My husband works full time - I am unable to work due to long term illness. I receive the standard daily living rate and standard mobility rate of personal independence payments and therefore, qualify for housing benefit.
In June 2017, my eldest daughter moved out so I called Croydon Council to inform them of a change in my circumstances.
I asked if this change would affect my housing benefit and was told ‘no’.
In January 2018, I noticed when I logged into my account, that my daughter was still listed as living at home, so I called the council again to rectify this and two weeks later, I received a letter stating that as I had failed to inform the council in 2017 of my change in circumstances I had incurred an overpayment and would have to pay back £681 plus I would now also have to pay a weekly under occupancy charge (they said they had no record of my previous call). This reduced my housing benefit to 50p per week.
I appealed this decision because the bedroom is 66 square feet and the Housing Act of 1985 states that an adult bedroom should be 70 square feet or larger.
Unfortunately, both my housing association and the council refused to send someone round to measure the room and would not help me in any way to prove that this room should be classed as a box room or ‘half a room’.
A friend then informed me that I could apply for an extra bedroom because since July 2016, my husband has been sleeping in a separate room (first on the sofa in the living room and then when my daughter left home, her bedroom) because I have a permanent ileostomy and in July 2016 I had emergency surgery which affected my stomach and caused very frequent leaks from my stoma.
I have leaks several times a week, including at night and have to get up, put on the light, change the bed sheets and clean myself up before I can go back to sleep.
My husband is a full time HGV class 2 driver and needs 11 hours of rest per day but he also needs an uninterrupted night’s sleep so that he isn’t a danger to other road users or pedestrians because he’s tired.
Croydon Council have refused my claim on the basis that I have not provided sufficient reason for my husband to need a separate bedroom, only a separate bed. They have offered me the choice of going to a tribunal and I have 3 weeks to request this if I want to proceed.
I have tried to call Citizens Advice but cannot get through so I have emailed them and I’m hoping to hear from someone by next week.
I would love to know if anyone has any experience with challenging their council on the size of an extra room or any advice in general in what I can do, please. We are currently trying as hard as we can to pay our rent but we are falling further and further behind and I am very worried we will end up being evicted.