HB overpayment?

[MilaV]

Hi, I am a single mother of a 3yo girl and I have recently claimed and been granted HB. I work though, I am self-employed and when I first placed my claim, I estimated that my earnings would be around 500pcm. Problem is that now I read their letter, I see this amount doesn't appear anywhere, and they put 0 in self-employed earnings. Do you think this is normal, as self-employed earnings vary, or does it look like a mistake from their part? Should I be getting less money? I am quite scared to spend anything in case I have to give it back. Please let me know your thougths. x

i would get in touch with them to double check, write down the name of the person you speak with and date time so if there are any discrepencies; you have proof you followed it up. I hope it doesn't affect your situation but you don't want them to send you a letter further down the line saying they overpaid you- it happened to me not hb but with a university grant - I received a letter 2yrs later stating i had been overpaid by £2000 and had to repay it immediately. good luck!x

I would actually send a letter stating what you've put here, and send it recorded delivery (it's only about £1) so you get proof of someone signing for it at their end. It'll probably then take them around a month to respond to it, and they may ask for further info so they can recalculate. Maybe put some money aside in a savings account in case you have to pay any over payment back.

Thanks... I can also go and see them in person, the council office is like 20 minutes walk from my house. What do you think would be best?

You could go and see them then, taking any paperwork you might need. When I go to see someone at my council office, they take copies of any documents then give me a receipt to say what was received by them, so there's no doubt in the future.

There's another thing that worries me, and it's that, on top of those 500 for this job (a commission that repeats every couple of week, for the moment, until the client decides to stop), I occasionally might get other jobs. When do you think I should tell the HB, when I accept them, when I issue the invoice or after I get the money from the client? Will my benefit be recalculated every time?

Thanks for your advice, I'm totally new to this.