Hi everyone

I have been informed that some of our new build tenancies are not having the HB claim decided on because the assessor has not reached a decision on the banding for council tax purposes. I have not come accross this one before so any advice would be helpful. This has went on for three months now and and there is no indication when the banding will be decided on. We only found out when some of our tenants enquired at the housing benefit office why their claims are not in payment.

Willie

Legally there is no power to hold up a claim for HB just because the CTB banding has not been set.

I suspect the reason there is a problem is that on some IT systems it is difficult to set up an HB claim as it needs to be linked to a residential property set up for Council Tax. Saying this, it is usually possible to set up a dummy account to allow an HB claim to be processed whilst the banding decision is being taken.

Even if this is not possible on the IT system the Council has, they must still process the HB claim on paper if necessary.

If I were you I would go with the usual complaint to the LA Monitoring Officer followed up by a complaint to the Ombudsman if not resolved quickly.

Hi Willie,

This should not be the case for any claim. I am guessing you are dealing with Glasgow City Council (since you work in Drumchapel).

GCC converted from their "in-house" Mainframe system last June to Capita's system Academy.

On Academy, it is possible to pay out HB and link the C/Tax account at a later date - staff should be aware of how to do this, if not they were all provided with handbooks to give them guidance with the new system but given that we are nearly a year on, then the handbooks should not be required. If staff are unaware of how this can be done then there is a serious training issue there.

I was a System Coach for GCC when they converted systems so I can confirm that it was covered at training and through additional support at "go live" by us (System Coaches). They also have the BRITe team for support should they not be aware how to do a particular task so if they are persistant they cannot process HB then direct them towards Revenue and Benefit System Admin Team (RABSAT).

Hope this helps! If you need any further assistance send me a message and I will provide you with my e-mail address.

Craig

Hi Cara

I have spoken to the local office and was put through to their Academy team leader, who indicated that they cannot process the claims, until the C/Tax banding has been provided. I asked that the claims to be made manually and he assured me that this is also impossible. He indicated that since Academy's last update, there has been a series of problems relating to C/Tax bandings. Personally I think this is a load of rubbish as it would not affect the HB.

I will take your advice and if I get no further i will send you a message for your e-mail address.

Thanks

Willie

If there is a "technical problem" they are just going to have to find a way around it - simple as that. Last time I checked, "our systems can't cope with it" did not feature in the HB Regs 2006!

The latest reply from from HB:

"HB can only be processed where the property has been registered for CTax.

You are right in stating that where a claimant moves into a property HB can be paid even where the claimant has not been made liable to pay C Tax.

The problem we have with the claims you provided is that the property has been registered on our Council Tax system,(as it has been deemed as new build) consequently no HB can be paid.

I have raised this issue with my Assistant Chief as the affected claims have now been outstanding for some time.

I will raise this issue again and keep you informed."

I still do not know if this is any clearer or is an answer to my question?

Willie

Ombudsman time, me thinks. And/or JRs seeking an order for the LA to pay.

Valuation Banding

The City Assessor is responsible for the Valuation of all Domestic Dwellings within it’s boundary based on Market Conditions at 1 April 1991. Each dwelling is placed into one of eight Capital Value Bands and also recorded in the Valuation List. The Assessor is also responsible for additions to, (e.g. newly built property) or deletions from, (e.g. demolished property) the Valuation List.

Valuations are made on the property and are not an assessment of the occupier’s ability to pay the tax.

Band D Council Tax levels are set by Local Authorities prior to each Financial Year (1st April).

The relevance of the Proportions is that Taxpayers with properties in other Bands will pay a proportion of the Band D Charge

Below is the table of bandings for Glasgow City Council. I have laid them out in the following format;

Valuation Band = Range of Values = Proportion of Band D

A = £27,000 or under = 6/9
B = £27,000 to £35,000 = 7/9
C = £35,000 to £45,000 = 8/9
D = £45,000 to £58,000 = 9/9
E = £58,000 to £80,000 = 11/9
F = £80,000 to £106,000 = 13/9
G = £106,000 to £212,000 = 15/9
H = Over £212,000 = 18/9

This information I have extracted from the GCC procedures manual and therefore I do not see a problem with vaulation if the property was worth for example £50,000 then they would place it in the Band D category.

Hi Craig

Finally got someone who knows what they are talking about and the claims will be loaded manually. I think that a request for interim HB should have been made after the 14 days, however I have still yet to see an interim payment made. The problem might relate to the valuation of some of the properties as they are mixed tenure type. With them being loaded then academy no doubt could not charge an amount as it did not know what band it was, so I assume nothing would go ahead. would it not have been a simple matter to remove the council tax out of the system and just loaded the HB claims. However it is now resolved.

Thanks for all information provided everyone.

Willie