A housing association has been informing the Housing Benefit section of rent increases by email. Housing benefit did not inform the housing association that they were ignoring these notifications, saying that email was not an acceptable form of evidence. This has led to many tenants falling into arrears and some facing proccedings as a result.
Is there anything in the VF or regs to support HB's view or should they accept email notification of rent increase from a housing association?
Thanks
Trevor

I know of nothing in VF or the regs that would prevent the LA using the e-mail notification.

The only potential argument is if e-mail counts as "in writing" under the regs, but this appears clear from the MIS guide

"this can include any notice of a change given by email, including
Electronic Transfer of Data (ETD), but does not include information
received via HBMS"

My Authority is fully VF compliant and we receive most of the rent increase notifications from our RSLs by e-mail, and very helpful it is to.

Sorry, the quote from the MIS Guide in my previous post comes from the definition of charges of circumstances made in writing.

Based on the info given in the post, it seems the LA are at least accepting that such e-mails have been received (you cannot ignore something unless it has been received in the first place).

Further, the LA appear to have openly stated they ignored such notifications.

My suggestion is to write (relatively nicely at this stage) pointing out that the LA has accepted receiving such notifications but has merely ignored them.

As for the credibility of such evidence, I would point out that it is not reasonable to ignore correspondence on the basis of form - it is substance that counts. Further, to ignore it to the extent of not even responding to explain the evidence is not acceptable is, arguably, maladministration.

In my opinion, if the evidence already provided is insuffient, the LA should have requested appropriate evidence and not ignored the matter. My advice is to ask that the LA implements the rent increases for all relevant claims affecting your clients (get your clients to counter sign the letters - or at least get signed authorisation). In the same letter, I would put to the LA that if they still consider the evidence to be insufficient, they should provide the HA with the opportunity to corroborate the evidence already provided. I would also ask the LA to explain why they ignored the original e-mails and on what basis does the LA consider the evidence to be insufficient.

Ultimately, if the LA fails to implement the changes (at least from when originally notified), try appealing and/or making formal complaints with a view to going to the Ombudsman if no sensible conclusion is reached.

Just to be clear, I can understand an LA not accepting something as being sufficient, but it is not reasonable to completely ignore it. For example, there are one or two L/Ls that I would certainly not accept e-mails from as evidence of a rent increase..... (er, read what you will into that...). But the mail would not be ignored.

Regards

to be legalistic about it, you could also say that if the LA has not specificaly stated that it won't accept service/notification electronically, then they can't say they don't know.