I would be grateful for any advice on the following case:

One of my clients moved into a privated rented flat in September 05, he claimed HB and a decision was made to award Housing benefit at the end of October 06. However the Rent officer determined that the rent was too high leaving the client with a shortfall of £35 a week. He was only receiving £56.20 IS at the time so could not afford to pay this and did not know about Discretionary payments, large arrears have accumulated as a result. His landlord informed the client that all the other people who have lived in that flat and the other same size flats that he owns in the same block get full HB and have not ever had this problem.

My query is that I read that you have to ask for a redetermination of the rent with in 6 weeks of the date of decision. Clearly my client is way out of time. However I also read that if you ask for a revision or an appeal they have to redetermine the rent , therefore is it worth putting in a late appeal or am I just cluthing at straws!

Reg 16 (1)(c) imposes the time limit to 6 weeks. There is no extension of the time limit where a claimant makes a late appeal against a decision that relates to a rent officer’s determination.

However, Reg 15 gives the LA a discretionary power to request 1 re-determination itself. You could try and persuade the LA to use this discretion in your client's case.