council notice to terminate introductionary tenancy..

[firsttimetobe]

hello all. ive also posted in legal/monay but need as much help as possibe.

i have recieved a letter from the council for the above..
iam really scared and worried as i was homeless before i got the propery, and my baby is now 7 month, last time i was homeless i was preg.
anyway the story is, i was on maternity allowance, me been stupid i thought i was getting housing benefit , then about 3 months into having the propery i got a letter stating my counciltax/housing benefit entitlement, which was only single person discount, so i then phoned the housing which told me i was in hundreds pounds arears, so i made an arangent to pay what i could off, it now stands i owe them 445 pounds, however i was awarded income sup;port from 1st june and have informed housing and housing benefit ppl, i will pay off the what i owe them now that it isnt adding up as i will be entitled to fulll hb. however i have had this letter stating they are going to ask court for the possesion of the flat back on the 5th july.
iam sooo worried, it say on the letter i can write and requst a review , i have done so , just waiting for the reply to that. any advice plz, has any1 ever had this letter? where do i stand, i have nowhere to go if made homeless again.
i have been told by a friend to write the housing office a letter saying iam now on income support and want to start paying my arears and do not want to loose my home, do you think they will go for this or cary on with the eviction iam so worried, iam going to go to cab when i can get the busfare, iam just nipping to my nanas now so il be back on in about 2 hours.
thankyou.

You have to contact them asap. CAB sounds like a v good idea. Good luck.

i didnt wrongly cliam housing benefit, i claimed thinking id get it fully payed as was on maternity allowance, from income support, now back on income support, but found out only entitled to single persons discount.
they made an arangement with me to pay 50 a week to clear my debt but i missed about 2 payments and on one i payed 35,
i will go to cab tomorrow as i do not have anybody to lend 3pounds off of.
i have already lent this week for ashop, as iam waiting for my first income support payment to come through.
i went to the housin g office and let them know i was going on income support, so i would like to continue to pay my arears off, they said that was fine and now ive had this letter, i dont know if it is because its for so much money and they know it might take a while to get clear?
thanks for your gud luck .

oh poor you. it's a long process to end your tenancy and if you can prove you are seriously trying to pay off the arrears they may drop it. It's horrible. Can you double check the housing benefit? if you were getting under £100 a week I'm surprised you woulkdn't have got full HB. Didn't they tell you?
CAB may direct you to a housing advocacy service - I know there is one in my area and they helped a young woman I work with through it - she didn't get evicted and she owed a lot more than £445, it's not a lot, relatively speaking.

I wouldn't worry too much, if you keep in touch with the council and let them know what's going on with the h ben and income supp very few cases like this lose their home. If you are going on income support you will get h ben too, how much depends on tax creds and any other income. If, after all payments are received and h ben has backdated your claim, you are still in arrears you can offer to pay this back weekly (for where I work it's £3.05 min per week).

TBH it sounds like you kind of presumed the h ben would be paid from the start, the best thing to do is ring for a regular balance once the benefits are being paid, then you can nip anything like this in the bud and save yourself the hassle.

Just remember to keep in touch with the council and benefits (to chase up your claim) regularly and provide any paperwork etc they ask for promptly.

HTH

I don't want to worry you any more, but I am sure you already know that an introductory tenancy is much easier for the council to terminate than a fully protected council tenancy. As well as CAB, I would recommend you call Shelter for help asap: freephone 0808 800 4444. www.shelter.org.uk You can also go to www.communitylegaladvice.org.uk and use the option 'find a legal adviser' at the top of the page to search for housing advice in your local area. An advice agency can help you make an offer to catch up (e.g. £3.05 p.w. deduction from Income Support as louloulouise said) and negotiate to get it sorted.

Sorry, links that actually work

www.shelter.org.uk

www.communitylegaladvice.org.uk

Go and see your local MP NOW. Ring shelter and go to the CAB.