Housing benefit and son at uni, advice please.

Sapphire2008

Hi dmg,

They are only saying the overpayment is for the last 2 weeks, and from now on, which is odd as hes been at uni since last september, i did write and tell them at the time and when i didnt hear anything, i just assumed what the jobcentre had told me was correct.

dmg24

Sapphire2008 wrote: »

Hi dmg,

They are only saying the overpayment is for the last 2 weeks, and from now on, which is odd as hes been at uni since last september, i did write and tell them at the time and when i didnt hear anything, i just assumed what the jobcentre had told me was correct.

That is quite odd, has anything changed in the past two weeks?

As you told them in September, you should not have a problem getting the exemption backdated.

Sapphire2008

Nope nothings changed at all, they only thing i can think of, its the end of the uni year, so do they now think hes got a job earning £369 week, i really havent a clue. All seems very random.

zzzLazyDaisy

This happened to my cousin.

First LHA is the new benefit for private tenants and doesn't apply to council tenants who continue to get HB

The HB application form also covers CTB. For CTB the student doesn't count, so you still get your 25% CT reduction.

But your HB (ie the benefit covering your rent) will alter, because you now are only a single parent of two children. This means not only are your financial needs less, you also need fewer bedrooms, so depending on the age and sex of your other two children, you could now be penalised for being 'over housed'.

So, in my cousin's case she has a boy just started Uni and a girl just started A levels. So she now only needs a two bedroom house, but she has three bedrooms so is penalised for being overaccommodated. Her personal allowances have also been reduced as she is officially on her own with her daughter. So it is a double whammy.

She did notify them when her son started Uni, and was visited by someone from the authority - who told her that her benefit would not alter as her son still needed a room. This was incorrect advice, but she did not know. Then, months later someone at the LA picked up the file, realised a mistake had been made and wrote to her to say her benefits were going down (she lives in an expensive area, but has to be near the daughter's school, and her benefits went down by £200 a month). They didn't backdate it to the date her son started Uni though, because of the misleading information she had been given.

Hope this at least helps to clarify things a bit?

Sapphire2008

Thanks for that Daisy. We wouldnt be over accommodated, and as it's a council house, it's not an expansive area. My son still lives at home full time as the uni is local. From all the council websites ive looked at so far, it looks like , the fact he works evenings will affect my benefit rather than him being a student.

Sapphire2008

Thanks to everyone who has replied, it's appreciated. x

[Deleted User]

Sapphire2008 wrote: »

Ohhhh i have just found this http://www.nihe.gov.uk/publications/leaflets/HBL3.pdf

Now i don't know which council that is, or how old, but it does state no deductions will be made if the non-dependant is a student.

Now i know he has his little job, so i guess they can ask for some of that, but it couldnt be too much, certainly not as much as they are asking. At present they state as i havent given then details they are assesing on the hightest rate of £368 (or something). Wish they would send out thier letter to arrive on a day when you can actually phone and ask for advice.

in my experience coucils and the dwp always send out letters containing bad news so they arrive saturday morning:mad: ,fortunatley in the day and age of the internet it can work to your advantage if you use the weekend to get as much help as possible,as well as this site you may also want to try here
Youreable.com | Benefits dont worry its free
good luck btw