Hi guys and gals I need some advice please. Basically I lived with my partner and 3 kids and started a new job after having my baby. HB requested my first 2 wage slips on receipt which I handed in and continued to get HB payments. So now this is where it gets complicated. My ex was abusive (we have moved away from him recently) and took all my money for himself so I thought I would buy replacement wage slips with different amounts on them so he wouldnt know how much i had earned. Problem is that I left them with my paperwork and thats what I had handed in to the council not my actual slips. This came to light on monday when I received a letter stating the details HMRC had provided were different to the ones I had. I looked properly into my paperwork and immediately saw what i had done. I went in to the council and gave all 3 of my slips in but now im worried that I should have given an explanation into what happened. At the very least there is a small over payment. My main concern is that they will think I tried to trick them. What should I do and what will happen now ???

Hi Can someone point me in the right direction. We live in County Durham with our 3 daughters aged 16, 13 and 11. Can someone tell me what happens if my eldest who is currently at college goes on to university. Although it's over a year away I was wondering what happens if she goes off to uni but comes home during the holiday holidays. Am I allowed to still keep her bedroom and still receive housing benefit for a 3 bed house. I have tried on the Durham council website but it mentions nothing of keeping a room for s student to come home to. Many thanks

Hello. I am currently getting income based JSA for about 1 year now. I stay with my mum, But all of a sudden my mum is saying i need to pay £27 towards to rent as the council will only pay £109. So why now do i need to pay. I have a brother who gets ESA, and my mum gets income support. What are causing the housing benefit deduction, My brother only started claiming ESA this year in march, And all of a sudden the housing benefit is cut. So could someone help me because i am getting the impression the cut is because of me but i have been getting jsa for around a year and my mum has been getting full housing benefit since untill now.

I moved into a housing association property around three years ago. I received a letter from the housing association today stating that they now intend to introduce a service charge for the TV aerial maintenance costs and the door entry intercom maintenance cost. The reason why these new costs are being introduced from the 1st April is that when the tenancy agreement was signed the housing association did not apply the correct charges for provision and maintenance, however they will not be seeking the recovery of previous costs. Surely because a contract had been signed it cannot be changed?

Hi everyone, I feel I am being put into a position by housing benefit regulations of having to consider giving up my job, I would be grateful for any help or advice. My story starts with leaving a job I was in after 12 years as an employee to do the job I am doing now. I started this job in June 2104. Basically I am a door to door collection agent, (like a provident agent), different company. I am NOT self employed but PAYE, I am on a commission only basis and I pay all my own expenses from my Net Pay, e.g fuel, car repairs, mobile phone, wifi etc. these expenses are not recoverable from my employers but from HMRC in the form of a new UTR (Unique Tax Reference). I also pay an accountant annually from my Net pay to calculate my expenses and submit them to HMRC and Tax Credits. I have had no issues with HMRC or tax credits, my award has been altered accordingly, but Housing Benefit will NOT accept these expenses because they do NOT show up on either my P60 or Pay Slips. HMRC are sending me out a calculation to give to the council showing my annual wage after expenses, but I know this will be fruitless, as another agent has been denied after providing his. I have took this to appeal and tribuneral and to my local MP, but I am still banging my head against a brick wall. Housing benefit are quoting me Housing Benefit Regulation 35 2(b) as the reason why I am not entitled. Basically in my previous job on approx £11,000 per year I was recieving £64 per week housing benefit and some council tax benefit. This job after expenses I get £10,700 per year and receive nothing and have to pay back an overpayment of £1900. I am a single parent with 2 teens under 18 and work in excess of 30 hours per week. I love my job and do not want to have to search again, I would be grateful for any advice offered. Thank You

Hi, Hope someone can help. I went to court this morning to defend a possession order. It was above section 8 but before the hearing we got it to £300 below section 8. The Judge said he wouldn't accept the £500 figure made 2 hours before the hearing and the landlord claimed he hadn't received a furthered £600 from October even though the Halifax building society gave me proof that it had gone out my account and the Judge saw that. We had the Duty Solicitor who didn't say what we wanted her to say and didn't defend us. Also the Judge did not let us speak so for example the boiler has not worked since June. I and my brother has text him to ask him to fix it. He told the Judge he fixed it in June, he didn't and I had texts from July and August asking him to fix the boiler. Is there any help or any advice that someone can give us. We expect the eviction order in a couple of days Thanks. 5:06pm: Can you believe after I posted before the landlord who swore blind to the Judge that he fixed the boiler in June even though we had proof he hadn't, has now text to ask when can he come and fix the boiler. Lying Sod!

Trying to get a bit of advice for my step daughter, as with most teen tenants they can be a bit noisy at times and she had some justified complaints made against her, she has listened and turned things around and now has stopped the noise however the complaints keep on coming, the last one came today in writing stating on the 1st of December there was people urinating on cars in the communal car park and that she was verbally abusive towards another tenant, My step daughter was not at her flat all day having stayed over a friends the night before and I myself picked her up at around 5pm I had with me her mother, sister and brothers in the car, and we didn't leave her flat until around 10pm (helping her with a bit of decorating) she has spoken to Gwalia housing about the issue but the person basically got very abrupt and said I don't believe a word you say I believe the complainant (she had the phone on loud speaker so I could here), she informed them she had family members over on the evening in question and he in a round about way blamed them (us) for urinating on the cars in the car park! She told them she was not there during the day and he tried to say it was her friends then, she has asked for in depth information (time's etc) as the allegation was false but he said he was not at liberty to disclose the information, she has had a spare key disappear which she has reported to Gwalia and offer to pay for her locks changing over 2 weeks ago which they agreed to do but as of yet have not done so, so even when she is out her flat is not technically secure so if someone lets them self in and makes a racket would she still be responsible for the complaint as Gwalia says she would be? This is a worry now as she had a warning letter last month and could now loose the flat, as I stated yes she was noisy at first but has now turned things around and is just trying to get on with her life but the officer at Gwalia seems to not want to help and is just interested in getting her out.

Long but i would appreciate some answers, im so sick of these people and their treatment against me, so i beg you help if you can. I lived in one of their properties after coming out from a woman refuge for 4 years with no problems, however my ex boyfriend found me and kept harassing me. I was living in Brent (lets say) and on my report from the police and national DV workers it CLEARLY stated i cannot be re housed in Brent. However i was re housed in Brent, i took this property as i was TOLD if i refused it i will be kicked off the management transfer list as im only allowed ONE choose. so im in the same borough i was fleeing and told not to be housed in. Whilst at this property i had a woman upstairs who racially abused me, harrassed me and threatened me several times. she never admitted to racially abusing me but she did admit to the neighborhood manager, knocking on my door to start arguments (harrassment) and banging on the floor at me (harassment) she was also recorded as i had noise recorders in my flat banging around on purpose to harrass and upset me, however because i only recorded for 5 days and not the whole 14days they said it isnt a "pattern" even though legally a pattern constitutes of more than two occurrences. I also contacted the police who didnt do anything, nobody wanted to do anything. In fact they didnt even want to move me only because i brought up i wasnt meant to be housed in Brent they moved me again. I actually developed BAD depression from all of the above. I was pregnant and i lost my baby from the stress. I have a claim with the Housing obud but they have a "backlog" of work and a year later still NO answer from them. so again im only allowed ONE choose as it is management transfer and im now in Camberwell london again had issues with the neighbor downstairs, he constantly knocked on my door, followed me to the end of the road, stared through my windows, had some stuff on cctv and he admitted to knocking on my door. This time the police were great however Had to go to top management for my neighborhood manager to even tell him to leave me alone. They kept saying its a "police matter" even though it says in the tenancy to not harrass other tenants Instead my NHM was more interested in harrassing me about getting carpet as the man downstairs kept complainin , as when i moved i left my job and was on benefits i had no money to get carpet, so i again had to go to top management to get £300 worth of vouchers for carpet, which ONLY covered a hallway, the flat is BIG NHM never addressed the fact the guy downstairs was harrassing me, in fact none of them did they seem to justify his stalking behaviour with the fact i didnt have carpet like that some how means he is allowed to stalk me because im making normal living noises. NOWHERE in my tenancy does it state i MUST have carpet, it just says you cannot have laminate flooring. they blackmailed me because they gave me £300 which didnt even cover the flat, they constantly mentioned this £300 and said i will have to give it back if i somehow dont carpet the whole flat with this £300 the flat actually cost £800 to carpet and underlay, thats CHEAP carpet too Now final issue the guy upstairs to me has laminate flooring, this is making it very noise upstairs, i have complained about it and stated i was told i had to carpet my flat (even though i could of had vinyl or lino due to tenancy) and again they bring up the £300 vouchers they also said to me that the man upstairs is just normal living noise and they will have to prove he is intentionally making noise i asked them if thats the case why wasnt i considered normal living noise when the man downstairs was complaining about me instead i was harrassed and blackmailed and they said because i had no flooring which i stated is untrue as i had carpet in my living room within 3 weeks of being here and he was complain about noise from the living room. they said guy upstairs has old tenancy and it doesnt say anything about laminate flooring i said well mine doesnt say anything about carpet but i still laid carpet and was told to lay it. QUESTION: I find their treatment of me very unfair, anytime i have a complaint it is brushed off, anytime anyone complains about me it is legitimate. They discriminate against me, ignore me, harass me and apply the tenancy when it comes to me but when it comes to others the tenancy doesnt include. they refuse to deal with harrassment which is stated in the tenancy they refuse to deal with noise nuisence which is in the tenancy for me but for guy downstairs they dealt with it what can i do? (i know some people may think im a nightmare, im not, im an easy target, im 21yrs old, short female who is usually home alone doing my uni work, im an easy target for bullies which is why i get into so many issues) just to add, when i made a complaint about the guy upstairs and his walking in boots on laminate flooring, he got the letter and came and banged on my door bout 20times in a row. I was asleep and he woke me up, it sounded like a police raid no joke. When i complained the next day to the Housing management they said he only wanted to talk to me i said NO this is untrue he wanted an argument, why wopuld you knock on someones door so much and i KNOW if i was a male he wouldnt of been bang down my door like that. they again brushed it off saying the guy is reasonable and i should talk to him, which tbh i dont want to i find him creepy. this guy has started to run up the stairs and stamp on the floor ever since i complained about him, but HM ignore it and act like im making it up because the guy has been here for 8 yrs with no complaints. but they fail to aknowledge the fact his flat has mostly been vacant within those years and the last main tenant who lived here was a deaf old women. the man upstairs thinks he owns this flat, he used to get his visotrs to press MY bell (because its so loud due to the last deaf tenant and his is broken) the fact that he even brings up he has been here 8yrs is irrelvant

Hi everyone,Thank you for taking the time to read my post. I really appreciate any advice you can give me. today we have found out we have had a £5500 housing benefit overpayment over 9 months. We are totally in shock and absolutely devastated about the situation . The council were not aware that my partner had started part time work in Dec 2014 and that I returned to work part time after my maternity leave in April 2015. We did not know that we had to inform the council as we thought it was all automatically done through tax credits/hmrc. We didn't think anything of the amount of payment as we just assumed it was right and put it towards our rent. I know it sounds stupid but it's true. Our housing award kept being updated when our tax credits were, so we just assumed that they were aware of our income through tax credits/PAYE. We have three children and I am so concerned about what will happen to us. I have been told that the case will be referred to the fraud investigations department due to the amount involved. I have been frantically phoning around trying to get some answers in what will happen to us. Will we be prosecuted? If anything goes in the paper my partner will lose his job almost certainly. What are the next stages? We have agreed a payment plan, but I've been told that this doesn't make any difference to anything to do with the prosecution side. I manage the money side of things so my partner is blaming me for this, which I guess is understandable. I'm just freaking out totally at the moment and don't know how long this will go on for. Will I be invited to an interview under caution? All we will say is that we didn't know as this is the truth. We never meant to defraud anyone and our Sorry it wouldn't let me type at the end for some reason.I was just saying that this is a total mistake and the words benefit fraud scare the hell out of me. I'm so sorry for going on but I would really appreciate any advice on what happens next or any similar circumstances anyone knows about. Thank you so much

Hi guys I rent a 2 bedroom house with my partner and 2 children 1 being 3 years old and other being 9 weeks. I pay full rent and work full time but having an issue with these idiots at the moment I called them out to acess the damp to see what they can do as im sick of scrubbing the walls and re painting them he messes about with this laser tool i asked him what he was doing and he says it will tell him how cold the walls was he was doing this for 20 minutes hoping he came to a solution for us his only solution was to keep my heating on 24 hours a day 7 days a week What a stupid solution when i asked him are they going to pay my gas bill he just laughed really annoyed this is one of the worst people i have had a home off nothing but hassle from day one they have never done any work on this place from day 1 of living here 5 years

It's a brand new build, and is suppose to be very energy efficient, however I'm not convinced it has been properly insulated. The heater is a "heat exchange unit", so there is no boiler in the property, just a big unit somewhere else which pumps hot water to each flat which is used for hot water from the taps, and heating. The issue is that I would leave the heating on its highest setting (30), for several hours at a time, but the flat never gets warm, it stays below 20 I would imagine. The radiators warm up (can comfortably hold your hands on them), but no where near the temperature I have seen with gas boilers. I am having to use electric heaters along with the central heating to warm the flat. Is there any duty for them to provide me adequate heating?

I'm a secure tenant in a property. I've recently contacted the landlord asking if they will give permission to let me build a conservatory. But they are refusing to give it! They say its because it will cause more expense if they need to do any maintenance however there is nothing to maintain above where it would be as everything is plastic and maintenance free. It states in my tenancy agreement that I can make improvements to the property as long as I get the correct planning permission etc. but I don't need it as its within the alowed limit and the are not allowed to unreasonably withhold consent but they are! Anyone help please!!

i think i may have put this in the wrong section, sorry I have an issue regarding housing, i currently have a 2 bedroom flat with a boy and a girl sharing a room. I have recently went on the bidding system and i usually come around 20-30 out of approx 100 bidders. The children are aged 12 and 10 and have both hit puberty, arguments all the time which is stressful on myself, normal teen stuff really but i feel it could be minimised if they had their own space, i suffer with depression as-well so sometimes it really doesn't help. I am on the mutual exchange but no one is interested. I cant afford private, would of done so along time ago if i could Is there anything i could do to speed things up? regard louise

Morning I was hoping someone could shed some light for me. We have recently been awarded via mandatory reconsideration high rate care for our daughter, we were already in receipt of low rate mobility so getting the disabled child premium on housing benefit and council tax benefit. I sent the housing office proof of the new DLA award just to keep them up to date and someone said they may add a severe disablement element to the benefit but I didn't really understand that. I did not expect the award to change much as I didn't think DLA for a child was regarded as income as such. Anyway today I received a letter and although not clear I estimate a reduction in housing benefit by around £35 a month and a substantial reduction in council tax support. Does this sound accurate? No other changes to income, I will ring and check but the people who man the phones are often quite rude! Thanks all xx

Hello, 9 I have recently failed my ESA medical after scoring less than the required amount of points needed. I have appealed the decision made by the DWP. I am in receipt of housing benefit at the moment as well. I have claimed ESA a few years ago for a different health condition and once again I failed the medical. At this time I was also in receipt of Housing Benefit and Child Tax Credit and Child Benefit for my daughter, who no longer receives these benefit's but still lives with me. When I appealed the ESA decision a few years ago, I was able to keep my HB claim ongoing as I still had an income from my daughter's CB and CTC. This time however, I don't have this as an income. I am currently meeting my day to day living needs from a small amount of money given to me each week by my other daughter. My concern is will I still receive HB whilst I'm appealing the decision made by the DWP this time around as I have no income of my own? Will Housing Benefit allow me to receive my weekly award if I have no income of my own? I know I will get the basic assessment rate of ESA whilst my appeal is being looked at but whilst I am waiting for my appeal to go through (which I hear takes around a fortnight) I will have no income so I am unsure as to whether I will be still awarded any HB. I hope this makes some sense and I thank you for any help or advice.

I had my benefit stopped in August claiming I was living elsewhere and had a nightmare getting it sorted. At first they said they would just get a copy of the appication made elsewhere for housing benefit and if the signatures didnt match then money would be restarted, no word on that and in the period I got copy of tenancy agreement from my landlord, and a letter stating I never moved out, and a copy of recent bank statement to show I still live here and letter from bank stating my address was never changed, letter from DWP stating my claim began on X date at the current address. Still refused so was told to give copy of utility bill for July to show I was living here, but I am on pre pay meters and only bill is landline/internet which I provide but it was paid late due to being overcharged so was told it was unsuitable, I then provided 6 months of phone bills and still got nowhere. They then ask for copies of bank statements which I provide. Still nothing, I contact again to be told the phone bill is unsuitable because its not itemised so they want a itemised bill. More time passes and they claim now to not have recieved any bank statements or utility bills so I phone again and advisor sents me out a letter saying in the meantime claim can be reopened as the other claim is closed but wants to see bank statements and utility bills again. I do this one last time and wait a few weeks and it is reinstated but not for the disputed 3 months from May to August. I contact again today to be told I have to prove I wasnt getting the money and to do that have to hand in bank statements and utility bills for the period which I have already done a few times!!! I am getting nowhere and the staff talk down to me as if I am lying. I did also try getting MP involved but each time it takes a week to get back to me and they just tell me the same as the council So I am the victim of identity fraud and I am also autistic and suffer from severe depression which is why I am on benefits in the first place and I dont need this!

Hi there, I am hoping for a quick bit of advice. I move into a new property of Monday, and the housing association have told me the following - 1. They want to take photos of myself and my wife for "their records". I am not particularly happy with this as I dislike cameras in general. It makes no mention in my tenancy of this. 2. As we are on Housing Benefit, they want us to start paying £10 a week in anticipation of Universal Credit, so we can build up a credit on our rent account. I have not had to do this with my current council place. Again it makes no mention of this in my tenancy. I am moving from my Council Property with a secure tenancy to a housing association on one of their starter tenancies. I don't want to rock the boat too much as my tenancy will not be a secure one. What can I do? Has anyone else had these issues? Thanks

wondering if anyone has the answer to this - live in Housing Association property and have received Housing and Council Tax Benefit since 2009. Basically I am autistic (and theregore legally a 'vulnerable' person but I only got my formal NHS diagnosis last month at the age of 56) both my autism and my caring duties for some disabled family members mean that it is impossible/impractical for me to get regular full time work and my only option is self employment working from home making craft items. For reasons that are not relevant here I currently receive neither disability benefits for myself nor Carers Allowance.(this may change in the future) My work is essentially upcycling discarded fabrics (I make fancy versions of the old style rag rugs) there are little or no expenses. My autism causes me problems with organisatoin and prioritising and the up shot is that I could sit all day into the small hours cutting fabric and making rugs but forget about marketing the items! the upshot is that although I do intend to make a profit in time at the moment although I am putting in a lot of hours there is little to show in respect of income or expenditure. I have just received a letter from my council saying that I am not entitled to HB or CTB as I am not in 'Gainful Employment" which is a term used under the definition of self employment in the Act that governs Housing Benefit as they term 'gainful employment' as one that pays an income. I will of course appeal ths decision as I think their interpretation is wrong on a number of reasons but I have a question that I would like to thow out to everybody. Essentially the council are disputing that I am 'self employed' under the HB rules. HOWEVER I am not sure that this is relevant because all the websites I have found and all the legislation I have looked at refer to entitlement to Housing Benefit arising if a claimant is in receipt of certain qualifying benefits OR ON A LOW INCOME!!! IN respect of those not on the trigger benefits I do not see anywhere a requirement that the claimant actually has to be in employment/self employment - simply it seems to look at the claimants income and capital. As someone with and autistic spectrum disorder I can get anxious to the point of meltdown - do I really need to risk a complicated fight about their definition of 'Gainful Employment" or is the whole thing irrelevant as I wonder if HB/CTB entitlement arises simply by virtue of being poor (to use a crude but effective term) Have the council overlooked the big picture or have I overlooked something?

Encourage people to downsize starting with that place in London at the end of the mall..

I have searched the forum for this topic and from what I have seen have become very worried. I have realised that I have been getting paid more Hb for a couple of years than I should have. I always informed tax credits of my income and i automatically got a change of financial circumstances letter from Local council which unfortunatley didn't read thoroughly.i thought the Hmrc and council offices linked now anyway (my naivety)as received these notices. It appears by my layman's reckoning i am over paid by about 20 per week maybe less in previous years which will obviously accumulate over couple years. Of course fully appreciate i have been overpaid and will need to repay. Worried sick it may be classed as fraud and of prosecution. Also they randomly paid me an extra 100 in my hb a week ago which alerted me too look at notice. Again think this was due to tax cr messing a payment as my16 yr old staying in ft education and said something about system recalculate s on 1 Sep. But they have now righted my tax cr. Just scared I will end up in court. I today went in council office told them all above supplied them with p60 s pay slips etc. They said they don't appear have anything since 2011 on my record though sure must have as have record me coning in. And also they said very surprised I'd not been asked to provide up date pay slips. Anyway i have found evidence of pay back to 2011 popping that in. Supplied back to 2013 today. I'm working out on worse case scenario its over 2000 !! Just no idea how this will go. Is all i can do is wait. Thanks for any help

hey. in august i received a letter stating i was + £2000 over payed in housing benefits. i phoned my housing officer up she stated that it was cos i didnt provided my payslips even though i did for the first 3 month and then got told i didn't have to any more. so instead of putting my pay slip in i said i would pay it all back in monthly installments which they agreed to. my partner got a job 4 month after i did and had his jsa got cut off so in turn we stupidly thought that the housing benefit had been stopped as well because he was the main claimer. we did not pay our rent for a couple of month because we was trying to get on our feet and making sure we had gas elec and food in thinking later we would catch up with our rent when we was sorted now we he has received a letter saying he is to go to a interview under cation. i am seriously stressing out over this i am an over thinker and am thinking of all the nightmares that could happen. please could some one help?

I rent a ground floor flat from the Housing Association. There was a leak from the flat above (also circle 33) which poured into my cupboard over a period of weeks. (Just found out today after I noticed a stench which smelt like a gas leak). It has ruined the electrical items stored in the cupboard, but circle 33 has stated that they will make good the leak from above and damp proof my cupboard, but I will have to claim on my own insurance for the items damaged. Is that correct? I thought they took responsibility but I could be wrong......

Could someone help with this. I have been living in this property through the council for a month now. I claim income support. HB claim went through fine and they started paying my rent. Today though out of the blue I get a letter from them saying my HB has been stopped because I am no longer in receipt of income support. It's false though. I still claim both carers allowance and income support. Nothing has changed at all. The day after they said my suspension of HB started, I received my 2 weekly payment of IS to my bank account. They now want 2 months worth of bank statements (Why? They have my August bank statement already from when I made the HB claim), they want me to fill in a form titled "Use this form to claim housing benefit if your income support has stopped" (My IS hasn't stopped so if I did fill that form in, I would be lying to them) and proof of all income since I moved into this property. What can I do? Send them a screen print of the IS and CA when it next gets paid into my account? They have put me in the royal crap with rent because I am now in arrears. Thanks

Hi I am on jobseekers allowance at the moment, but would really like to get of it If I was to find a part time job or even a job one day a week or do Avon or something would I be able to sign of jobseekers allowance but still get housing benefit or would I now be put on universal credit and still have to go the jobcentre I am in Warrington and they do have universal credit in this area if that makes a difference

I currently receive ESA. My mortgage lender has been granted possession of my home in 56 days time. I have been offered social accommodation by the council. If I were to rent out my home before it's repossessed would I be able to claim Housing Benefit for the council accommodation, as well as the ESA I am currently receiving? I have been on the turn2us.org.uk benefits calculator and input my details including the Equity I have in my home plus projected income from rental and the results show I will still be eligible for ESA and Housing Benefit. Does that sound right?