to think that THIS IS PRECISELY WHY IT IS SO HARD FOR LONE PARENTS TO WORK!!!!!!

[Coldtits]

have had another letter from council

They now have me on record as earning £383 week

I have never earned this amount in my LIFE

I was earning that per MONTH

They say that as I haven't brought in a payslip, they have to estimate my earnings.

I did. I DID TAKE IN MY PAYSLIP AND THE BLONDE GIRL TOOK IT AND PHOTOCOPIED IT AND THEN SAID IT WAS SORTED OUT.

"We have no record of that"

WHY wouold I lie? If I was earning 383 a week I wouldn't sodding NEED housing benefit, would I???

I have to take wage slip in AGAIN.,

All the while falling further and further behind with rent I cannot pay.

telephone woman so clearly gave less of a shit than average it was infuriating.

She didn't even bloody apologise

This is why LPs are terrified of going back to work - because they can lose the thread of life so quickly and before you know it can be 2 months pay behind with the rent and facing eviction. All it takes is one person who really doesn't care(

Oh god I feel for you. I had an absolute nightmare with HB after losing my job last year, it took months to get any payment from them, I had to get my local councillor to sort it out for me as I was on the verge of being evicted.
And is the sole reason I am not overly enthusiastic about looking for new job now, because if same thing happened again at some point I'd almost certainly be kicked out.
They are astonishingly unbothered when you talk to them arn't they. The most I ever got out of them when I called begging them to sort it out because I was going to be evicted was 'when you get your eviction notice bring it into us and it will speed up your claim' FFS, fat lot of good that would have done!
Might be worth getting in touch with your councillors? Mine were fabulous and got it sorted for me the same day, when I'd been told earlier it would be weeks

I'm not asking for special treatment, I'm not, but it is ASTONISHING how many people's housing benefit claims get screwed up. And it's awful how much they just DON'T CARE.

The woman was wibbling on about "ohhh. Well. It's not in the file. It must have not been put in the file...." and I had to say "Well, what is going to happen next to my claim for housing benefit? What are you going to do?!"

It's utterly ridiculous isn't it

I sent in my student loan details back in January when I got them (late applying) and the DSS are STILL sending me my Income support and i'm on full HB.

I am not going to tell them otherwise (i'm not spending it, by the way) until my next student money goes in because I daren't be left with NOTHING - I'd rather wait and kick off later and owe them money

All through my degree its been the same though - they are useless. It got to 6 months overdue with rent because IS screwed the HB claim up. I withdrew all responsibility and told them to sort it out amongst themselves at the end of it all. It took them FOUR MONTHS!!!! I was in so much "debt" (that I didn't owe because I was meant to be on HB!)

I had to send letters in four or five times before they're actioned

What amazes me is that they're SO fast at saying we owe them and taking it back.... they just don't give a fuck. You're right on that

i know it is a bit late now but if you council is incompetent (my old council was useless, new one million times better) request a receipt for any forms or proofs you provide, saves alot of aggro

I so sympathise!
Receipts sound like a great idea but what about things done over the phone. I had a shock this morning when I found out £450.70 had been taken from my bank account by Housing Benefit because last week I had a letter saying that I had been overpaid and thats what I 'owed' them. So when I phoned to say I was completely unaware of them overpaying me, as far as I was concerned I just paid what they told me to pay. But apparently they had no record of me informing them of my new part time job and that is why after my annual review it came up. So the upshot was that I was advised to send in an appeal and given the phone number of debt recovery who when phone said they would put a stop on this until 6th April.
Guess what no record of me doing that hence money going out of my account.
I have to say the woman I spoke to at HB was helpful to me and advised to ring bank to retrieve money so I did.
But why no record of my phone calls!!!

I sympathise completely! Housing Benefit and local councils in general are a nightmare. Each time I've had a change in circumstances (which have been a fair few times) they've taken months and months to process my claim.

First time I got my MP involved, subsequently I had my local councillor send them letters! I've complained left, right and centre but to no avail!

All I can say is to make sure you have photocopies of everything, send all things Recorded Delivery and ensure you have a sufficient overdraft or credit card to tide you over in terms of paying the rent until it gets sorted out.

But, yes, local bureaucracies SUCK!

Definitely get your councillor involved - I work in local government (not in HB though) and we always jump to it if a councillor contacts us with a complaint. Also find out from your council's website who the councillor is with portfolio responsibility for hb and contact them as well.

YANBU. I completely agree with you. I'm a single mum and for now I can't work (with childcare costs it's impossible). And before Xenia comes along, I'm one of the 80% of the population who wouldn't be a high earner!

I am not a scrounger, I'll work again one day but it's not easy.

The surefire way to get this sorted out is to write or email your Mayor, if they are elected or the head of council. It then becomes part of their caseload and they have to sort it out PDQ. I had an issue with council tax relating to a previous property, and had the bailiffs round. (tried to offer ds as downpayment, but were having none of it!)

It was sorted out within ten days. Big apologies and grovelling as well. very satisfying.

I sympathise completely too. When I was first going it alone and terrified/confused ect... I had to rent privately. Some smelly guy at the council photo-copied my pre-tenancy agreement then when I went for the next stage he'd lost it. I was told they'd never had it. I lit the place up as I was so stressed , saw him through the glass and demanded he come through. He did and they found it.
There was the same 'I have a house/I'm ok Jack' smugness from the one dealing with me.

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totally sympathise and best thing I have found is to ring them EVERY day til it is sorted....they soon get so sick of you they get your claim sorted straight away cos they've had enough of you!