housing benefit entitlement + resignation from main job

[general interest!]

Hi

 

I'd be grateful for any HB expertise that people may be able to provide on this.

 

I'm self-employed, on a low-ish income. Most of the income is from one client who i work for on certain days a month. My boss is leaving the company shortly and having been there some years I know it is going to be a total nightmare when he goes. It's a privately run, very badly (or well) managed business (depending how you look at it...from their side or the workers' side...) where me and boss are doing 3 people's jobs rather than just our own, 2 jobs, due to a third person there doing an astonishingly small amount and simply being allowed to get away with it (for a particular reason that would be too complicated to go in to here). The management are on to a good thing with me and my boss doing a third person's job between us, but when my boss leaves, it will make my own position impossible; knowing how they will manage the situation, there will be even further extra work, with great pressure on me to do it and ensure it is done to an ok quality (or I will get the blame). I am likely going to resign when my boss goes and to seek a new role.

 

After I've done that, my income will drop muchly. I am thinking of making a housing benefit claim at the point just after I have resigned.

 

The questions are:

 

a) will the housing benefit department grant me a local housing allowance level on the basis of my *new* income (post-resignation) or on the basis of what it has been previously? It will make a big difference to the benefit level received and is a question that affects my likelihood of making a LHA claim (which I last did a long time ago and don't like to do).

Incidentally, the housing benefit/LHA department can't sanction me like JSA people can, can they, if I leave the main client 'voluntarily' (though in reality the company will have made the position untenable).

 

b) will the housing benefit people seek to confirm that I have left the company? I am thinking of putting on the claim form (when I supply details of my finances/work position), 'I do not give my permission to contact company X, just as I am hoping to get some work in the future from them and know that with prejudices in mind, if they were to think I was claiming housing benefit this would affect my likelihood of getting future work in mind'. Will this be accepted/ignored by them?

 

c) When they come to check my claim in due course (in 3 months or 6 months when they do their standard check that they do on all claimants...whenever it is), then let's say I haven't yet found a new replacement job...if they haven't already checked with the company that I resigned and so on, will they check at that point that I haven't done any further work for them (since the start of the claim)? Again, I don't want the company to be put off giving me work at some future point by getting an enquiry from benefits people.

 

Many thanks in advance for your time!

Regards

Edited December 1, 2011 by general interest!