Aibu - to cry if I have to film that bloody housing benefit form in again!!

[MurielsBottom]

Just that. Applied for hb six weeks ago as dh was put on ssp. It has taken them ages to even begin to process it. I've had to provide more info twice now. The latest change being dh is now unemployed and we are claiming esa.
Received an email on Friday asking got repeats of bank statements I have already provided. I decided to phone to see why as I had already sent them. Dialled, waited in a queue, spoke to a person and them my phone cut out - the last minutes used up.

It is so frustrating. They want all the details going back months but our bank statements show we had an income two month s ago so they are currently only going to award us £2 a week. So I will have to pay the rent (again) with the ctc which will leave me around £400 to pay all my bills and buy food for six.

I just feel like crying. It's shit.

Desperately hoping it is sorted before the Oct rent is due.

Fill in not film. Didn't proof read that well did I?

Sorry to hear that. It's horrible how hard the system is. Sending hugs.

It's worth looking at local charities to see if any help you with this kind of thing. I know you've given them what they need but perhaps having someone who is used to it all to advise and even advocate for you would help?

If you are now on income-related ESA, they can check that out really easily (they have a data-sharing arrangement with the DWP). Ring them up and report it as a change of circumstances, ie he's no longer employed and now on ESA, and they'll be able to verify it really quickly.

You automatically get full HB (well, up to the full amount of the local housing allowance) if he's on an income-related benefit, and it should be backdated to the date that the ESA starts.

If he was getting working tax credits as well, you need to cancel it now he's not employed.

I guess I'm just so worn down with form filling in. We've applied for pip, esa, blue badge, school bus passes, hb, update ctc. Endless forms. And they all want proof, which is fine, but hb just seems to be slow and they need so much more than every other one.

I will steal myself to reply to the email tomorrow and get everything together (again) and email it to them this time. Whether now claiming esa will speed up or slow thing a down I don't know. I'm hoping it will get things moving as the hb people 'talk' to the benefits people.

That's what I was hoping! Thank you for the little ray of sunshine.

We didn't get working tax so no need to cancel that.

Hi I'm a HB assessor. The usual procedure is to pay claim on an average of your last two months payslips however if you've had a change then we pay it on that going forward. You may have got a lazy assessor that has just slapped in two high payslips without engaging the brain. Ask (in a letter or an email) for your claim to be reconsidered on SSP only from whatever date he was signed on.

The re-request of bank statements could just be crossed in the post. How many months have they asked?

Oh and tell them you've applied/ been awarded esa . We don't exactly talk to the dwp we have a view system and can register for alerts - if the assessor hasn't registered you and DH for the alerts then they won't know.

Also never wait for the alerts we get thousands COC's get auctioned faster then the alerts.

Make sure you put in a dispute in writing within 30 days of the decision to only award you £2. Assuming you have under £16,000 savings that's wrong. Also they won't automatically backdate housing benefit unless you specifically ask them to.

It's really typical for housing benefit departments to drag their feet and ask for dribs and drabs of info. If they don't do it speedily put in a formal complaint as that usually speeds them up a bit or get your local councillor to write to them on your behalf.

Also, if for some reason HB doesn't cover all of your rent I would suggest putting in a claim for a discretionary housing payment from your local authority. They usually prioritise families with health problems.

Best of luck

Thank you for your advice. They want two months bank statements again. I wonder if part of the problem is that we have a few bank accounts (all empty) because we are changing banks and haven't closed any old accounts yet. We have no savings.

I wrote to them a week ago saying that we are now claiming esa so I imagine that they are still processing that.
Everything is so slow and unless I go to the office (which is an hours bus ride away) I can't speak to a person about my claim. Hopefully now I have an email address it will be quicker.

In my area full hb payment will cover all our rent, so that's one good thing! Just need to jump through all the hoops first.

I get some help from benefits due to my health and it's the one benefit I refuse to apply for. I had so many problems- stop, start, overpayment, backpayment it wasn't worth the anxiety.