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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Housing costs  →  Thread

Claiming HB after moving out and underlying entitlement

geep
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WRO, housing management, Notting Hill Housing

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I can’t find anything in writing that addresses the issue of claiming HB or finalising a claim for HB after a person has moved out of the property. Does anyone have anything they can share about this? I need to get HB paid for quite a long period before the client moved out of the property - the HB claim appears to have been started but not finished before teh client moved out.

I managed to get the start date of an HB claim revised to a much earlier date using Reg 64 (c) of the SPC HB regs (Reg 83 of the HB regs) - and that was also a situation where a claim was started but not finished. But in this new case the client has moved out of the property. I think using backdating regs is a no-goer due to the amount of time that has elapsed (the tenancy ended about six months ago).

Also, does anyone know if underlying entitlement can be used to get HB for periods of time when no HB application was submitted? I thought UE was only used to reduce overpayments of HB, but I recently heard otherwise and would like to clarify this as it could be a very useful tool if it’s possible to use it for other situations!

HB Anorak
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Benefits consultant/trainer - hbanorak.co.uk, East London

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Are you saying this is a working age tenant who has not yet claimed HB and whose tenancy ended more than six months ago?  On the face if it that is not a promising position to start from.

Did the tenant ever have an HB award during the tenancy?  If so, how recently and why did it end (if you know)?  I think the only prospect of getting HB paid for a period more than six months ago would be to find a way of revising the decision to end a previous award and getting it reinstated.

Another remote possibility would be if the tenant has an outstanding undecided claim, perhaps one made via the DWP - might be the case if the tenant was on IS/JSA(ib)/ESA(ir) at the material time.  Do you know whether they were?

Finally underlying entitlement: it’s not a term used in the HB Regs but it is traditionally used to refer to the mechanism by which an overpayment is reduced.  If no HB has been paid at all, I cannot think of a situation in which anything known as underlying entitlement would be any help.

geep
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WRO, housing management, Notting Hill Housing

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As far as I can see, no HB was paid previously, but it looks like attemopts were made to claim HB about a year before the tenancy ended - which is why I was hoping I might be able to pull somthing off. I did it for another tenant but they were still living at the property when I started working on it.

I was planning on arguing that the an intention to claim HB was communicated before the tenancy ended but the application was not completed for health reasons. I think I can prove that an HB claim was started, and I’ll have no problem proving that the client was unable to act due to ill-health. What I’m wondering is whether or not there is a regulation that will automatically stop the LA from going back to consider whether the initated HB claim can be finalised after a long delay because the client no longer lives there?

Someone else mentioned the passported benefit route too - which I thought sounded like a promising option, but I need to find out what benefits he’s on first.

HB Anorak
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If there is anything that could be described as a claim - some written intention to receive HB - then it needs a decision.  If there has not been a decision, it isn’t too late.  If there has been a decision, you need to find a way of getting it revised.

I would suggest the following steps:

- as there are time limits for most options, get an appeal in now.  Something like “if you have made a decision not to award me HB following the claim I made on [approx date], I would like to appeal against that decision on the grounds that my circumstances do support HB entitlement and any failure on my part to provide evidence promptly was reasonable in view of my health problems.  My appeal has been delayed for the same reasons so I hope that the Tribunal will accepot my appeal out of time and that the Council will have no objection to that”.
- also ask the Council to explain exactly what happened to that claim - if no decision was ever made, ask them what further information is required in order to enable a decision to be made now.  If a decision has already been made, ask for a copy of the decision notice.

If an appeal is “live” with the Tribunal, the Council will consider whether to revise the decision in any case so I think in view of the probable time lapse since the original decision in this case I would by-pass the recon stage and pitch it as an appeal right now.  HB doesn’t have mandatory recons.

Edmund Shepherd
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Tenancy Income, Royal Borough of Greenwich, London

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I’m a little unclear. What do you mean by “the HB claim appears to have been started but not finished”? Did the claimant fail to provide information or did the LA not make a determination on the claim?

I’m not aware of a statutory provision for awarding a benefit without a claim.

MNM
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Solicitor, French & Co Solicitors, Nottingham

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I take it to mean no HB was awarded but a claim initiated possibly without a determination or decision notice.

There are a wealth of flaws the HB dept make, such as :-
-making ludicrous adverse inference decisions,
-not making reasonable enquiries, especially when circs change ie ESA > JSA
-not providing deadline times for submitting documents,
-not advising of consequences of not providing documents
-not processing passporting claims when they have proof of qualifying benefit etc

I have seen HB benefit letters saying things like “claim cannot be processed” “claim ended” without HB Dept following correct procedures and issuing correct decision notice or advising of appeal rights etc. 

As HBAnorak advised, not yet a lost cause. The strategy to by-pass internal reconsideration is a nice touch too

geep
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WRO, housing management, Notting Hill Housing

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I have seen more than one note on the client’s file saying that his social worker was sorting out an HB claim. As yet, I don’t know why HB never went into payment, but I’ll try to get proof that the SW made contact with the HB department. If the SW failed to initiate the claim I might try an appeal on the grounds of official error, what do you think? I’ve got some caselaw that I’ve used for previous cases which state than official error can be caused by any LA employee, not just employees of the HB department. As the client’s capacity was failing I think there could be some milegage in that approach…