parent interview :-(

The benefits trap.

Sorry state of affairs when someone is better off on benefits even if they do try their hardest to make ends meat and go out and get a job.

Government to blame for this:mad:

jayneuk

So am I allowed to jack it all in and go back on benefits? Or will they say I can't do that because I'm making myself unemployed?

astonsmummy

No as you are a lone parent you can give it up and go back on benefits, why dont you go and see the LPA before you do.
Do you pay any childcare scosts? how many hours per week dso you work, you shouldnt be worse off at all going back to work.

astonsmummy

And are you getting the correct amount of WTC, did you get a 4 week run on on your HB and CTB?

jayneuk

I am working about 20 hours a week. I don't pay any childcare costs. My rent is £210 and they are saying they will pay £127. My council tax is £1000 a year plus £300 debt and they said I can have 55p a week towards it. It has taken them since November to do the review which I received this morning. Before that all my rent and council tax was being paid and I was on Income Support.

astonsmummy

Are you getting WTC? How many childrren do you have? Like dmg24 said, if yoyu post some more info and figures someone may spot something x

jayneuk

Yes, I'm on WTC. I've got 2 children.

I get the same child tax credit as I did before.
I get WTC which is the same as the Income Support used to be.

So the only difference is that I now get £96 a week approx earnings, which I thought would be extra (or most of it), but now I've found out it will be swallowed up with rent and council tax.

On the housing benefit thing it says -

How much I need to live on -

£59.15 for me
£94.90 because I have a dependant.
£16.43 because I have at least one child.

Then it says -

Income used in the calculation - £246.15
Less how much the law says I need to live on - £170.48
Excess Income - £75.67

They've taken £20 a week off my rent for inappropriate accomodation, which leaves a weekly rent of £190, of which they say they will pay £127. Plus 55p council tax benefit.