Housing Benefit+Bank Statments

[sugared]

Just put in a housing benefit form to the local council as my partner walked and i am struggling to pay bills and along with a copy of EVERYTHING i.e 5 payslips, 3 forms of i.d copy of child benefit award, dla for dd award, dd birth cert my birth cert & dd child mainantence award along with a breakdown of my income & exspenditure they are now asking for copies of bank statments x3 although they have my account details and photocopy of bank card.

I had to have a 30 mins appointment to do so....what a waste of resources!

I have advised them that these will be print outs as i opt-ed for paperless billing and they require to see them in full!?
They can have copies of the bank statements But i will 'paint' over balance amounts-not that i have any savings, i just don't see why i need to show the balance...AIBU?

When I applied for HB, I was asked for bank statements too.

I wanted to black out where I had spent my money. eg:

23/3/09 Tesco £34.00

I had no problem with HB seeing how much I had, or how much I had spent, but didn't feel they needed to know exactly where I had spent my money.

They disagreed.

I printed my statments out in my loal branch for free and my neighbourhood office said that was fine.

Act

JellyKat, Very much agreed!
It doesn't surprise me that other office's will accept it, no-body seems to the their arse to their elbow at mine!
The CB number on the apparently out-dated letter will match CB number next to the transaction on the bank statments yet they cannot/will not accept this as proof of god damn CB!

and breathe;)

Have they asked you how much cash you have in your purse yet? Have they parked outside your house everyday yet because they don't you are a lone parent?

Showing bank statements has nothing to do with checking levels of savings. Anybody who has above the threshold of savings allowed wouldn't have them in their current account. It is part of the humiliation process. You are scum now, didn't you get the memo? You don't get to 'advise' them anything or you will be finacially penalised for it.

Wise advice above to send everything recorded post, and make sure you get a receipt for anything you take in. It doesn't stop them 'losing' it. It doesn't stop them from stopping your benefit and backdating it on a whim because of 'lost' evidence. But it does help with appeals. Also write down a list of every single contact you have with them, including names of people you talk to.

''Have they asked you how much cash you have in your purse yet? Have they parked outside your house everyday yet because they don't you are a lone parent?

Showing bank statements has nothing to do with checking levels of savings. Anybody who has above the threshold of savings allowed wouldn't have them in their current account. It is part of the humiliation process. You are scum now, didn't you get the memo? You don't get to 'advise' them anything or you will be finacially penalised for it.''

Love it yep they certainly have that knack of making you feel humiliated scum.....so professional in their work and 'trained' you know

I cant stress enough how important it is that you record everything sugared...i've had so much trouble with these people over the years. I had my HB/rent rebate, whatever its called "accidentally" completely cancelled several times after informing them I had worked overtime or done a week's holiday cover. Of course, I hadn't a clue they had done that and didn't know until I got a letter for rent arrears...even then, no-one seemed to be able to tell me how much rent I should pay to get it all back up to date and I got into a terrible mess.

Half the time, when you ring up they dont even make a note on the system so you really do need to keep details of any call or anything you send. It is a nightmare!