Posting her for traffic, really need some advice as my head is whirring with it all:
Me and my 4 DC (DD1 is 19, other are children) were made homeless last May due to my LL selling, and us being unable to secure another private rental.
We have been in temporary accommodation since then, which yes, is a roof over our heads but also too small (2 bedrooms and 3 beds for all of us), it's is damp, the boiler never works, has mice and just not a nice place to live to put it mildly. For this, a 2 bed terrace in a really dodgy area I pay £259 a week, £60 a month to park near it, £140 a month to store our stuff and £95 for our cat to be looked after.
I am on home choice that allows me to bid for social housing, and was in band B, and after a year of bidding we were just starting to have some chance of securing something long term. However, when I became ill earlier in the year, I applied for housing benefit, and it took them 14 weeks to process. During that time, I knew I would have to pay some of the rent but not how much. I rang and was advised to put a certain bit of money by each week so I could pay the proportion I actually owed when the claim was processed, which I did - paid the amount in full as soon as I was asked to.
In June, I became ill and was in hospital, so couldn't pay it online, but every time I rang to try and pay it, I was either unable to hold for the amount of time needed (up to an hour and I have a PAYG phone). They then rang me and asked for payment, I said I would pay it by the paypoint card they had issued, then discovered I couldn't find it. I spoke to the call centre and told them this and they said another card would be issued, I waited for it but it never arrived. In early July, I went abroad for my eldest son's wedding. I had an email asking to pay the arrears. I emailed back to say I was waiting for my payment card to arrive so I could. They then said it is not possible to issue another card. I explained I was abroad and unable to make a call lasting over an hour. I then got an email threatening to move our banding down a grade to band C if the arrears weren't paid immediately, so I ended up having to borrow over £50 for credit for my phone so I could phone and pay it (was on hold/ the phone for over an hour to do this). I emailed thento say it was paid.
A week letter I get home to a letter saying our banding has been downgraded to Band C due to arrears, the letter being sent and my payment crossed. I then sent several messages explaining that I had paid, and the reasons I had not been able to do it earlier, which I had made them aware of.
I asked, as the letter said I could, for the decision to be reviewed in light of the fact t that I had already paid when my banding was downgraded, and always paid it in full and on time before I came ill. The only person who would reply to me was a temporary accommodation officer, who said may be if "I asked very nicely, they'd do that for me' (wtf?)
Fast forward to now, they have eventually moved me back to band B from the date I cleared the arrears (which coincides with the day they downgraded it). I got a sort of 'there you go, all is now sorted' reply from them.
However - it really isn't Ok, as yes I am back in band B, but my priority date has now been changed from last May (the date we were made homeless and accepted into band B) to the end of July this year (when they 'put it back' into Band `B). This means that now instead of being somewhere at least in the top 10 of securing a property because we had been waiting for over a year, we are back at the start. So in effect, anyone who became homeless in the 14 months after we did will now me housed before us (hoping that makes sense?).
I emailed them to try to convey this to them but got a curt reply saying that no I was not in fact 'back to the beginning, but in a higher band so MORE likely to be housed. Which missed the point completely.
I think what I am asking is - is their any way I can ask them to reconsider their decision to move my band in light of the fact that I was TRYING to pay it and conveying all this too them, it was a tiny amount and had already been cleared in full by me by the time they changed my band. My history of paying was good (excluding during the time my HB was being assessed, but at their advice) both to them and my previous LL. I was only ever 3 weeks in arrears and twice when I called the contact centre they double checked this was the case as they were surprised that that action was being taken for that small an amount. I there a way I can ask them to consider reversing the decision to change my banding so my original priority date of last May os reinstated?
This is an awful way to live, and after a year of hell we were just starting to see a bit of light at the end of the tunnel (the possibility of a home at last) and now we are back to the start because I have been penalised for something that I think was not my fault, and I had already rectified. I can't describe how hopeless this has made me feel, and if it wasn't for my DC's, I think that this would be the point of my life that I would actually give up completely. And that Is something that I thought I would never think or say, I've been through a lot and got through it but I just can't take the thought of living like we are for another few years. I've had enough.
Can anyone help me with this? I do have some savings I could maybe use for a solicitor if I needed to but would obviously rather not, plus I wouldn't' know where to start with it all. But my God, I feel hopeless.