I received a letter yesterday from Medina Credit chasing monies to the tune of £328.90 for my old property address which I vacated back in July 2011. They did not state what it was for just saying that they are acting on behalf of Mount Green Housing Association regarding an outstanding debt. I cannot understand what it is for as when I was living there nearly 3 years ago I was a single mother with 2 children and on full housing benefit, so I know it's nothing to do with rent arrears. I left my flat clean and tidy, even the tenancy agreement stated that the tenant is to remove all personal possessions and rubbish, which I did. The only thing I left behind was my carpets (which were in good condition). To be honest I physically could not pull up carpets 2 floors up and dispose of, however I do think it's a cheek that the Housing Association have not contacted me in nearly 3 years and passed this straight on to a debt collector. I have emailed the housing association asking for proof of this debt, so I wait for the response but going on past experiences with them they are totally incompetent and make mistakes all the time. I didn't know if there was a time frame to chase money when you vacate a property because 3 years is ridiculous. The housing association have not followed any protocols at all when chasing money, so just wondering where I stand really any help much appreciated

Good afternoon lovely clever helpful folks, We are in a housing association property and do not receive any housing benefit. We have always paid our rent in full on time, however last year when they hiked up the service charge and rent they did not increase my direct debit amount properly. I was unaware of this as my direct debit goes straight out my account and every year when it increases they have always changed the amount automatically. Anyway when I got a letter saying i was in arrears last September i agreed to pay more money on top each month to start paying towards arrears. However this will take forever to pay it off and I wish I had more of a fuss at the time as it was their maladministration as well as my foolishness that resulted in the arrears getting so high. Now I am unable to successfully bid on a bigger property to move to as I am in arrears, even though I am paying it off. Do i have grounds to request that they clear some of my arrears? Thanking you kindly in advance for your advice xxx

Hi, I hope that I have found the right place to post this, I am new to this site and looking for some advice if possible please. I rent a flat from my local council, Dacorum Borough Council. There is a real problem with mould and damp throughout the flat. This is causing me great concern, more from a health perspective than any other. My husband has lung conditions and had a double lung collapse not very long ago. After having several people come and look at the mould on behalf of the council I still have no answer to how to prevent or cure this. More than one person has said that they think the mould could be due to overcrowding. I have two daughters in a very small room. I have been told that I should leave the window wide open (yes actually wide open) at night, even though this is a ground floor flat! I have asked for a transfer, but the council has told me that I am not classed as overcrowded. Please can anyone tell me what the guidelines are for deciding if I am technically overcrowded or not? Thanks in advance Jackie

Hi all, I've recently received a request to pay £98.98 for what is claimed to be a housing benefit overpayment from when I was unemployed. I got a letter from my landlord (northern ireland housing executive) basically saying they overpaid the benefit and if I don't contact them within 7 days a debt collection agency will be called in. No offer of any proof simply pay it. I've contacted them to ask for some sort of proof etc.. since my memory of is this: Once I started my job, I contacted them and informed them, they had some scheme where I would receive 2 weeks rent as a "sign off bonus" but had to provide payslips, I could not do so in the time frame so they billed me and I paid it. This was 6 1/2 years ago, and I do not have financial records from that time to prove anything. My father reckons there is some statute of limitation on this. Is that true? To be honest I really don't have £100 lying around to be able to pay this and I really think they are wrong on this and the fact that they left it for 6 1/2 years seems to be a joke to me. Any advice? Thanks Thomas

Looking for a little bit of advice regarding HB overpayment. Mrs Hawk looks in on an old chap up the road and at 82 he's not in the best of health and gets himself in a tiz. He's just (yesterday) received a notice from the council demanding an overpayment of circa £2,000.00 for the rent element of his benefit. No explanation, just a demand stating the overpayment occurred between Sept 09 and March 2014. I've had a brief look through his paperwork and without fail he has retained and filed each pension notice and DLA award with the council notice and each seems to reconcile with the benefit awards being correct for each period. There is one minor exception for 2012/2013 for the council tax element which was for an overpayment of £00.10! He has no savings beyond a couple of hundred quid for emergencies, no assets and lives in a 1 bed housing assoc bungalow. I'm going to try to get an appointment for next week with the council so we can try to work out why the sudden demand.... Is there anything he should be requesting from the council, barring the obvious breakdown to establish how it has reached its conclusions?

I have today received a letter from my local council stating that they have reason to conduct an investigation into a claim for housing benefit and council tax support and have been given a date and time to attend an interview regarding any capital or savings I may have and which I have not declared. Although I have no savings or capital I am still worried and would like to know whether this is just a standard letter that is sent out I look forward to your replies. i am an oap and this kind of thing worries me.

If I decide to move to another part of the UK, will I still be able to claim Housing Benefit or will I have to explain why I have left my original town? I will be privately renting. Thanks for any advice.

I have been self employed for less than a year and was receiving full hb during this period. When I informed hb that I have started self employment last year , I was asked to submit a business plan for the next 6 months which I did and I showed that my income is expected to rise and even treble with this plan as I will add several parts of business strategies to earn more. However after 9 months I was offered a full time job with a great earnings and I phoned them immediately to inform them of this job. I was asked if I would continue self employment to which I replied that I am not too sure depending on the new job. I also sent my contract. Now after 2 months they have written to ask for payslips for new work, bank statements, all my invoices for self employment, if I am doing both etc. I want to end my housing benefit as with the new job I got I had to stop within 2 weeks as the pressure was too much. I did not receive payslips and reg payment I owed this company 3 years ago for money borrowed from them and they have retained the money. We have now decided that instead of full time I do contract work for them on a "when needed" basis. I have worked on and off with them and still no payslips or payments. I do not dispute as I know I owe them a big sum anyway. My second problem is family wise, I have a non dependant child who loves to come and stay over every time he wants, I told her that if she decides to stay full time, she will have to disclose his earnings to the council as I am on hb but she does not want to listen and refuse to give details of any earnings. Therefore I want to stop claiming HB and CTB and work at my leisure the number of hours I want in contract and self employed. What can I do, because I am stopping my claim I dont want to provide any bank statements , I can provide them with a part final account to see my business situation but I am tired to have to report all changes all the time and I am confident I will earn enough with my biz ventures as to not need benefit. Can I stop the claim now, whats the way of stopping the claim easily without any more details request. Thank you Therefore to solve all these matters, I

...no mention of Council Tax Benefit (yet). This will make the bedroom tax look benign in comparison! Lose your home at the stroke a low-paid jobcentre worker's pen, with ramped-up sanctions targets to meet or the jobcentre worker is also out of a job. Mass homelessness for 100000's possibly millions of people. http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2014/02/27/part-time-workers-to-face-housing-benefit-sanctions/#comments

Five disabled social housing tenants have lost their Court of Appeal bid to have benefit cuts for those with spare bedrooms ruled unlawful. Judges said the court could not intervene in the government's "controversial" housing benefit changes - dubbed a "bedroom tax" by critics. Lawyers for the group had argued the regulations applying in England, Wales and Scotland failed to reflect the accommodation needs of disabled people. They said they planned to fight on. The court also ruled against two lone parents who claimed the government's cap on the total benefits paid to families violated human rights laws and common law because of its impact on vulnerable families. More ...

Hi All, I need some help. In October 2011 our rent at our privately rented property was increased. Unfortunately our landlord wouldn't give us a new contract which is specifically states in the regulations for Housing Benefit we need to produce to amend our records. As we couldn't obtain this document we decided we would rather underclaim what we was owed and keep our payments the same. Big mistake!! In September 2012 my wife started part time employment of 6 hours a week term time only which was perfect around dropping our 2 girls to school. When we recieved the wage slip we notified HMRC to correct our Tax Credits, when this document came through detailing all her employment details we took this to the local council to scan a nd send to the Benefits Dept for Housing Benefit and issuing us with a receipt. Our benefit changed slightly but not as much as we expected and we thought that is great that the government are actually supporting young families getting back to work. We continued along until the following April when I myself was organising a huge community event which attracted 15000 visitors and bringing tens of thousands of pounds into the local economy. In March I was acculmating a large amount of documents for the event and had a big clear out, which we got rid of a lot of old documentation including the receipts as I believed as it was some 7-8 months old we wouldn't need it and if there is a problem, the council would have copies. In April we received the renewal document from the Housing Benefits to our year ahead. At the time just weeks before this event I was under huge pressure from the council to meet all the safety criteria, I overlooked this letter somewhat and assumed that the local council had inputted all the data correctly into their system. A few weeks after the event, my wife got her hours increased. This was great and really helped us out financially. When her new payslip came through again we notified HMRC and the local council. We then got a letter from the local council asking for more information. As we have always done previously this was returned promptly as we have always provided them with everything they've asked. It now became apparent the original documents we provided for them were never received and didn't get from the front counter to the relevant department, not only this there was now no trace of any receipts to support my story. A secret investigation was launched where letters signed by a "Fraud Investigator" was sent to our employers, I'm sure you can imagine what opening a letter signed by that would cause in a place of work? I was invited to a formal interview which I had to take annual leave for, the day before the meeting, having all this stress over Christmas, one of the investigators phones to say the person doing the meeting has to rescedule to due personal commitments. I refused this and the interview went ahead later the next day that originally planned, allso to top it off one of the investigaters arrived 30 minutes late (I like to know what would have happened if I was that late). It became apparent they couldn't prove or disprove we provided the information so instead focused on me overlooking the renewal form. Which I admit in hindsight was foolish of me to accept the council would input the data correctly which lead to an overpayment of £2000. We spoke with CAB who confirmed the overpayment but our Housing Benefit had been stopped and CAB said this shouldn't have been as we still qualify. It also became apparent that our change in benefit after we notifed the council was because HMRC notified them of a change in our circumstances but unlike on every other occasion they decided not to act on this occasion. Because of ironically a large back payment from the council and some support of our in-laws we was able to pay the overpayment back in full rather quickly, and this was something the Investigator said would go in our favour. I have now received a response from their investigation saying they now want to fine me an additional £1000 for my error. I admit openly I should have paid more attention to the renewal form, however the same council was placing me under huge pressure at that time for unrelated topics and I also feel the council should shoulder at least half the responsibility for the overpaymen t in the first place as they was made aware by both ourselves and HMRC and failed to act. The stopping of Housing Benefit brought the family to its knees and caused us to rely on my now maxed out credit card to pay for our food and every penny we had and what we can borrow went on paying off the outstanding as fast as we could on the advise on the investigators. I'm worried this further fine will cause of even further financial hardship. Are the council right or can I do something? I can't fight this as the CAB put us onto a solicitor who said we don't qualify for legal aid as we are both working and wanted hundreds of pounds to just attend the formal hearing. HELP?

Please can someone tell me how much housing benefit I could recieve if say I found a bedsit studio flat with 1 bed and I'm a single person claiming JSA in London

I have just been awarded ESA WRAG with a 12 month prognosis based on mental health. I am likely to appeal for support group. Unfortunately i may not be able to live with my dad for too much longer as his girlfriend is pressuring him to sell up and move in with her before the end of the year. If this happens would i only be entitled to the shared accommodation rate of housing benefit (~£67 a week where i live)? Due to severe soial anxiety any form of shared accommodation wouldn't be viable. If this is the case then there would be a shortfall of about £30 per wek between that amount and the lowest available properties; though if i were to get support group (far from assured even though i believe i have a good case) then with the enhanced disability premium added that would be £22.55 added which would make it manageable (i know that some landlords won't house benefit claimants but that's a problem for another day). Thanks for any help.

Hello - I wonder if anyone can help? I'm looking for a house to rent for me and my daughter - I'm on Income Support - but all of the properties I'm finding are stating 'no DSS'. However, If I ask my (working full-time) ex-husband to make the application with the lettings agency - so his name is on the contract, his bank details etc - would that then be an issue when it came to making a new Income Support claim for the new property - my name not being on the contract - despite him being my daughter's father? I have a feeling the answer is yes, but I can't see any other way around this? Many thanks.

problems with local authority got married march 31th this year informed dwp as i was receiving esa wife got job for min wage for 21 hrs my esa stopped may only give ni credits 2 apps to la they climed theyd lost (on line) sept 28 still not sorted after 2 vists to la in last 10 days given bank s/ments and all they had asked for, got recepits] after 1st visit got letter saying we had to attend an interview under cation as they believed a fraud had been committed got that sorted over phone in 3 days it was the previous occupant of the house yesterday revisited la to find out what was happening as hadf been told i had to make a new claim. wrong again i didnt however had to give another s/ment more or less the same as last one of 10 days prior, this time they said they wanted my wifes trading accounts. (allready filled in and returned statement of self employment) further they wanted sight of our daughters (step) daughters bank account to peove that she had not been working since exam finish and uni start, further they wanted details of her student loan and her maintenance grant. bomb shell dropped when they said that as she was at uni they if they made an award would make a reduction in tax payable any body got a clue as how to proceed

Hi Folks New on this forum so forgive me if I am asking something that is a well trodden post. Lets set the story so far: About a year ago I had a patchy employment history, first year of self employment an all. So I was signing on and off JSA and Housing Benefit like a yo yo. Anyway I had been defering payment, a dca was after me for the money, I disputed the money with the debt collector and now its been passed back to the council. I have written to the council requesting a breakdown of the housing benefit which they have oblidged. Having looked at the amounts and weighed my options I have decided to pay. Can anyone show me a suitable template letter to ensure they cancel any negative remarks on credit reference agencies and come to a final settlement? Eg not adding on dca or other legal costs. Ankh

Hello I would be extremely grateful for any help or advice for the request below. My niece wants to move in with her mother who has a two bedroom flat. The flat is no longer council but owned by a housing company. Can anyone please tell me what my niece will be liable to pay when she becomes a tenant? When i say bills i don't mean, water, gas, electricity. Will payments have to be paid to the housing company? I forgot to mention my niece is in full time employment. Mods, sorry if posted in wrong forum. Thanks for help. Dan

Today, totally out of the blue. I've received a letter from the council titled: Suspension of housing benefit and council tax support I'm currently on ESA for mental health issues and have no reason as to why they would suspend my housing benefit? The letter reads, I refer to your claim for housing benefit, I must inform that your claim has been suspended on **********. This is because we require a full update of your current circumstances? My letter also includes me to return the following that apply to myself; Proof of Earnings Non-Dependant Income Proof Of tax credit Proof of employment and support allowance Proof of all Capital I'm really confused as to why this has landed on my door and for what possible reason? Maybe it's my illness kicking into over drive, but it's really got me worked up? Nothing has changed, I'm still the same as I was when I first claimed. The only change I've made to my claim; getting the payments paid to me and not my land lord which was completed the week before xmas, I received a cheque. Please help me regards

Good Evening all, I am new to this forum but wish I had found it years ago! Some fantastic advice on here... I will explain my situation and if anyone can offer any advice or help it would be much appreciated... Sorry its complex! I am an NHS student and receive a bursary while I am training. My husband and I started a business in April 2012 after he was made redundant about 6 months earlier and found it impossible to get any work. We have children whom we pay for childcare for. We are in receipt of HB CTB CTC and WTC. After the first year of business we just about broke even (£600 profit) before any salary could be taken for either of us. At a meeting with our accountant before she prepared our books she advised that one of us account a notional salary from the business. It was decided that £5200 would be accounted through the books for my husband. We were to receive nothing in cash as the company simply had no cash. This was basically to use some tax allowance for that financial year and the money would be drawn in a future year where the company was able to pay something but against the tax allowance for 2012/13. This appealed to both of us as we are hoping to get a mortgage after I qualify and it would mean that the books wouldn't be accounting one larger sum in a single year - instead it would be split over the books for two years. We decided that it seemed sensible but I said that I would have to check with HB, my bursary, tax creds etc first... as we wouldn't actually be getting any money from the business we could not afford for it to affect any bursary or benefit as we wouldn't be able to meet our outgoings. I phoned all relevant places and was advised by all that if we were receiving nothing in cash then it wouldn't affect anything. tax credits were the only place that advised that it would be accounted but said as it was below £6000 it wouldn't affect the amounts we received. Now fast forward to October 2013... I was asked to provide the profit and loss for the company 2012/13 which I did and they responded saying two things... That the profit and loss showed that I wasn't a director of the company - I am and have provided proof of this, only one director has to be named on the profit and loss That my husband received a salary of £5200 I disputed this and yet again told them that it was notional and that we did not receive any cash as the company was only £600 in profit. They then asked me for all tax credit award notices since 2012 - I have these and am taking them to be scanned on Monday but they show the notional salary of 5200. I am unsure of what they are trying to establish but have a horrible nagging feeling that the notional salary should have been used in calculations (simply because it is for tax credits). I know I have definitely discussed it with people in the processing centre but as it was brushed off as unimportant have never followed it up. Anyone any stance on this... as they are dating back to April 2012 they are wanting £7000 back???? Do HB record their calls as I feel this is probably the only way I can prove that I have discussed this. Laura

I saw this on the news a few moments ago. Shocking. Full story and comments - http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/tenancies/prs-landlord-to-evict-tenants-on-housing-benefit/7001479.article

Hello everybody, I am new to this forum, so HELLO EVERYBODY and thanks for the support you offering - it is precious I am desperately worried that I can be refused Housing Benefit, in which case I wouldn't be able to afford paying the rent and finished up living on the streets, please help if there is somebody with some expertise on this issue. My situation is as follow: I married for 19 years ago and moved in into my husband property which he already owned. He remains the sole owner of the property; I was never added to any property deeds and he always was responsible for all bills related to the property such as mortgage, Council Tax, utility bills etc. He also never supported me financially; we never had a shared account, credit card etc. I worked first, but later developed serious mental health problems and relied on Incapacity Benefit and now State Pension (I am 62 years old) and Disability Living Allowance, which I am awarded indefinitely at a highest care component rate and lower mobility component rate. Over the years our relationship irrevocably broke and it come to the point, when it become impossible and detrimental to my mental health to continue to live with him in the same home. I recently found a flat and sign the tenancy agreement with a private landlord, to whom I am not related in any way. I don't know if this has any bearing on the case, but the flat is in the different borough then the properly I moved out from. While filling the Westminster Council HB form I came across the question: "Were you able to afford rent when you moved?" Obviously I had to answer "No" to it. On further research it transpired that there is a rule, I believe 7(1)(1), in the Housing Benefit regulations, called Unnecessary liabilities -whether the claimant can be refused Housing Benefit on the grounds that she or he has taken on an unnecessary liability, which they already knew they could not pay, and which they could have avoided and still been adequately housed. My ex husband is of old age (82y) and of ill health himself, and he continues living in the house, which is his only property. There is no way I can move back to live with him, so if I can afford paying the rent, the only option open to me would be to live on the streets. I don't think I could cope with that. I am quite desperate with the whole situation, I saw a glimmer of hope when I found the landlord who would accept a tenant in my position and was able to move out from the very difficult situation and start to rebuild my life, but now this seems to be sleeping away from me. I would be very grateful for any clarification on the issue and where I can find help if the council refuses me the HB. Many thanks to you all - M

Why does housing benefit pay the full cost on a rented property (£400-£500 per month) but will only pay the interest on a mortgaged property £80-£120 per month. leaving me over £300 to find while on Employment and Support Allowance of £71.20 per week. Surely this is discrimination against the house owner. Is there any way round this . I would love to challenge this ruling in the courts. does anyone know where/how to start proceedings.

Hi I would be grateful for any advice . I am a single parent at university on housing Benefit I informed Housing Benefit I was at university and believed everything was fine however 3 years later after one year at Uni , one year on Income Support at home and last year at Uni ,with one and a half years to go to finish my course , Housing Benefit wrote and asked to see all my bank statements for year 2010 sept to july 2011 . I sent these to them , now they have asked to see every bank statement I have had for last three and a half years and want documentary evidence for payments out of my account , They are also asking for bank statements for an account I do not have. The amount of paperwork is huge .Are they allowed to ask for so much personal information some of it will be very hard to get . When I moved into where I am living it was unfurnished and my ex partners mother bought me furniture and I have been paying her back as I am able but obviously after 3 years she will not have receipts and also it is personal information ,Also other payments they are querying are rent payments despite them being labelled rent and them having tenancy agreement with my landlords name on ,I do not want to contact my landlord for a confirmation letter because I do not want him to think there is a problem with my rent ,Also they are querying a payment into my account of 130 from my sister which was just to help me out ,they are saying this was an income is this correct Thanks for any advice k

A friend is a secure tenant renting from a housing association. In 2006 the landlords decided to extend their existing communal aerial scheme to include the maisonette in which she lived. There had never been one before and she was adamant she didnt want it as she knew her loft aerial was working well on analogue and digital. The landlord had claimed to be trying to ensure tenants in residential blocks would not lose reception come digital switchover. The service charge was for the 'Tv connection point and the landlord has continued adding the weekl;y amount to her arrears despite the amenity not being there . There simply isnt a connection point in the dwelling. All there is an aerial on the roof and a roll of cable which could be eventually ran into the building and the connection plate fitted then. The landlord issued notices of intent to possess in /2010/2011/2012 but didnt take it to court and in December 2012 wrote a letter claiming to have already issued possession proceedings which turned out not to have been done. In Nov 2013 they issued proceedings I am wondering whether the landlord is entitled to make a claim to arrears for a 'service' called the 'tv connection point' when it hasnt been installed Also whether the landlords 6 years of apparent noise and bluffing (including claiming a year ago that the proceedings had been issued when they hadnt) amounts to such acquisence in reality that my friend can claim estoppel ? The landlord has not been consistent/sincere so far in terms of gestures towards enforcement and the 'defendant' could hardly be expected to have taken them seriously. Could she potentially claim (counter claim) for harassment The interesting dimension is that she maintains in an y event that the advice to government pre digital switchover was that few people would need a new aerial. The landlord didnt conduct any testing and she says that this means all tenants forced to have a communal aerial who werent previously in such a scheme have almost certainly been paying for nothing, the 'service' being of no amenity value as existing aerials were doing and would continue to do the job The landlord has ignored all such representations and seems to be at least maintaining intention to proceed with the possession proceedings I'm a little concerned that the courts deal with these possession rent arrears cases like a conveyor belt and wonder how the judge might receive such arguments especially from an unrepresented litigant in person Any advice on any of the above would be appreciated

Hello everyone, I'm new on the forum although I have been reading here for some time, I am hoping somebody could give me some advice on some issues I am having with my landlord. I am a Housing Association Tenant with an assured tenancy. In May of this year the roof began leaking water into the flats above me and then into the electrical cupboard which is adjacent to my flat. This issue was reported but nothing was done until I made a complaint regarding the matter and then two months later a scaffolding appeared and we were informed that the problem had been fixed. However, following some days of heavy rain in August the roof began leaking again and this time came through into my flat, ruining my carpet, a rug and the paintwork on the walls (all of which are my personal property). I made a complaint regarding this matter and in the mean time I consulted a solicitor, who advised that I should disregard their complaints procedure and write to their chief executive and asking him to provide compensation for the damage. However, my landlord has responded to my complaint by saying that I should claim on my own contents insurance (which I do not have) and but if I do not have contents insurance I must submit a claim to my their insurers accompanied by quotes for replacements and they may consider my claim. I would just like to get peoples opinions on whether I should play ball with the insurers or whether I should contact the CEO as per the solicitors advice. Also my second question is, am I entitled to refuse access to one of my landlords agents? I do not wish to deny my landlord (the Association) access but there is just one of their employees that I am not comfortable dealing with due to their past conduct and attitude towards me and I just do not want them either in my home or contacting me. How does the law stand on this matter? I would like to thank everybody in advance for taking the time to read/respond to my thread.