Housing Benefit - Can they do this?

[Love Bunny]

Hey everyone....


Gah I'm so so stressed out at the minute

I applied for housing benefit back around the start of this september and seem to be getting nowhere

I took all the info - ID, tennancy agreements, Matts earnings certificates etc etc

I waited 2 weeks and heard nothing back.

I called up and was told I needed to bring 2 statements for our bank accounts and I needed proof of national insurance number.

I took in 2 statements and stated that I had already previously claimed for HB and that my national insurance would be on that previous claim and they said that would be okay and they could use that. and so I waited again.

2 weeks later I rang again for them to AGAIN tell me that the statements weren't sufficient enough!!!!

A few days later we supplied FULL statements dating back 4 months AND i brought in a letter from inland revenue with my NI number so that they couldnt complain about not having that.

A week after that I called again and they said that they had recieved no such information yet and that if it was only a week ago it probably hadn't been processed yet and to ring back in 7-10 days.

I got a letter today telling me my OLD claim had been cancelled so i rang in to make sure that was correct and I wouldnt be hearing about it again and everything with that claim was done and dusted and they claimed that this claim was finished and i wouldnt be haring about it again.

I also asked on the offchance how my CURRENT claim was progressing (bearing in mind I had only rang this previous tuesday when they told me to try back in 7-10 days - its only been about 4) and she told me that this claim had been CANCELLED due to the fact we hadn't supplied the sufficient info they needed.

HANG ON A FUCKING MINUTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got really upset on the phone and ended up bawling my eyes out (damn pregnancy hormones )

How can they do this? Neither occasion did they even bother to tell me that the info wasn't right??? BOTH occasions I had to go out my way and ring THEM to find out if things were progressing... If they had just phoned me/mailed me telling me what they needed I could have gladly supplied it???? If I hadn't rang up I would have just sat here twiddling my thumbs waiting for them to respond then it would have been too late!

Apparently matt had a standing order to another account - this is his savings account we use to seperate RENT AND BILL MONEY from his travel to work money! BEARING IN MIND THIS ACCOUNT HAS NO MORE THAN ENOUGH FOR COUNCIL TAX AND RENT IN IT EACH MONTH!!!!!! so basically they got pissy because he transferred £190 into some "unknown" account. then didnt bother telling us they needed to know what this was for. jesus anyone would think we transferred like a million pound into some offshore account so that the benefit agency wouldnt find out so we could skank money off them!!!!!!!!!

Gah I'm so upset about this

I'm booked in for an interview on the 10th nov but its just too fucking late.

we're skint NOW.

I can't even get surestart grant or ANYTHING til baba is here.

We've basically been living off the money I had saved for buying the baby stuff we needed - and now thats nearly ALL GONE.

SO THANKS ALOT HOUSING BENEFIT! THANKS FOR FUCKING UP MY RAY OF SUNSHINE FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR AND PISSING ON MY METAPHORICAL FIRE!

 

[Tasha]

Housing benefit are useless at the best of times, it is a long time to wait for an interview. Our housing benefit forms insist you have to tell them about all accounts and provide statements for them even if they are savings accounts, could this be why?

 

[angelsmummy]

im having trouble with housing benefit too.
my OH lost his job last month, which we told housing benefit, said we wud need to supply his p45 n JSA letter, neither ov which we have yet, still waiting to hear from the job center (so much for ringing me bk) ive rang every day n surprise surprise there always engaged.
so due to this theyve stopped paying my rent, which im really annoyed with, as i gt sent a lovely letter from my housing sayin if i didnt pay x amount i wud gt evicted, luckly ive spoke to them and reached an agrement to pay wot i owe.and they r full aware ov our curcumstances.

 

[Tasha]

im having trouble with housing benefit too.
my OH lost his job last month, which we told housing benefit, said we wud need to supply his p45 n JSA letter, neither ov which we have yet, still waiting to hear from the job center (so much for ringing me bk) ive rang every day n surprise surprise there always engaged.
so due to this theyve stopped paying my rent, which im really annoyed with, as i gt sent a lovely letter from my housing sayin if i didnt pay x amount i wud gt evicted, luckly ive spoke to them and reached an agrement to pay wot i owe.and they r full aware ov our curcumstances.

Are you speaking to your local job centre or Glasgow?

 

[AppleBlossom]

All I can say is, HB are bloody uselss... I waited 3 months until I finally got money off them so had to find 3 months worth of rent from somewhere else. They were all "we need this off you now" then they needed something else... why not just ask for it all in one go ffs?!

 

[rubyrose]

Sorry you have al had bad times with HB, it depends on your council so its a bit hit and miss. Mine take 7 - 14 days and you can drop off your forms and ID at the town hall so if anything is missing they can say so straight away. Could you not ask to drop the ID down to a drop point either as my council has a few of these public advice centres where you can drop in forms to an they photocopy everything then and there?

xx

 

[DizzyMoo]

unfortunately it is down to you to chase them & make sure they have what they need, They wont ring you to tell you what you need, you have to ring them.

When you say you supplied documents did you post them or take them directly into them? If posted then you cant prove they got them, but if you went into the office (best one) they photocopy them & give you back the originals & usually stamp a date on received on which date etc.
You do only get so many weeks from giving in the forms to supply everything they need before the claim is cancelled. If they ask for bank statements but you have another account with money in that you didn't supply then they will defo get arsey they are fab at being twats when they wanna.

 

[helen1234]

ugh i had major problems with housing benefit a few yrs back because i rented off my step dad grrrrr.
not A valley is it i used to live in derby (alfreton) they were complete cocks so rude on the phone too.

x

 

[kitty1987]

derby are awful for it. me and oh phoned them EVERYDAY for 3 months until they finally sorted it. They always said documents were missing and then that they had everything over and over

 

[kit603]

So sorry to hear that you're having problems hun x

I had to claim HB a while back when I first got made redundant and luckily they weren't too bad in my area. When I forgot to include my bank statements they did actually send me a letter saying I needed to send them in, so I posted them and about 3 weeks later I got the letter stating my entitlement. They pay you in arrears too though - which doesn't help when you've been waiting this long as it is and if you move house you have to fill out a brand new form and they temp. stop your payments (or they did with me!).

 

[Kimboowee]

ugh i had major problems with housing benefit a few yrs back because i rented off my step dad grrrrr.
not A valley is it i used to live in derby (alfreton) they were complete cocks so rude on the phone too.

x

I live in Sth Normanton and they were bloody terrible. So much so I just stayed put in my mums house cos I gave up lol, they're part of bolsover though