Hi
Can anyone help me with interpreting housing benefit regulations. Short story is that I work and put my 5 year old in holiday/after school club that is held at her school but open to children from other primary schools. I claim help through working tax credit towards the cost of this. Housing benefit have taken this amount £40 a week and said its income. They said they dont have to disregard it as my daughter has to be 8 for them to do this. As a result my rent has gone into huge arrears by 40 a week for the last 9 months. I can't work without the childcare but I cannot afford the increase in my rent.
Now the main point is that I took the council to a tribunal in Feb this year and I WON. The judge said that the council had interpreted the law/ regulations incorrectly. Council paid £1100 arrears to my housing association. I had a letter 4 days ago from tribunal service to say that my tribunal was on 20th August. I called them to explain that I had been to tribunal already. They then advised me that council had put in an appeal in June and the decision had been set aside, basically the tribunal ruled in favour of the council this time.
I have to go to another tribunal and act like the 1st one never even happened. The tribunal paperwork said that the council could appeal but within 1 month of the decision so should have been by March. They have allowed it anyway. If the judge has over ruled the original judge then I dont see how they are then going to rule again in my favour.
I dont know what to do, I have all the paperwork from original appeal including a letter from some minister in parliament. I also have a letter from the head of benefits at the council to say that they would abide by the judges decision on the day of my appeal (feb).
Basically the housing benefit regs give a list with points from a to m.
The council have to go through the list of points to see if I meet any of the criteria before they can say I'm not entitled to the childcare disregard. They didn't do this and the judge agreed that I met one of the criteria " the care may be provided by (a) out of school hours , by a school on school premises or by a local authority (1) for children who are not disabled in respect of the period beginning on their 8th birthday and ending on the day preceding the first Monday in September following their 15th birthday.
So that bit above is point a and the council are not looking further than this.
I meet the other qualifying condition which is "by a childcare provider approved in accordance with the tax credit (new category of child care provider) regulations 1999.
I also meet the criteria " by a person prescribed in regulations made pursuant to section 12(4) of the tax credits act.
These bits mention nothing about the age and the judge said that was only one of the criteria and the council should have checked the whole list because I clearly meet the criteria for having my childcare costs disregarded.
The mad thing is that if I send my daughter to another school but use the holiday club provided by her current school that the council will allow the disregard.
Can anyone help me please?