Daughter waiting 3 months for continuation of HB
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ceejayblue
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My daughter is a single parent, in February 2019 her landlord issued a S21 eviction notice as they wanted to improve the property (it needed it!). She managed to find a new property but needed to move in before the S21 date of 15 April. The landlord's agent decided to hold her to 4 week's notice but her new landlord needed her to move in by 2 April. The old landlord agreed to her finally moving out on 10 April and the HB office allowed a small overlap allowance.
Since then she's had nothing but problems with the HB office! They've lost all the documents she gave them concerning her eviction and the new tenancy and now 3 months on she's had no HB payment at all, they are still assessing her! She overheard one HB officer say that they had been sending documents to the wrong department all day (this was a day she'd taken documents up twice to make sure they had what they need!). If it wasn't for us she would be in arrears in the new property and with two children she can't afford to get into arrears and risk eviction. She's never been in arrears in all the years she's received HB. She works part time and claims Working and Child tax credits. She has provided the documents at least 3 times that they've asked for!
This situation is becoming unbearable for her and us as we can't pay the rent forever! Has anyone any ideas on what we can do ? Its very stressful for us all.
Since then she's had nothing but problems with the HB office! They've lost all the documents she gave them concerning her eviction and the new tenancy and now 3 months on she's had no HB payment at all, they are still assessing her! She overheard one HB officer say that they had been sending documents to the wrong department all day (this was a day she'd taken documents up twice to make sure they had what they need!). If it wasn't for us she would be in arrears in the new property and with two children she can't afford to get into arrears and risk eviction. She's never been in arrears in all the years she's received HB. She works part time and claims Working and Child tax credits. She has provided the documents at least 3 times that they've asked for!
This situation is becoming unbearable for her and us as we can't pay the rent forever! Has anyone any ideas on what we can do ? Its very stressful for us all.
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Replies
https://www.lgo.org.uk/
The process is to register a formal complaint with the council and get them to try to resolve it first. There may be a second stage at the council then it is onto the LGO. The local council here had its very first LGO fine for mishandling a HB issue.
What appears to be happening is that the teams that deal with (legacy) HB are being reduced so they don't have the time/skills to deal with these claims which are moving over to UC.
Is there a reason why she wasn't transferred over to UC?
The law is like an ocean - have a swim but don't drown.
If she’s just changed address within the same local authority there is no reason for her to required to claim UC. She is entitled to continue to receive HB.
Definitely going to put a complaint into the council this week if she hasn't had an update.