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Invasive_Frost

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  1. The title says it all really. Been in the property for over six months now and every letter that is for the previous residents has been returned unopened but still they come. Any stratergy to stop them would be welcome! Thanks
  2. A word of caution, if your friend is claiming Income Support then she will only receive £10.00 a week, with the rest being taken as income and thus a reduction of Income Support.
  3. Thanks all for the quick replies, it was the Belfast connection that confused me, glad to see that they're part of Scotcall and not a fictional company. No not in Northern Ireland, South East England! Never mind CCA letter will be sent.
  4. My OH has now had a DCA catch up with her. Just wondering if anyone has heard of these guys (a search of the forums didn't reveal anything) and if possible a proper address. (Would hate to send a CCA request to a PO box address.) Incidentally their website is payscotcallonline.con.
  5. Zamzara: The argument from the council is not about the relationship or otherwise of batty and H, it is about whether the property is commercially let. Whether a property is commercially let is an area which does come down to the criteria that individual councils have to decide upon themselves. (I suspected as much when I first posted to this thread and have confirmed it by looking at the regs). There is no legal reason not to appeal as far as I know (IANAL), but i suspect that they wouldn't win, although I do not have all the info about the tenency agreement etc so may be wrong. Batty_UK maybe if I knew which local authority it was you applied to I could do a little digging to see what their criteria are and whether you did in fact satisfy them? (PM if you don't want to give where you live away!)
  6. Ok sorry it was late when I was reading. Unfortunately I don't think that there is any way for your son's ex to get housing benefit at the house you own, it's very unlikely even at appeal that anyone would see it as a commercial rent. They have a duty in law to check that it is a commercial rent, but I believe it is down to them what criteria they use to decide this. Things they are likely to look at include: Is there a valid tenancy agreement. Has the property been rented out on a commercial basis in the past. If the rent is paid will the tenant be evicted. Is the rent charged at a commercial level (i.e could you get another place of the same size, in the same area for a similar amount) There will also be many other criteria but that gives you the general idea of why her original claim was turned down. If you can afford it the best solution all around is to lend her the money for a deposit on a new place I'm afraid. If she is on benefits there is a new way of working out how much she will get and there is a calculator here: https://lha-direct.therentservice.gov.uk/Secure/LHASearchIntro.aspx which will tell you how many bedrooms she will be entitled to and how much rent she could get (this is a maximum which she will get if she is on income support.) The other thing you could do is give her notice to quit. The local authority has a duty in law to re-home people who are in danger of homelessness but, in almost all cases I have heard of, initially try to fob you off and tell you that they don't have to re-home you and even when they do it will likely to be into B&B accommodation. Additionally if you were to move back into the house you would almost certainly be overcrowded according to the terms in the Housing Acts and H should be re-homed due to that, however being that they have somewhere that is warm and dry they are not going to be a priority. The best people to get in touch with about this (who will help you (or rather H) with the local authority etc) are probably Shelter, you can find your nearest advice centre on this link Shelter: Advice services directory or perhaps even the CAB. Sorry I can't be of more help!
  7. Ok just so I can get this straight before I start looking into regs etc to try and help. You have moved into a rented flat and your daughter is living in the house you own?
  8. Honeybee: Most likely to be paid as one lump, but I'm afraid it'll go to the agents. If you get any further questions / problems then may I suggest starting your own thread?
  9. Honeybee, they will backdate it to the Monday after you you applied, unless you applied on a Monday. At least this what what my local council does.
  10. Whoever you spoke to is wrong that it has to be on their appeal form. The following is taken from the DWP's advisor's site at DWP - NI260 - Part 3: The appeals process - Making an appeal Providing all the information needed Letters of appeal can be accepted, but only if they contain all the information needed to deal with your appeal. [sSCS (D&A) Regs 1999 33] An appeal will only be accepted if the form or letter: is signed by the person who has a right of appeal or by a representative who has written authority to act on their behalf gives the date and details of the decision under appeal, or enough information for the decision to be identified contains the grounds for the appeal. It is not enough to say that you are unhappy with the decision. You must say why you think the decision is wrong. I guess that they have already sent it back to you so that's not a lot of help, so when you get the form fill out the short part with date of decision, name NI number etc and just write "see attached" in your reason for appeal and sign it. If possible make sure you keep a copy of the form and take it to the jobcentre and ask whoever you speak to there to give you a receipt so that if it goes missing you can still prove that you got the appeal in within the time limits.
  11. If her passported reason for claiming Income Support is that she is a single parent then it will affect that also and she will need to claim Jobseekers Allowance. If the reason for claiming Income Support is due to another reason (for example being unfit for work sue to illness) then it wont.
  12. I just re-read you first post on this thread and I had mis-read it, i thought you'd said that he'd claimed Incapacity Benefit when he was first told not to work, but I realize now that you meant for Jobseekers and this February, so sorry for asking about the conts issue. (Unless you did mean feb 06 or he did try to claim back then in which case go back to them and HMSO and get it sorted). I am afraid to say that he is unlikely to get anything now either from JSA or IB because there wont have been any conts in the last tax year (in a claim now i believe that they will be looking at the three years up to April 2007) and because of your earnings it's unlikely that he'll get anything now. Let me know what the council eventually comes back with, it might be worth writing to them again now, just to make sure that the payslips etc are not all that they are intending to send. All the best. Frost
  13. I know how you feel GodMother, when I worked at the DWP the local advisory organisations knew which officers would be helpful and which wouldn't and importantly were able to call them directly and talk to them, something which has now been taken away (at least in my local office) since they now employ a "telephone team" who are not even trained in how to administer the benefit, only how to look up common questions about when payments are due etc. therafalution: I was always under the impression that senior managers were not telling ministers the whole truth, manipulating statistics to try and show that nothing was wrong, MPs never find out how bad things are because when they write to a local office things suddenly start working very quickly!
  14. I forgot to answer one of the questions you asked. If you claim IB then you will need to continue to send sick notes until you go to a medical examination after which time you will not need to send in the notes any more, but they will send you to see one of their contracted doctors on a regular basis. This information is subject to change as the rules for claiming IB are changing soon. I will know more tomorrow as I am meeting with a friend who still works there and has just had training about the changes that are happening soon. Also make a note in your diary for the fifteenth of July as that is the date you will need a new sick note from your doctor, that is assuming that you got the note today and that they don't send you for a medical before that date. It is also worth noting that if you don't have a sick note for the entire period of a payment they will not release a payment so it may be worth going to your doctor a week or so early to make sure that there is no inturruption in your payments.
  15. My question is answered then. Thanks all, now just to wait and see what Lowells come back with!
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