Housing Benefit & Tax Credits....???

A question about : Housing Benefit & Tax Credits....???

I've been receiving Housing benefit since March of this year, and have just started receiving Working tax credit and child tax credit.
I'm not sure how it works, but I think someones mentioned to me before that if you are receiving other benefits, then this can affect how much housing benefit you receive?
Could someone clarify this for me please, as I'm slightly confused!
Thanks
p.s
Sorry if this has already been asked before, but I did a quick search, and couldn't find anything....

Best answers:

• Hi
  Tax Credits are classed as income and WILL affect the amount of Housing/Council Tax Benefit you receive.
  You have to notify them in writing asap as its a disadvatageous change. The more you delay the more you will be overpaid.
  The IR also send 'discs' to the local authorities so they may pick up you tax credit award anyway.
  Either way the law says you must tell the local authority about your change of circumstances. A letetr should do it.
• You may find that your own local authority website has a housing benefit/council tax benefit caculator from which you may get a guide to the likely impact of the changes to your income. If not you may find this Web Benefits Calculator useful
  The Web Benefits Calculator
  
• Thanks for your help on this one....!
  I tried the calculator out, and, assuming I did it all right, it doesn't look like there'll be a huge change to the housing benefit anyway.... I guess I'll just have to find out.....!
  Thanks again
• You need to be quick off the mark when it comes to telling your local authority about this kind of change of circumstance because each day that goes by is another day that you are being overpaid housing benefit.
  I had a nightmare with them last year, at that time I was entitled to around 50% housing benefit and put in my housing benefit renewal form as soon as it arrived so that there wouldn't be a delay and the housing benefit payments would continue.
  I gave them my Tax Credits award and everything else they needed to calculate what I was entitled to and within a couple of weeks I received a letter saying that I would still get around 50% housing benefit as I had before.
  Everything was fine for 6 months until one day I got a letter saying that I had been overpaid ever since my claim had been renewed 6 months earlier. They said that they had been paying me 20 pounds a week too much.
  I went to the council offices to find out what the heck was going on and they finally admitted that they had 'forgotten' to take my tax credits into account when they reassesed my claim. For some reason it had just come to light and now they wanted all the overpaid money back.
  To me this is totally unfair. I provided them with EVERYTHING they needed to correctly assess my claim, and I didn't suspect an overpayment. I ended up in a worse situation that I started with because not only was my housing benefit cut, I also had the overpayment so I ended up with pretty much no housing benefit at all, which legally put me below the bread line but did they care? nah.
  My view is that if some incompetent person can't add up and calculate a claim properly, then its their loss. Why should we end up in debt because of it? And they've got no incentive to do their jobs properly because theres no come back on them if they make a mistake, it all lands on the shoulders of the person who's claim has been messed up.
  If they were held accountable then maybe they would be more accurate in the first place.
  So my advice is to always tell them about a change of circumstances straight away and also double check that any amended claim is based on your correct circumstances. Basically, do their jobs for them.
• Yea, I sent my change of circumstances form off today...
  Hopefully should be okay, because my circumstances only changed as of last week, because my maternity leave ended....
  Fingers crossed...
• just opinion really
  i work for a local authority.
  I wouldn't trust the benefit people to sit the right way round on the toilet sometimes.
  poppycats advice is spot on.
  do their job for them.
• Not much help to you jellbabe, but here's an interesting little point re: tax credits and housing benefit (unless they have closed this loophole, and I don't think so yet).
  At the moment everyone is receiving Tax Credit Renewal notices, and most of us (me too!) are being told we have been overpaid. However, if you are informed you have been underpaid, and the IR pay you back the underpayment for the previous year then this money will not affect the HB award retrospectively (ie for the previous year).
  So (if the loophole still exists) there are some advantages when it comes to underpayments, but there doesn't seem to be too many of us around.
  Maybe this should be on the Tax Credit Board, I will leave that to Fran to decide?
• It's now on the Tax Credits thread as well as the Housing Benefit one, thanks Scouselass.
• hi i have just used the online calculater to calculate how much housing benifit i may recieve, although i think it is wrong.
  i have just submitted a form to housing benifit and it has come back to say we are not entitled to anything at all, even though our working tax has been cut from Ј85 a week to Ј25 a week(both ctc and wtc).overpayment from last year.
  i asked her how much we are over by and she wouldnt tell me, she says it goes on circumstances.
  so we are approx Ј60 down a week and still not entitled to a bean.
• I am having some problems with my local council.
  As has been mentioned entrusting these people to do the job properly should never happen.
  Make sure every piece of paperwork is kept in a safe place for years, do not deal with them verbally but only by e-mail and post.
  I feel conned because after my partner and I had seperated I decided to go through all paperwork, in doing so I disposed of letters and receipts that were sent to me ... stupid, stupid, stupid!
  Now they are asking for payment again, and I will have little choice but to pay it, I asked for information and they sent me a computer print out which shows that I hadn't paid anything last year, which is correct, I didn't, because they had sent a prior letter saying that the debt was clear, which they now deny.
  No matter what governmental organisation you are dealing with DO NOT TRUST THEM!
  Try you're best to put and get everything in writing, and if you must use the phone make sure you note the time, date and every name of every person you talk to, and what their position is.
  Don't be rushed, tell them to wait while you write their name etc.
  And write as much down about the phone call as you can, it might even be a good idea to record the phone call, but you must tell them that you are doing so, and that you intend to use the recording to transcribe it.
  I just used the 'Entitled to' site that Ted Hutchinson shows above which shows that I have an entitlement of around Ј90.00 (council tax / housing benefit combined) although SSDC say I have no entitlement.
  I may have to take his advice and follow this up.
  __________________________________________
  Just seen how old this thread is, but it did come up first in search, and it is still useful.
  __________________________________________
• I hope this person has resolved the issue they faced, as the original post is from 2004! I do agree though, you should make a note of the name of the people that you speak to and keep a record of it. It makes things a lot easier when you are given wrong information and the culprit can be tracked down and given the relevant training!
  Sorry Pipk, just seen that you had already mentioned that it was an old post.
• Hi,
  I have had a income assesment from my local HB office, In January 09 they assessed my income at Ј81 pew week. This was an estimate, but when my claim was reviewed in June 09 usinig Jan 09 to June 09 figures y income is a lot less than that, Ј30 per week.
  Can I ask them to correct the figure form Jan 09 to June 09 using actual iincome and not thier estimate?
  If so what regualtion do I need to quote for them to do this?
  Kind regards
  simaster