worried sick

[suewell]

I have been sent a letter from HB office telling me my housing benifit is suspended

and that I have to provide proof of income.

 

Reasons given is the the DWP has informed them my benefit ceased in Dec 2012.

 

The letter is not the usual susupension letter as I have checked against the letters recieved previously.

 

background:

 

I was separated from hubby in 2012,

in October a DWP investigation into whether he was living with me was started,

 

he was living and working in Staffordshire, I proved he was not, case ended.

 

I was on JSA at time,

 

on 7th Nov 2012 had an op was transfered onto ESA

was paid for six week

the op caused bad depression as the problem was not resolved if anything made worse,

 

in this time my HB was suppended and then reapproved.

 

ESA stopped and on 25th Dec and

 

again on 16th Jan HB wrote and suspended my benefit.

 

My benefit was repaid after informing them I was not any other benefits

( I dont have proof of this as I cant go back on my AOL/talk talk account to see if I rang,

but remember taking paperword to local housing office, but again no receipt.

 

My benifits continued.

 

In june 2013 hunbby came back to house,

I informed DWP for child tax,

filled out new forms and wrote to HB, have copy.

 

saying he moved in, what date and his average wage per week.

 

Today I went to Citizens advice as the letter I have recieved from HB said a reply had to be returned by today,

 

I had scoured yell.com and phoned every local and non local solicitors for 15 miles

and non of them now deal with this ( apparently its to do wiith funding).

 

In a letter from council tax dated 21/1/2013 it says that I have to ring and make a new payments arrangement for old Counil Tax

owed that was left when hubby left in 2012, as I was no longer recieving benifits,

I rang and sorted new payments to them.

 

After visiting CAB they had booked me in with a debt advisor instead of a benifits advisor today

who rang council on my behalf and asked for extra time to respond,

 

had a short conversation with a girl from CT about it

she seemed to know and after putting the phone down said you will have to come back

and see me after they work out what you have to pay back, depending if its fraud or not.

This stunned me to say the least.

 

I am still no further at all with this,

they had booked me into see the wrong person for debt rather than a benifits advice person,

 

I am desperate,

I have read some terrible stories of cautions and fraud and I have to say I have made some mistake on this myself.

 

Firstly not reading the reviews form the HB office properly and having them pointed out to me today

that what I thought they were telling me I was entiltled to is actually what they thought I was on

and re-reading it it does clearly say

'' you say you are in reciept of EAS'' above the other wording.

 

I am in one hellof a mess and dont know what to do.

 

As far as I am aware I told them every time I had a change in circumstances,

although the letter from the 16th Jan I cannot remember what information I supplied,

but my claim was re instated.

 

The letter I received about not paying me ESA anymore arrived way before this date

and Iwould have sent the last letter I got and bank statements.

 

If anyone has any idea what I am supposedd to do please could you post, to say I am living a nightmare is an understement.

[estellyn]

Take things one step at a time.

 

Provide the information you have been asked to provide, details of your income from december 2012 and your husband's income from when he moved in. Provide payslips, bank statements, benefit awards. do not post them, take them to the housing benefit section and get a receipt.

 

Then wait for the next step - they may just come back and say you have an overpayment or they may call you in for an interview under caution.

[caro]

There's no point getting into a panic about what has happened in the past. You haven't been invited to an Interview under Caution, and HB have not suggested that you have claimed fraudulently. They're just checking it out so don't worry about things that haven't happened. Let's just deal with what has happened.Are you able to provide proof of income, eg P60's for yourself and your husband, copies of bank statements etc?Do you have copies of DWP letters showing when benefits recommenced?

[caro]

You beat me to it Estellyn. :)You're in good hands with Estellyn suewell.

[Lapsed Workaholic]

You say that you were asked by the housing office to provide proof of income. In the case of housing benefits and council tax this usually means proof of household income, not just your personal income. Have you done that?

 

You say that your JSA/ESA has been starting and stopping over a period of a couple of years. What state are you on with benefits now?

 

You say that you have been casual with the letters you got from the council as well as with the letters you sent. You also mention that mistakes have been made. Only you, and the council, will know what you have missed by being casual and what these mistakes were and whether or not they have any bearing on your present predicament.

 

It seems that the person who spoke to you at CAB had a word with someone at the council office and the result was that you were told to go back to CAB when you hear from the council office the details of what it is they want. That doesn’t sound like the end of the world. Would that be a fair summation of where you are now?

 

Taking too much notice of scare stories, like watching scary films alone late at night, is not conducive to relaxation or to the digestion, and should be avoided. Until you hear back from the council there doesn’t appear to be much more that can be done. Once you do get to know exactly what the council want then the next move can be worked out. There are some good 'geezers' on here who would doubtless let you have the benefit of their experiences once you let them know the exact nature of the problem

[suewell]

having a mare of a time.

 

but thank you for all your replies so far.

 

I have gathered all my evidence, hubby is a company director but has PAYE as explained above but this is where it gets messy, he is an ex bankrupt and could not get a business account so has been using his own account for his business. (he's been told this is wholey unacceptable). Also a bit of background, we have separate over and over again over the past 7 years from the build up of violent rows ( caused by loss of baby in 2000 never talked about and he bankruptcy over which ''I lost my home'' after only being married to him for 9 months.)

 

To cut a long story short there is still a total lack of trust so he only ever tells me what I need to know.

 

So I had no idea he was running his business through his own account, thought he had online banking as no statements from business account ever recieved in post. ( will they still require his statement for 12 months???)

 

Now he is in trouble with accounts again which are over due ask me to help with them this weekend.

 

I notice he has a running Directors Loan Account which he is paying the rent through and offsetting what the business owes him as initial capital investment. The thing is he has been paying the rent out of this account, does this mean that effectively the buisness is paying the rent .... and what are the implications for me. This mess is turning into a disaster.

[Lapsed Workaholic]

You mentioned in your first post that your HB (Housing Benefit?) has just been suspended. In your last post you say that your husband has been paying the rent via some sort of business accounting ‘offsetting’.

If the ‘business’ is paying the rent, and that is what it looks like, then I can’t see how or why you should qualify for or need Housing benefit.

As a married couple I would think this situation has implications for both of you and I suspect the Council, who has been paying you the HB, will be of like mind.

As for your husband's 'business' dealings, I would suggest getting the services of a good solicitor or accountant, or both.

[suewell]

he has only just got an accountant involved in his accounts and was employing a bookkeeper (which I think he got some bad advice from) for his PAYE which is £9,600 taking no directors bonus etc, which allowed me to pay for shopping and run the household with the money recieved from HB, foolishly I thought it would not matter how the rent was paid as long as it was paid by one of us ie his wages ( not knowing he was paying it from an account used for business), all I ever saw until friday was the PAYE wage slips, and this is the amount he said he was earning. I thought when I recieved the letter it would be straight forward overpayment at the best.

 

I would have declared it as income if I had know, but he is saying it is ''not income'' or taxable as it comes from money he paid into the account to start the business up its just returning money he paid in, Im just going round in circles.

[Lapsed Workaholic]

In a previous post you say; “He is an ex-bankrupt and could not get a business account so has been using his own account for his business....” This would suggest that your husband was running his business using what was to all intents and purposes a personal account.

Does your use of the term ‘ex-bankrupt’ mean that he no longer has the financial restrictions that a ‘bankrupt’ might have and that he could now separate his private from his business accounts?

Your latest post, where you say; “He has only just got an accountant involved in his accounts and was employing a bookkeeper....” suggests your husband had more than one account.

Your husband’s subjective views on what might or might not be ‘income’ would appear to be at odds with the objective view that the Council, or any other creditor, might take. If all the accounts are his then any money in them, or accruing to them, has to be his as well.

Details of all your husband’s accounts need to be disclosed and they are all taken into account when the council assess his, or your, entitlement to benefits. Obviously, if this is not done and the council subsequently become aware of discrepancies such as accounts or income not declared they will take a dim view, the result of which, as you say, could become quite messy.

Your husband might also need to reconsider his choice of the accountant just retained if he can’t even advise or suggest some way of enabling you to keep a roof over your head.

[caro]

I hate to make matters worse but if someone has been made bankrupt they cannot be a director of a company. What you need to make clear when interviewed is that you knew nothing about all this. You must be honest and open or you could be implicated if caught trying to hide anything. I'm afraid your husband will be in trouble.

 

https://www.gov.uk/bankruptcy/restrictions

[suewell]

I feel like the meat in the Sandwich,

 

I made a justified claim, come off JSA (2012) because I could not cope with the beaurocracy of the system which had stopped my money three times in two months, to find myself slap bang in the middle of a mess not of my making. I did as I was supposed to and informed the HB of any changes I was aware of (and furthermore I have a child who is 13 and who had been eligable for Disability since he was diagnosed in 2003 with autism that I have never claimed a penny for, the paperwork was never worth it and we could always cope on what we had, there was always someone worse off than us). I am seeing the Citizens advice on Monday (first appointment they had) and hopefully get some help and then to the Council offices to sort this mess out.

 

Caro, he is an ex bankrupt, after the bankruptcy finishes he can go back to being Joe Blogs ( im still licking the wounds of losing my home and half my life saving after being married to him for just 6 months) seems the only problem he has with that is banks and lenders as its still on his credit file, but thanks for the warning.

[radmm0]

Hi suewell

just read through the thread and would be interested to know where you are with your case, as I have a very similar one myself?

Rgds.

radmm0