Housing benefit stops because temporary work

[id330uk]

I am in jobseekers' allowance and I have done several times temporary work and when I brought my payslips to the Housing Department my entitlement to housing benefit was recalculated and sometimes I was awarded 0 entitlement and I was not paid anymore Housing Department during a specific period but my claim was not closed.However last time I did temporary work and I brought my payslips to the Housing Department my claim for housing benefit was closed entirely. I have been told by the Housing Department that my claim was closed because I earned too much.I would like to know if the Housing Department has not wrongly closed my claim for Housing Benefit because I think that as long as I live at the same address I am entitled not to have my claim closed and in case there are changes in my earnings my entitlement to housing benefit should be simply recalculated.I think that if every time I do temporary work I have to do a new claim for housing benefit this will be very inconvenient specially that last time the Housing Department did not inform me of the closure of my claim. The Housing Department told me that a letter was sent to me in October telling me that my claim for Housing Benefit is closed but I never received this letter.I would like to know what is the law which deals with this issue because I would like to know if the Housing Department has properly applied it. Because of the closure of my previous claim for Housing Benefit I have to do another claim and I have to ask to have it backdated and I would like to know what to tell to the Housing Department to convince it to backdate my new claim.

[id6052]

if your income is too high and you cease to be entitled to hb, your claim should normally be closed

[pandaspot]

How long are the breaks in your claim?

[id330uk]

I have been told that my claim was closed several months ago and I noticed nothing. If id6052was right there will be very little incentive in taking up temporary work because not only we have to make a new claim but we have to wait a long time before being paid again Housing Benefit especially if we are not aware that our claim has been closed. Unless id6052is wrong and we are entitled to '0 entitlement' instead of having our claim entirely closed only because we do some temporary work but this depends on the law which deals with this issue. It is why I would like to know this law.

.

[pandaspot]

Well generally if there is over a months break in the claim then we will insist on a new claim being done, but really it's down to the individual councils how they deal with this. Where I work, I would personally just do a quick form with you and assess from there. Some assessors may wish to do the longer form with you? Either way (again where I work, it's not nationwide) you would be interviewed all info taken from you, within a fortnight of first contact, and claim paid asap. Which depending on dwp assessing your jsa promptly could be paid, then your claim would be paid that day, or the following. Or the dwp may send in a rapid reclaim form form that you would have completed and we use that.

 

But all that is where I work.

 

Nationally, other la's work differently in the new claim process. But regardless it's a new claim and a form is needed

 

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/hbgm-a2-claims.pdf page 24

[id330uk]

I think that to earn too much for a short period is not a good reason to close entirely a claim for housing benefit otherwise this will cause too much inconvenience and it is why I think that when I previously did temporary work sometimes I was paid ‘0 entitlement’ but my claim was never entirely closed. I think that maybe in the Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 it is made reference to a five weeks period during which the claimant should receive no housing benefit before his claim being entirely closed but there are other Housing Benefit Regulations for other years. I think also that all these regulations apply in the same way to all the councils . I would like to know if I am right or wrong on these points

[pandaspot]

But if we have assessed your claim and it's nil entitled we aren't going to keep it open to see if you then go back on jsa, that would mean way to much work. We would need to diary date your claim to check in 4 weeks to see if your entitled again. Sorry but assessors have so much work at the moment and this would just add additional stress on an already stretched service.

 

This is policy written by central government, maybe it would be best to discuss with your local mp, and see if he can bring it up in parliament? Perhaps when hb goes and uc has been brought into your area then the system will change?

[pandaspot]

Also maybe your claim was never fully closed down cause it was suspended. Maybe just delay providing the info? As the claim can be suspended for 1 month, you then have another month to supply proof for claim to be reopened.

 

If it nil then claim is closed asap

[id330uk]

My claim was already assessed and I was entitled to HB. Last time I did temporary work my claim was not suspended but entirely closed. To close entirely a claim after someone has done temporary work will give a lot more work to the Housing Department because it will be necessary to make another claim and the Housing Department will have to assess it entirely. What is important is the law which deals with this issue but on condition that we know it. If we want to complain to MP it is necessary first to know the law.

[pandaspot]

Oh I don't know the particulars of the law, I follow the regulations and guidance I am provided with, perhaps write to the housing benefit manager at your local council and ask for the particular law etc. they should have that information for you?

 

The only time we can close a claim and reopen without a form would be after an extended payment. We cannot reopen a claim without a new claim form after it being closed for longer than 4 weeks.

 

I will have a quick look through all my stuff for a particular law ref for you, otherwise I hope someone irrv will come along who is up on the law refs. Surely you won't need to go to mp with that info anyway, can't he/she get access to that, from hb manager etc

[san_d]

I have been told that my claim was closed several months ago and I noticed nothing. If id6052was right there will be very little incentive in taking up temporary work because not only we have to make a new claim but we have to wait a long time before being paid again Housing Benefit especially if we are not aware that our claim has been closed. Unless id6052is wrong and we are entitled to '0 entitlement' instead of having our claim entirely closed only because we do some temporary work but this depends on the law which deals with this issue. It is why I would like to know this law.

.

Unfortunately if you are not entitled then your claim is closed. I agree with you, there is no incentive to move from the dole to temp or part-time work. The pain is bigger than the modest earning you get from the job.

 

Look at one of my previous topics. I had to request to close retroactively my HB claim as I had a part time job with fluctuating hours and mu council made a mess. This way I got peace of mind but I lost probably a couple of hundred pounds.

[pandaspot]

I found this ref for you relating to the local authority closing the hb/Ctb claim if no longer entitled

 

Hb79(1); hb60+59(1); Ctb 60+50(1); Ctb 67(1); dar 8(2)

Taken from guidance books we are given

 

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/publications/specialist-guides/technical-guidance/rr2-a-guide-to-housing-benefit/claiming-housing-benefit-and-council/ relates to closing of claims

[id330uk]

It seems to me that we have to do the difference between end of entitlement to housing benefit i.e. we are paid ‘0 entitlement’and the entire closure of the claim as long as we live at the same address

 

I find strange that if we have received housing benefit for a long time our claim is closed only because we earn too much for only one week because of temporary work

 

Maybe I have found the answer because in the Housing Benefit Regulation act 2006 I have found that when we are paid weekly our entitlement to housing benefit is calculated over five weeks period. Hence maybe we are paid '0 entitlement' and our claim is also entirely closed when we have been earning too much for five weeks. In reality I am sure of nothing and I still not know exactly the law on this issue

[id6052]

there are 3 common scenarios that occur where a person is doing temporary work

 

scenario 1 - temporary part time work on a very low wage

If you are doing temporary part time work, the earnings are deducted from your JSA, however if you are receiving a very low wage and you retain some entitlement to JSA, you continue to be entitled to HB/CTB.

 

scenario 2 - temporary work that relates to a past period and has ended

If you have done temporary work for a past period and returned to JSA before your HB/CTB has been reassessed, the LA can do a closed period supersession, this means they reassess your HB/CTB for the period you were working to a nil assessment but your ongoing HB/CTB remains in payment.

 

scenario 3 - temporary work that is ongoing

If you are doing temporary work which is ongoing when your HB/CTB is reassessed, the LA will reassess your HB/CTB and if your income exceeds the level at which you would qualify, your award is terminated. If your income decreases at a future date or if you reclaim JSA, you would need to make a new HB/CTB claim.

 

It appears that on previous instances, you may have fell into scenario 2, but on the most recent instance, you have fell into scenario 3.

Edited January 11, 2013 by id6052

[id330uk]

My situation was that the temporary work was not on-going but I was not yet into JSA again because my rapid re-claim for JSA was being assessed. However in the letter that I brought to the Housing Department accompanying the photocopies of my payslips I stated that I made a rapid reclaim for JSA and that I was waiting for the outcome.

[id6052]

what period did your temporary work cover?

what date did your previous award of JSA end?

what date did your new award of JSA end?

what date was your HB/CTB reassessed?

[id6052]

what date did you put in the letter and payslips?

also did council send you any letters asking for payslips? if so, on what dates?

[id330uk]

When I brought my payslips it was in reply to a letter fromthe Housing Department asking me for my payslips. These payslips related to three andhalf days of work in the previous month and to nine days of work in the same month.My previous claim for JSA ended three weeks earlier because I worked more than16 hours per weeks. I did not know in what date my claim for HB for reassessed andclosed because I received no letter telling me that my claim for HB was closed

[pandaspot]

What date did your claim for hb stop? And what date was the claim reopened? It's really hard to answer or give help if you don't have this info?

 

End of the day you are arguing about regulations and they need to be addressed by central government/mp not anyone on here or the local authority that assessed your claim.

[san_d]

For any single change or circumstance, however small, my council will stop my Housing Benefit claim. Then it takes up to 8 weeks to reinstate it. Yes, you might get all your money back, but it is discouranging.

[pandaspot]

Yeah I can imagine it is very annoying to reapply and then it takes a period of time to be reassessed. It does need to be looked at, thing is we are bound by what central government says. unfortunately we have to close the claim and then reopen when circs change ie awarded jsa.

 

If op knows when temp job is due to finish , then maybe when change of circs done, to notify of work, put in new claim straight away for when job is expected to finish. You can claim 13 weeks in advance of when your situation will change and you will be entitled again. However we would have to wait for jsa to be awarded before awarding hb.

[id330uk]

I always believed that we have up to four weeks to make a claim for housing benefit when we move in a new accommodation not to lose benefit. However I read that housing benefit is paid only from the Mondays after we make a claim what means that we have to claim housing benefit immediately after having moved in a new accommodation and not to wait four weeks.

 

I would like to know if there has been a change in law and when it has taken place

[silverfox1961]

Hi

That is true however most councils will allow you to apply for backdating should you have a valid reason for not claiming earlier.

 

There is also the ability to claim housing benefit for two homes should the need arise (you have to move before your old tenancy runs out)

[id330uk]

But if the reason why I did not claim earlier was that I was mistaken and I believed that there will be an automatic backdating of up to four weeks I do not know if this will be considered as a good reason by the council to ask to have my claim backdated.

I know that for claiming working tax credit there is an automatic backdating. The main point is to know if there has been a change in law few years ago and I can maybe put forward as reason why I did not claim earlier the fact that I was not aware of this change of the law

[id6052]

if you are in receipt of IS, ESA(ir) or JSA(ib) when you move, you have one calendar month to make a claim for it to go back

 

if you are not in receipt of IS, ESA(ir) or JSA(ib) when you move, you need to make your claim and move in during the benefit week your tenancy starts (a benefit week run from Mon to Sun)