Back dating Housing benefit

[jadeybags]

A friend of mine is part time self employed & claiming working tax credits, she get very little, if any, profit from her work, her council have cancelled her housing benefit as they said they didn't have enough info about her income, she's been getting HB years. Usually full housing benefit.

Anyway she rang them & they said sorry yes, her email crossed their letter to say it's been cancelled. So they do have the details they wanted. Problem is apparently they have told her because she is self employed, they don't backdate the claim, so now she is in arrears with her rent.

Does this sound right?

She's all set to pack it in & just claim full benefits for now! She has a young son.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

This is a problem that affects self employed people

at what ever level of income, maybe for the rent

arrears a crisis loan from the social fund may be

the answer for the immediate problem.

If the work she does is SE casual work with a varying

income it is difficult to assess what the council will do,

perhaps the work provider could help (if there is one)

an average weekly/monthly income.

[jadeybags]

Oh dear, poor thing, how crazy is that? I don't see why the back dating issue should be different for employed or self employed people.

I will mention the crisis loan. Her income does vary, she makes items & sells them on eBay. She only realised when she did her tax return how little profit she made last year! In fact it came out at minus 1500 pounds! But first year of business I guess that's the breaks, & she's already upped her prices so should do better this yr. Also she's aware that the council don't use the same expenses as HMRC when working out her profit, but even so, it seems a bit tight that she's in this position. She could still be on income support without the headache!

She did say they do base her income on an average, & she has to go to the LA every 13 weeks to update details.

[jadeybags]

She said she can't get a crisis loan as she isn't on IS or JSA..