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HB restriction
Don’t know if I’ve completely missed something here.
A client lives in supported accommodation in another local authority area. It came to light that for the year 2019/20 his HB did not meet the whole of his rent. No arrears because the shortfall was paid from his other benefits.
The local authority concerned has repeatedly provided email “explanations” that they made an agreement with the landlord about the level of rent for which they would pay HB. They have implied that they assumed the agreed reduction was passed on to the tenants. It wasn’t for our client. The following year the HB increased to meet the whole of the rent again.
I have asked them to provide evidence that they made a lawful decision to restrict his eligible rent for that period and eventually submitted a request for an any time revision on grounds of official error, as no evidence has been forthcoming. I’ve not received an acknowledgement of this request let alone a response, just an email offering to ring me to explain. Which I suspect will be a repeat of the previous explanations.
Have I missed something? Is it ok for them to restrict the client’s HB apparently only on the basis of an agreement with the landlord??
No its not ok to come to an informal “agreement ” with the landlord
It might be ok for the landord to waive the payment for the shortfall but that is something between the claimant and the landord, and little if anything to do with the Council.
The trouble is that there is no right of appeal against a refusal to revise for officia error, the right of appeal is against the original decision (as not revised) and you might well be out of time
You might be ablle to argue that the absolute time limit might take into accout the time it took for the LA to provide the “explanation” or that your client hasnot been properly notified and the clock has simply not started to run
I would try to get this before a Tribunal if I could and use it as a means to unravel this so called agreement
Thanks - I was pretty sure that was the case but the offending LA have been so weird about it I began to doubt myself.
Unfortunately we are well out of time to appeal the original decision and don’t really have any reasons for extreme lateness. I want them to admit they are wrong though.. could always ask for an extra statutory/ex gratia/compensation payment if they do that but it’s not looking hopeful.
Sometimes in these supported housing cases, there are disputes regarding which of various service charges are payable by HB. As the provision is usually the same across a given estate or project, the landlord would be best placed to explain what the charges are for and that would be applicable across a number of properties. The landlord will have an interest in ensuring that the charges can be met by HB as far as possible and the tenant will usually not be in much of a position to comment on the technical issues being raised.
It sounds like in your case, the HB department raised some objection to the payability of some part of the charge for that year, refused to pay them and the bills were then recast in a different way the next year which the HB department regarded as acceptable.
Of course, the ultimate question of how much HB is payable is not the result of any such discussion or ‘agreement’. It’s a unilateral decision by the LA and whether or not anybody else agrees with it is irrelevant. Saying that it was ‘agreed’ with the landlord doesn’t add anything beyond just saying ‘we decided’. That decision would still need to be communicated to the tenant in the ordinary way and subject to challenge on the standard lines.
Thanks Elliot. It would be nice if their HB section even replied to me; I assume they are confident that it is very much out of time to appeal so don’t think it’s worth bothering.
Thanks Elliot. It would be nice if their HB section even replied to me; I assume they are confident that it is very much out of time to appeal so don’t think it’s worth bothering.
Hiya Rose :)
If your client hasn’t been notified of the decision time isn’t even running yet. I’d probably submit an appeal; that would force the LA to get their ducks in a row.
Unfortunately we are well out of time to appeal the original decision and don’t really have any reasons for extreme lateness. I want them to admit they are wrong though.. could always ask for an extra statutory/ex gratia/compensation payment if they do that but it’s not looking hopeful.
I agree with Dan, it is worth putting in an appeal, you never know.