Housing Benefit Fraud - Please help, very desparate

[Lorraine856]

Good morning everyone and thank you for all the replies and comments that have come in.

 

Leemack - I didn't know that you could claim HB if you didn't have other benefits but I learnt here yesterday that you could. I've thought over what you and everyone has said and because I am not working and haven't been since before December last year and also that I am now quite poorly and will be for a while, I believe you are right and that I am entitled appeal. I still have the money because my parents and boyfriend agreed to help me out financially while I was sick so didn't really touch my bank account from the time of my op until now.

 

My feeling is that I just want to be free of the worry of it all. I feel sick just thinking about being cautioned or taken to court and I know you've all said this is unlikely but until it goes away I won't be free of it. I would rather pay the money back and hope they will leave me alone after that.

 

I am really grateful for your help though - truly I am. You sound very experienced. Please don't think I am ignoring your advice out of arrogance. I can't cope with too much at the moment but if I were well enough I would probably fight. xx

[sillygirl1]

If you really can't deal with this yourself you have the right to appoint somebody to deal with it on your behalf, they will have the power as a Mackenzie Friend to help with the legalities of the appeal and to speak on your behalf. This is free and you would need to agree with the person that they are only dealing with this matter and none other. They do not have to be a relative but can be somebody who can navigate the system for you.

 

You can also do a simple statement of fact and get it countersigned by a solicitor (think it is about £40 - known as a SWEAR) stating your case and leaving it to the system (which stinks and isn't always right - they have tried to sanction me for applying for JSA benefit when I had 'income', said 'income' was HB!

 

Hope this comes to a sensible conclusion ie that you are ENTITLED to that money and may in fact be ENTITLED to even more money as you are unwell and need constant care.

 

Have you tried the entitledto website where you can check to see what you should be getting? A lot of the rules changed in April and the Benefits people have tried to backdate the changes which they cannot legally do.

 

I had HB paid from day 1 of my redundancy and only JSA after 3 months... the JSA people have been abominable but HB have been fine. HB even offered to give me a caseworker should I need one when my JSA ends in September... hopefully I will have found a new job by then.

[Surfer01]

If you were signed off JSA becasue you had to go into hospital, did you claim ESA? The ESA` payment woudl have been the same as JSA but the housing and council tax beenfit woudl ahve remained without any issues. IMHO you are entitled to the benefit and shoudl nto eb paying them back. Launch an appeal as you are in the right!

[leemack]

Its totally your choice what you choose to do. Only you know what you can cope with. I don't take offence at all and respect your right to choose your own path.

 

Even if you don't fight please get a med cert from your GP - it can be backdated 3 months and claim ESA which you are entitled to.

[phoenix11]

Lorraine - just to make sure you don't have any other 'surprises', have you also checked the situation regarding your Council Tax too?

 

If that was also being paid along with HB, they will have been notified that you were not entitled to CT benefit.

 

Best to check with them as well because they will be the least accommodating if you are deemed to owe them money but you haven't paid because you didn't realise you had to.

[id6052]

Lorraine.

 

As Leemack explained, if you had no or little income during the overpayment period, you would be advised to ask the Council to offset any underlying entitlement to benefit that you would have been entitled to based upon your correct circumstances.

 

I have known several cases where this has resulted in the whole overpayment being wiped out and the fraud case being dropped.

[Lorraine856]

Dear all, sorry not to have replied to all your posts yesterday but I had a really bad day healthwise. I rang the council today and spoke to a really helpful lady who said that if I paid the money back that would be an end to it. I'm not conviced though - it seemed too easy. I still feel like something horrible is going to happen to me. She did say that it s a standard letter though so that reassured me a little bit

 

Jadeybags - I would be interested to hear your story as it seems close to mine.

 

Thank you to everyone that replied. I have taken it all on board and thoght it all through. I will keep you informed of progress.

 

best wishes to all x

[Surfer01]

Never mind what the council state. Get advice from CAB as it seems you should be entitled to the benefit and not have to pay back a single penny!

[jadeybags]

You definitely need to find out what you are entitled to. Have you used any of the online benefit calculators?

You certainly dont want to be paying them what they're not entitled to. I paid mine off, but mine had been worked out & I had definitely been over paid. I actually thought by more than they said, as I had by then found an online calculator that someone posted a link to on here.

If they had told me I owed more than I thought, I would have questioned it.

Definitely dont pay them until you have used that calculator. Once you have, get back on to them & say that you dont owe that much, if any.

In fact your local councils web site may even have one, mine does.

[Surfer01]

Here si the link to the calculator https://www.turn2us.entitledto.co.uk/entitlementcalculator.aspx

[Lorraine856]

Surfer and Jadeybags - I have used the calculator links you have given me and I am still entitled to claim full housing benefit and council tax as I am not working and have no income except what help my parents and boyfrined are giving me. I won't be able to work again for some time due to illness but I will be able to at some point.

I think I will appeal the overpayment now.

I would like to say that I feel so much better about things now than I did even this morning. This is a fantastic resource for people and you are all really supportive, helpful and knowledgable people.

[sillygirl1]

The Benefits people are not always in the right about alleged overpayments... it is always best to check entitledto.com and then you can always print out the results as part of your evidence of eligibility to claim (I used it against the JSA recently).

[Surfer01]

Good for you. Keep us updated and come back if you have any questions Here are some links for some bedtime reading! See http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2006/215/contents/made#83 and http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2006/213/contents/made

[Lorraine856]

I will do - thank you again x

[leemack]

Make sure you appeal on all the grounds - and put in that ESA claim.

[muppetspotter]

I've been in a similar situation - the problem is that if you are on JSA, have to go on to ESA and then back to JSA it is a nightmare so complex that even the DSS employees are confused by it. The whole system is tilted towards long term benefits and JSA cannot cope with those ill for 1-6 months - temorarily....your situaiton doesn't surprise me - I'm not recommending that you do this but consider sending in a letter informing them that you are surprised that they have continued to pay you housing benefit whilst you were sick as you clearly informed the JSA at the time of the ESA that you were moving onto ESA and in with your folks. You had assumed, quite reasonably, that as the JSA tell the council about housing benefit claims that they would inform them when the claim was no longer needed. Stress your illness and that you were not functioning fully or reasonably and that the situaiton was an entirely reasonable mistake to make. Hell, even they struggle with understanding the system! Makes my blood boil the whole system is designed to help those who are experts at playing it whereas it is rife with traps and over complex systems to catch out the genuine claimants.....wish I had't bothered paying NI for 25 years!

[Nystagmite]

You had assumed, quite reasonably, that as the JSA tell the council about housing benefit claims that they would inform them when the claim was no longer needed.

 

But if you look at any letters you receive, they clearly state that the claimant must tell them about changes in their circumstances.

[jadeybags]

Then there should be no over payment & they have the hide of a Rhino asking for anything back. Nothing wrong with family helping out at times, that's by the by & none of their business.

[leemack]

I've been in a similar situation - the problem is that if you are on JSA, have to go on to ESA and then back to JSA it is a nightmare so complex that even the DSS employees are confused by it. The whole system is tilted towards long term benefits and JSA cannot cope with those ill for 1-6 months - temorarily....your situaiton doesn't surprise me - I'm not recommending that you do this but consider sending in a letter informing them that you are surprised that they have continued to pay you housing benefit whilst you were sick as you clearly informed the JSA at the time of the ESA that you were moving onto ESA and in with your folks. You had assumed, quite reasonably, that as the JSA tell the council about housing benefit claims that they would inform them when the claim was no longer needed. Stress your illness and that you were not functioning fully or reasonably and that the situaiton was an entirely reasonable mistake to make.

 

No this is incorrect advice - as we've established the OP has a legitimate claim to the benefit and is appealling the decision. When appealling its important to be specific about the grounds and not confuse the issues.