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Am I missing something here. My council benefit has now stopped. Informed by post today. My hours of work and income has stayed the same, so I'm not understanding any of this. I have sent in evidence of Tax credits, hours, income etc.
Should I now be paying the full amount? Very confused by it all. Anyone help?
have you tried phoning - i find them very helpful when I have phoned - all I am entitled to is single person's discount - not sure how many hours you work but my wages were over the entitlement
Hi lrh. My hours are 20. Have just worked out, that my wages cover rent and council tax, and I'll have a mere £40 out of it 
I thought that as I was getting work tax credit, I would still be entitiled to rent benefit. So confused, my brain is hurting.
off to get C soon, hopefully the rain will blow away the cobwebs
Hi hazeleyes. The benefits system is enough to confuse anyone...I have to say that lrh has said what I would have said. Although contacting our money expert (see Louise's post) is one way to go, giving your local council tax office a ring to talk through your situation with them is a great idea.
Hope you didn't get too wet picking C up.
I'm still getting council tax benefit. I know this will now stop as oldest is not a student at the moment (he's anticipating becoming one mind... 
)
Can I suggest CAB? They were ace with me with all that nightmare rubbish at Christmas. xxxx
I rang the JC, as when I signed off there last November, the lady estimated everything for me, and she was lovely. Anyhow, she has confirmed that as I'm still doing the same hours, then yes, I'm entitled to rent benefit, and working tax credit. Next call was the Housing Officer (lady at JC advised me too). Spoke to another lovely lady who advised me to get there in the morning, take relevant paperwork, even though I sent some of them last week, and also my last contract, as my new one hasn't arrived yet. I'm on a deadline she said, so it's a matter of urgency. Next call to benefit people. I'm still waiting for an answer as to where they are getting incorrect information from, and why haven't they sent me any letters regarding this, rather than stopping benefits. She didn't have the answers to that, but did say, the system is now saying that my benefits are back up and running!! Complete idiots or what. She did however advise me still going to see the Housing Officer tomorrow. This I am doing, first thing, which means I shan't be going to work. To me this is more important, and then I can relax once again.
Could you 'just' go in late? Say you've got an urgent appointment...
All depends how long I'm sitting there with my ticket. I've sent my boss a text, and I don't think they'd miss me End of term and all that, so not really sticking to timetables anyway.
I just think with end of term, it might be more fun there - something to focus on? Mind you, is there a CAB near you if they don't get things sorted?
Aha hazeleyes are we at cross purposes? When you said council benefit I thought you meant Council tax, not rent. You should still get some help with rent, although not fully paid. See how you get on tomorrow and run it past the Money expert if it still does not make sense
Yes it is the rent Louise. They pay so much and I then pay toward. That is what has now stopped, so my rent altogether is well over £400!! Going in with my boxing gloves in bag, just in case 
I do have CAB near me, but I need to get all sorts of proof to Housing tomorrow.
Well you should get some help with the rent, in my experience. Good luck, today
How did you get on, hazeleyes?
Hope you didn't have to resort to the boxing gloves...
nearly Mary, nearly hehe. Will post about it later, doing dinner, and other stuff.
oh hazeleyes i am going to be sitting on the edge of my seat waiting to findout how you got on yesterday 
Hi all. Well, after seeing someone in benefits and the housing officer, and giving all the paperwork required to the benefits woman, she told me it will take 10 days to process 
My deadline is 9th July, which I pointed out of course. The thing that gets me, I rang the afternoon before, spoke to housing officer, and she could quite clearly see on the screen that I had sent in papers, and a letter from school saying I had another contract and it all stays the same. Sitting opposite the benefits woman, she can't see the details on the screen. How is this possible??? I still could be looking at starting over in the system again, which is totally unfair. Benefits lady did say they had re-instated my money again, but to be honest I don't believe a word from them anymore. Next stop was the housing officer. I explained that I had paid a lot more rent at the end of last month, and asked the reason why. It was because benefit had stopped, which was why they sent me a letter asking for full rent payments. She then said they had put it in for next week, so of course I pointed out that the rent or someone must owe me money for what I had had to pay for them not. (does this make sense?) She disagreed, saying no one owed me it. Again, how is this fair? They stopped a weeks money, and I ended up paying it.
Until I hear back from them, I'm none the wiser whether I have to pay the full rent at the end of the month, because if I have to open another claim, then this is what they'll expect, despite me saying I wouldn't be able to do this.
The error of me working 24 hours was a simple mistake of a slip of a hand, I was told. So, because someone makes an error, I'm going through all of this hassle.
Pleased to say I didn't use the boxing gloves, but I felt like boxing their heads together.
I'll never understand it...
It seems to me that if the break in your payments was caused by their error, ie your claim should never have been stopped, then they definitely need to backdate this "new" claim so that you receive the same as you would have received, had their error never occured!
Exactly!
Hi Hazeleyes
Don't forget we are now in a new tax year (and new Council tax year) so last tax year your total income would have included a few months wages, this year it is expected to be a full year and your income greater. Not many people who are on Working Tax Credit get Council Tax Benefit as well. However, what I suggest you do is email the money expert with the following details:
Your anticipated income for the tax year 2013-14, how much your council tax is and mention your housing situation and that you have one child.
Don't forget that you will definitely get a 25% discount for being a single adult occupant and if they have not put this into the mix, contact them to advise them of this.