council tax benefit costs??

[maybelline]

council tax bill generated for single person on IS. while waiting for council to receive (approx 1 month) info from DWP re the IS, the council issued a summons to court for one payment for one month.

once informed that IS was in place they agreed to withdraw the summons and then passed a charge of £77.00 on to the claimant! also refused to repay the full months payment the claimant borrowed and paid on receiving the summons. council also refuses to refund the sum paid as a small sum of less than ten pounds is payable monthly due to adult son still at home.

also - providing evidence of someone else in households income?? is this possible when not the claimant and nothig to do with the claim.

[old_andrew2007]

bump

[ss002d6252]

Technically they are within their rights to charge - under legislation awaiting benefits is not a reason to not make payments you have been billed for - however, it is good practice for councils to write off costs if benefits have covered the charge in full.

Any other resident in the property has to be assessed on the benefit claim to see if the income they have will affect the claim as they may be deemed to be able to contribute towards household costs.

If the person is not resident on the household then you need to speak to the council ASAP to find out what has happened with the claim and to get it amended.

[maybelline]

hi thanks for this - I see, however, the charge has now been returned as an error, also, when the months full council tax payment has been received, it does seen odd to send out a summons, - also withdrawn now as an error.

[waterbottle]

Is there a definition of 'household' that is different to that of living within the same dwelling.

For example, if Bill Gates is my flatmate, why should it affect my income. He doesn't give me any money.

This sounds like a flawed rule unless household means family group.