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HB awards whilst JSA sanctioned
Can anyone assist me with client who I am working with. The claimant had his JSA sanctioned for a failure to attend an appointment and also had his HB cancelled for the sanctioned period. A statement outlining a nil income for the period of the sanction was submitted to the council. The council have replied outlining that:
“We will only consider paying claims on nil income in exceptional circumstance and you need to demonstrate good reason as to why you had no income for a specific period”
Do you need to show an exceptional circumstance, doesn’t the fact he has no income mean he is entitled to HB.
No, you don’t need to have any exceptional circumstances. And if your client was still signing on they should have been treated as if they were still in receipt of JSA. Sounds like they’ve done all they can.
If it’s a proper decision I’d put in an appeal but also ask them on the basis of what regulation they have made that statement.
(As an aside, I recently advised an agency worker who wouldn’t be paid while on holiday that they were entitled to HB for that period. It caused lots of comment in our office but they’ve just been paid it!!)
Thanks that Mairi
S130 of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992.
“A person is entitled to housing benefit if–....... he has no income or his income does not exceed the applicable amount; or….”
Assuming he has a liability to pay rent, etc, it’s a no brainer and any HB department that doesn’t know this should be hauled over the coals for it. As Jim Royle would say, exceptional circumstances my a**e!
“We will only consider paying claims on nil income in exceptional circumstance and you need to demonstrate good reason as to why you had no income for a specific period”
Oh for Pity’s Sake…
Appeal and bung in a complaint whilst you’re at is my advice. That’s utterly nonsensical. It would be funny if it wasn’t so infuriating.
On the facts of this case I fully agree with the comments - & the “exceptional circumstances” bit is nonsensical. However, there are cases where it is not unreasonable for LAs to have doubts about whether a nil income statement is correct & to enquire into how the claimant is living if they really do have no income.
It is unfortunately common for anyone declaring nil income for a period to get problems with actually getting the HB paid.
Depending on the reason (for the nil income) and the length of the period - many assessors immediately make the assumption that this information (actual nil income) is unreliable (i.e. the claimant must have SOME income to live on). Sadly they rarely explain this position and ask outright about “what the claimant lived on”. Instead they treat the claiamant as “probably” having undeclared earned income. Hence a refusal to pay HB for the period.
Without some written POI on the HB file an assessor is always likely to play safe and treat as working until proved otherwise.
To cut through this I always advise clients (having nil income) to send - in writing - a letter saying:
__________________________________________
for the period________ to ___________ I was not employed and I did not receive any earnings. In fact I did not receive any income whatsoever.
I managed to survuve during this period because __________________________ (the most common reason is “by the charity of family and friends”.)
My liability to pay rent was unaffected and I therefore ask that full housing benefit be paid.
________________________________________
It usually does the trick.
I agree. The nil income statement has to be comprehensive. It’s not enough to simply have a note put on the HB system saying “nil income declared”.
I agree in principal, but what drives me mad is the way some LA’s refuse to accept a negative. There’s one local one I can think of that insists on bank statements to ‘confirm’ nil income (even where a comprehensive statement has been provided along with confirmation from us that client has been referred for food parcels, copy of the JSA sanction letter, etc).
The credibility or otherwise of a nil income declaration shouldn’t come into it because HB Reg 2(3) says that a person who is sanctioned is treated for HB purposes as still being on JSA(ib).
The problem, as we have discussed before on here, is that the Council cannot always tell easily from the notification they get from DWP whether the claimant has been sanctioned, appointed CEO of a multinational corporation, or somewhere in between. So they suspend HB and make enquiries which can then become bogged down.
There is no excuse for the situation 1964 describes where evidence of a sanction is provided to the Council - they should know about Reg 2(3).
My co-worker was told by our LA a years or so ago that its pretty much impossible to have “nil income” as “everyones entitled to something”
Obviously havent heard of sanctions then….......
Update : Council worker at customer services informed a 64 year old lady that she must pay full rent and council tax. She told him she got SRP + GPC, so was entitled to full HB / CTR.
Worker told her “you cant be getting your pension, cos all women retire at 65 now, so you cant be getting pension credit either”.
I sometimes despair…................
[ Edited: 7 Jul 2014 at 03:05 pm by benefitsadviser ]