Housing benefit - can one appeal a decision?

[sisternumber1]

My daughter gets housing benefit. She used to share her house now she is alone:

 

When we sent in her statement of change of cricumstance they worked out her benefit @ 126.92 per week, then two weeks lter they have worked it out at 98 per week. Rent officer decision.

 

Her rent is 600 per calender month.

 

She gets Disability Living Allowance both at top rate, Incapacity benefit longterm, and we have applied for Income support - dont know how much now.

 

At 98 per week it will mean there will be a shortfall of 175 per month towards her rent. She will then become homeless and the local authority will be responsible for housing her.

 

How came they awarded her 126.92 for 2 weeks and then took 28.92 away after the first two weeks. I do not understand this?

 

Any way the question is can we appeal this? and if so to whom, the HB office say there is nothing that can be done!

[MilkTrayMan]

Hello sisternumber1!

The following links may be of help to U...

 

Welfare Benefits 1

 

Benefits

 

 

...

[Joa]

sisternumber1; your daughter can ask for the decision to be reviewed and also for a written statement of reasons. She needs to write to the local authority within one month of the latest decision letter.

It could also be that her whole rent was not taken into consideration; sometimes there is a difference between the rent which is taken into assessment and the actual rent, if the latter being higher then the "eligible rent". For example, the local rent officer has decided that the maximum rent for this particular home, in this particular locality should be £450. And all the calculations will be conducted on £450 rather then £600. So you need to find out what is the amount of rent taken into consideration. You can find your local housing advice provider in Shelter: Advice services directory

And finally, your daughter can always apply for discretionary housing payments. Shelter: Discretionary housing payments

DHPs are discretionary; means that you are not guaranteed anything but depending on your circumstances, you may be awarded. They are designed to help with housing costs in cases of severe financial hardship, vulnerability etc.

Your local authority may suggest that your daughter moves into a cheaper accommodation- this must be pre-emptied in a personal statement which can be attached to a DHP application. Because of a discretionary nature of DHP and the fact that we are nearing an end of financial year and the local authority coffers may be nearly empty, you either lay it on really thick about how difficult it would be for your daughter to cover the whole rent herself or how real the threat of homelessness, or impossible to find cheaper suitable place to live or especially high costs due to disability; or wait till mid April, when the local authority's finances are better.

Do not forget charitable trusts which you can also approach adviceUK : Charis – But Lots More Available!

[Joa]

Just to explain; I appreciate that you have given quite a lot of information about your daughter together with various amounts but calculating entitlement should not be done without or instead of proper advice session and I will personally whip anyone trying to do so.

There is simply too many variables and there is a significant risk of a mistake, which may lead to underclaim or unmanageable expectations.

[sisternumber1]

thanks joa

 

have started the ball rolling re discretionary payments.

 

For whatever reason, the local Authority has indeed brought down the eligible rent for that house, apparently its bad luck but the Rent Officer has been looking at and resetting rents in the last two weeks! Even though the sort of housing they would have to sort out for my daughter should she find herself homeless would be better then what she has and the rent may well be higher. The house she is in is unadapted, and my daughter manages in various ingenious way to get up and down the stairs, and if she has a really bad day she sleeps on the sofa downstairs, although I have intentions of replacing said sofa with a day bed for her so that she would at least get a comfortable nights sleep. MY OH has put a stair rail in, and we have arranged furniture in a way that she has always got something to grab hold off. The house is too small for her to use her wheelchair in doors, and anyway she cannot manoevre said wheelchair because of her very bad choulders, one has had a replacement socket and the other needs one.

[Joa]

You are welcome, sistenumber1. We are mums in a similar position so I understand your situation. I hope you will be awarded DHP and that you will find a good source of help locally.

[loan_ranger]

sisternumber1, it would seem that the Local Authority were paying the higher amount (for 2 weeks) pending a determination from the Rent Officer. As mentioned by (the excellent) Joa, you only have 4 weeks within which to appeal this. I would add to this, that by Law the Local Authority cannot re-refer the rent to the Rent Officer until another 12 months after the previous determination (or after the appeal decision).

 

The Rent Officer also takes into consideration whether the rental property is larger than "needed" by the claimant (and their children if they have any) and will reduce the Eligible Rent accordingly.

Please forgive me if I got this wrong -

you mentioned that your daughter had been sharing "the house" with another person who had moved out, so it might be that the house may have more rooms (e.g. bedrooms) than H.B. is legally required to help with.

 

Seeing as your daughter's disability is increasing, how about contacting Social Services for a new needs assessment (particularly for her housing needs)? A single friend of mine who has M.S. was re-housed by them (after a couple of months) to a ground floor 1 bedroom flat, later they got him an electric mobility buggy.

[Goldlady]

Far be it from me to even try and better the great advice given above as it is not something I know a lot about, but I know when we had trouble with claiming council tax benefit a letter from our MP worked wonders.

[ALBRECHT]

APPEAL APPEAL APPEAL DO IT

 

These NON-GOVENMENT councils think they are the Lord Mucks

They are messing me around too, BUT take no crap of them

 

Stage 1 - Appeal to Rent Officer Via Council Normally

Stage 2 - Appeal to Re-Determination Officer

Stage 3 - Appeal to Independant Tribunal

Stage 4 - Ask the SOCIAL SECURITY COMMISIONERS to Investigate

Stage 5 - IF YOU GOT THE GUTS, Send them a 7 Day invoice for the outstanding they owe you then small claims it!!!

Most Council Web-Sites have a BENEFIT CALCULATOR hidden in the benefit section on their sites

From experiance they seem to base the rent on the tax band that is out of date by todays property value, And the amount they award would NOT pay a rent for a dog kennel,

Also their is a COUNCIL TAX APPEAL TRIBUNAL that I am currently researching for future cases, I shall see what other action we can do against these GREEDY OVERPAYED ONLY WORK 20% OF THE TIME COUNCILS.:grin:

[loan_ranger]

We had a good thread going here until the rantings of one person spoiled it. Keep it constructive and well informed, avoid generalisation and conjecture, provide evidence in support of your arguments.

[Joa]

Stage 1 - Appeal to Rent Officer Via Council Normally

Stage 2 - Appeal to Re-Determination Officer

Stage 3 - Appeal to Independant Tribunal

Stage 4 - Ask the SOCIAL SECURITY COMMISIONERS to Investigate

Stage 5 - IF YOU GOT THE GUTS, Send them a 7 Day invoice for the outstanding they owe you then small claims it!!!

On what grounds would you advise sisternumber1 to appeal?

 

 

From experiance they seem to base the rent on the tax band that is out of date by todays property value

Absolute bollox. This is the information about TRS The Rent Service (TRS) - frequently asked questions - FAQs

 

Also their is a COUNCIL TAX APPEAL TRIBUNAL that I am currently researching for future cases, I shall see what other action we can do against these GREEDY OVERPAYED ONLY WORK 20% OF THE TIME COUNCILS.:grin:

You are very angry Albrecht, aren't you? I was just wondering how is this relevant to OP. One thing it's certain however- much more research is needed; outrage and anger do not make good welfare specialist.

[sandraroff]

please please get someone from social services to go and see your daughter. it is very possible that they will put in all the aids she needs, for free. they did with my dad. it is also possible that social services will give her all the help she needs on the housing application. and will cetainly push for a more suitable type of accomodation for her. failing that, citizens advice are angels in disguise and will help every step of the way. hope it all works out well.xxx

[ALBRECHT]

I'm not angry!!! and hope not to spoil this thread and community, BUT in support of entitlement! usually 80% if the council awards less and it's OWN website benefit calculator states MORE, it seems to be based on a property valuation made by the Rent Office, Now for example if you were to buy a £40k house the mortgage would be £225 p/m if you were to rent out that house, you would expect the mortgage to be covered by the rent! and some profit (But I'm not looking at Profits) Therefore a £40k purchase would rent for £225pm BUT todays property values are not £40k so in order to buy a house at the current trends we are looking at valuations around £120k so a mortgage would be apx £600 pm! if you were to rent that house out, you would expect £600pm to cover the Mortgage, LIKE THE MANY PROPERTIES IN THE CURRENT RENTAL MARKETS! Having said that, The Rent Office IS basing their valuation of rent on property value that is EQUAL to that found within the Council Tax Bandings! ie

A house bought 10 yrs ago for £40k is now worth £120k, If sold then the mortgage would be £120k, The council tax banding for that property is still Band B! If the RO don't use those figures to assess the valuation, where do they get their low valuation figures from that certainly do not reflect any market valuation? I have put this question to them for a client, their answer "We look at other rental values and property prices" MAYBE SO but are they looking at CURRENT property values instead of either the Tax Banding or 10 year old valuation figures!

The house price quoted above (£120k) is in an area that sees all the immediate properties at the same value!

[Joa]

You are correct- Rent Officers seem to use lowest possible amounts to decide the local reference rent. This often doesn't cover the actual rent. That's why in my initial post I have advised OP to address this issue.

What worries me is that you seem to be working "for a client" and as was wondering in what capacity? Because if you put things to client like this:

usually 80% if the council awards less and it's OWN website benefit calculator states MORE, it seems to be based on a property valuation made by the Rent Office

then it' not only highly incomprehensible but also shows lack of understanding of how eligible rent and online calculators work.

[babygirl10873]

could you please help. my father is having problems recieving housing benifit he has worked all his life until around 5 years ago he was attacked and resulted in him drinking 4 houses away and having a mental breakdown. he sold his last property 2 years ago split the money with his partner and used the money to live. he was allowed to rent the property back from the buyer as he had no plains for it for a few years. He did this paying his own rent for almost two years. He and his partner are back together and owe arround 120 thousand between them. i have explained he had no choice but to sell as his debts were to big and he needed money to live. they argue a person can not claim for a property they used to own until a period of 5 years i appealed this and sent them a letter from his GP explaining he had a nervous conditon and rarely left the house. now they want receipts of rent payments a copy of statements since sale to see where all his money has gone the list goes on. I have a feeling another list will come after this. can anyone advice as he is now 2500 in arrears with the rent and may be evicted. any suggestions would be benifical

[Joa]

babygirl, I am sorry, it sounds like your dad had hellish experiences recently. It also look like he needs quite an in depth advice. I would strongly suggest that your dad calls Community Legal Advice

They can offer free, independent and confidential advice regarding HB and eviction. It appears that your dad has a considerable amount of debt. National Debtline, for FREE CONFIDENTIAL and INDEPENDENT ADVICE call 0808 808 4000 This is an excellent source of help when it comes to debt: non-judgmental, high quality advice- he really needs to give the a call.

With regards to Housing Benefit- few very basic points: this is why they are asking your dad what happened to the proceeds of the sale: DWP - Resource centre - Information for local authorities - Publications - Guidance and manuals - Housing Benefit Guidance Manual - Part B - BW1 - Assessment of capital

This is why they are treating him as "not liable for rent payments" therefore not entitled to HB: DWP - Resource centre - Information for local authorities - Publications - Guidance and manuals - Housing Benefit Guidance Manual - Part A - A3 - Liability to make payments and occupying the home

 

You have to insist that the tenancy is a commercial one. A commercial rental agreement is, whether a tenancy or a licence, imposes legally enforceable conditions on the parties to the agreement. If one party breaks the agreement, the other party has the right to go to court to seek redress.

 

With regards to eviction: who is his landlord? Private or social housing? Did your dad receive an eviction/possession seeking notice? How much is his monthly rent and how many months he is behind?

 

And finally: is he in receipt of any sickness/disability benefits?

[babygirl10873]

hi thank you for all the good advice yes it took a while but is on incapsity benifit he owes around 2 thousand in arrears and his landlord bought the house because he had a friend at the estate agent where my dad went to put the house on the market. i just dont know how long the landlord will wait before evicting him. He knows he can rent it very easily because the area is well sort after. Hes a business man who is only intrested in making money thats how he got to purchase my dads house think the estate agent was doggy and made money from it. i know he does not work for that estate agents anymore.

 

will they eventally pay or can they compleately refuse. i am a bit worried because dont know if he can explain where every penny went.