Council tax benefit

[gimmeanaxe]

Helped a friend apply for this. He's given up work to become a Carer (he's dyslexic hence me filling in the CA form, income support form and now CTB benefit form). Honestly, its been a 6 week nightmare with him getting no money but he's finally been awarded CA and IS.
BUT CTB. They have demanded the details of every bank account he has ever had, even closed ones. He's 50 so there has been many. WTF. I rang them on his behalf to make sure and explained that half the building societies from the 70's had closed etc and there was no way the documentation could be found but they were adamant.
So the question is, if we leave off accounts that are years old and closed is he going to end up being penalised? He's still paying his council tax btw despite being a Carer for 6 weeks with no income. They say they wont backdate either.

Only bother with ones that have money in them. What use are the others? I've never heard this before, it's daft.

They should only want to see the statements going back 6 months. If he's closed an account within this period they want to see the statements. It should tell you on the information.

so the woman in the phone was a jobsworth?

May be best to go to the CAB and go through it with them. Whenever I've had to fill in forms like this I've always given 6 months of statements. We'd all be screwed otherwise. Have you googled the council's web site and had a look on there? It should tell you what information they require.

he has an appointment with the CAB but its not for 3 months (overstretched and dependant on finding someone to look after his mum). I'm helping as best I can but Ive never done this stuff before. How Carers claim benefits is a complete nightmare. While caring 24 hours a day.

Have you looked on the council's web site?

They usually only want 2 months of statements www.woking.gov.uk/benefits/hbctax/evidence

The website says nothing about evidence but I did learn that not only do they have commuinity officers at one stop shops who assess claimswithin 2 DAYS, they should have done a Carers assessment and offered short breaks for Carers. Very useful so thankyou.
Small fume at jobsworth woman for failing to mention all of this and being unpleasant on the phone.

I'm glad you posted then. What you need to do is google a couple of different councils, print off the page which states they only want 2 months of statements and go and see his. Tell them that it's standard practice to only ask for 2 months as it's unreasonable of them to ask for his entire life's worth of statements and bank accounts. The jobsworth will be giving other people the wrong information and it could stop them from applying.