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Help, letter from council, regarding fraud
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Admit what has happened, an oversight, work with them and make arrangements to payback the amount.petethesteam wrote: »We won't lose our council house, will we?*SIGH*
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i, myself have not paid rent and my mother being 70 has a lot of reduction, she has absolutely no money apart from a very small amount of savings which is actually a loan.No you wont lose the council house, only way you will lose that is if the rent isnt being paid!
we are both very scarred, but kind of relieved that we are in a position to have to do it.0 -
_pale_ I take it she hasn't told the housing benefit section that you are living there either, if she gets a lot of reduction.petethesteam wrote: »i, myself have not paid rent and my mother being 70 has a lot of reduction, she has absolutely no money apart from a very small amount of savings which is actually a loan.
we are both very scarred, but kind of relieved that we are in a position to have to do it.*SIGH*0 -
_pale_ I take it she hasn't told the housing benefit section that you are living there either, if she gets a lot of reduction.
I wondered that to - housing benefits should not be knowingly paying CTB on a CT account with a single-persons discount where they know there to be a second adult in the household. They would normally correct that straight away.
However, if benefits are covering the CT and they are aware that the OP is living in the household, then when the OP tells the CT department and the SPD is removed, the net effect for the clmt and the OP will be nil - the claim will recalculate the benefit due and make up the defecit. So it could be ok.
If they don't know the OP is in the household and have been paying benefits, then when the SPD is removed benefits will still cover it but a non-dep deduction will need to be taken for rent and ct, which could be a whole lot worse. She could also have overpayments due to loss of disability premiums if she is considered disabled.0 -
Did your mum tell the council she was living there alone before you moved in 4 years ago and the SPD just continued? Or was it after you oved in when she told them?petethesteam wrote: »My mother has today received a letter from her local council, stating that their records show that she is receiving a Single Person discount, as she has told them that she is the only person living at her address. The problem is she is not, I am also living there and have been for 4 years. What do we, do we come clean or can we get away with saying that I no longer live there or have just moved in. I have never paid any council tax, but am not claiming anything, and am currently £30,000 in debt? Please what do we do?0 -
Yes, she had lived alone since my father died 10/11 years ago, I was travelling backwards and forwards to the states, then that all fell through and I moved in just until I found something else, due to lots of problems over the last few years that never happened.Did your mum tell the council she was living there alone before you moved in 4 years ago and the SPD just continued? Or was it after you oved in when she told them?0 -
I wondered that to - housing benefits should not be knowingly paying CTB on a CT account with a single-persons discount where they know there to be a second adult in the household. They would normally correct that straight away.
Thats one of the big issues we have in my dept - sometimes its a long time before we find out and even then its often just by luck - inter department communication is not what it should be.I no longer work in Council Tax Recovery but instead work as a specialist Council Tax paralegal assisting landlords and Council Tax payers with council tax disputes and valuation tribunals. My views are my own reading of the law and you should always check with the local authority in question.0 -
Thats one of the big issues we have in my dept - sometimes its a long time before we find out and even then its often just by luck - inter department communication is not what it should be.
So much I could say about financial accuracy and external audit and brown stuff and fans. Coming soon, to a benefits department near you. :rotfl:0 -
Pete, has your mother been receiving Housing and Council Tax benefit since you moved in? As has been mentioned above, her claim will have to be amended back to the date you moved in. If the single person discount is removed, they will recalculate the Council Tax Benefit accordingly and there will be no change.
The question therefore will be, should a non-dependent deduction apply? And if so, how much will it be?
First of all, does your mother receive disability living allowance? This comes in two components, care and mobility. If she receives the care component at any rate, no non-dependent deduction will apply, regardless of your income. If that is the case throughout the period, then you are in luck. There are other circumstances under which no non-dependent deduction applies, but I am not going through them all here.
Now, let's say that a deduction does apply. The amount depends on your gross income. If you are on a passported benefit - income support, jobseekers allowance (providing it's income-based) or employment and support allowance (providing it's income-related) - or if you have other benefits or earnings amounting to less than £85 (doing this from memory so that amount may have been wrong, but it won't be far off) then the deduction will be £2.30pw for Council Tax Benefit and £7.40pw for Housing Benefit. Over 4 years that alone would build up to £2000-odd. But if you were working, there is a sliding scale of deductions which go up to a maximum of £6.95pw for Council Tax Benefit and £47.75pw for Housing Benefit if you have more than £350-odd (again, this is from memory so others may correct this figure) coming in.
Any questions, please ask.0
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