Benefit change from JSA to ESA suspended Housing Benefit payments.

A question about : Benefit change from JSA to ESA suspended Housing Benefit payments.

We are a family with 2 children aged 3 and 8.

We relocated to a privately rented home almost 12 months ago and for 10 months we have been claiming JSA, HB and CT. My partner has several ill health problems and was told he must claim ESA as was to ill to find work.

Unfortunatley on top of other illnesses (chronic af, uncontrolled diabetes etc) he had been admitted to a Secure Mental Health unit and whilst in there we changed over to ESA.

This affected our HB and although we have visited their offices on several occasions they have now suspended our benefit, even though we have filled in the correct change of circumstances forms that they informed us would release the benefit to be paid.

The reason for this is that they request a letter from our landlord stating we are not in arrears (as they cancelled the payment that would usually be paid in the 10th of September, and therefore the next payment). Our rent is paid on the 3rd of the month and we have never missed a payment and we make the shortfall through our other benefits. We do not ahve a rent book and have to admit that we have rented privately for 13 years and never had one with any landlord.

We ahve explained that if we were to inform our landlord we are on benefits they would issue us with notice - as due to their experiences with previous tenants they would not accept people on benefits in their properties and it affects their insurance (they mentioned this a few months back whilst telling us about some probs they were having with another tenant and we kept schtum, not wanting to lose thier home!).

Last year myself and the children spent 4 months sleeping on someones sofa in their front room as we could not find a house, we had to relocate 2 hours away to get this house. And because of the housign situation we had last year (through no fault of our own) my daughter changed schools 3 times. That was extremely disrupting, but the councils where we were living (2 different ones we were listed with) could not re house us, and niether could any of the housing assoscations due to waiting lists.

My partner contacted the local council office yesterday and explained this to him and she sopke to him like an idiot because she was aware he is listed as havign Mental Health Problems (he isnt and idiot and her tone was condascendng and patronising and she was the Head of Finance Manager!!). He asked if he could arrange a meeting and bring along an advocate, who could explain our situation and the stress this sis causing and she laughed and just said, look get your partner to phone your landlord and they wont throw you out straight away anyway.

I know they cant throw us out straight away, i understand the legalities etc, as we've been there before, but we are trying to keep the roof over our head that we are paying for and are up to date with.

But nothing other than a letter from our landlord is good enough??? Surely, they can see past this and there is something else they can do? It is a simple benefit change afterall like they told us??? They have a box and section on the form asking if you want them to infrom your landlord and there is a reason behind this questions? ie - you do not want your landlord to know you are claiming benefits? (btw we have never claimed benefits before, and it's just so demoralising, we've both had good jobs, ran our own businesses, but illness has gotten in the way!)

Kind Regards

Best answers:

• Have a look at the information on the Citizens Advice self help web site on Renting https://www.adviceguide.org.uk/englan...g_a_home_e.htm
  You could do worse that getting help from you local Citizens Advice Bureau (see https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/index/getadvice.htm) or from Shelter (see https://england.shelter.org.uk/) Both these organisations can give you accurate advice and information on where you stand and help you if you are threatened with homelessness.
• This is a shocking way for the council to behave. Local Housing Allowance is paid to the tenant rather than the landlord except in certain circumstances. This is the guidance to councils about when to consider making payments directly to a landlord rather than to a tenant:
  https://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/lha-guidance-manual.pdf see page 38 onwards.
  It sounds like they are making unfounded assumptions about your partner on the basis of his disability, if they won't budge I would consider telling the council in no uncertain terms that you consider they are discriminating against him due to his disability and consider talking to this organisation https://www.dls.org.uk/Advice/Index.html to back you up.