HOUSING BENEFIT EXPERT Have a tenant who has had their benefits stopped, hoping to help them rather than evict. They are currently going for a mandatory reconsideration but i want to help them as best i can (or help steer them toward someone who can). At the moment they are being helped by the CAB and other agencies, who dont seem to be able to contribute much apart from the usual advice to wait for me to evict through the courts so they can get homeless status... yeah thanks. Situation: Large family (dad, mum, 5 kids) living with elderly gran who has dementia. Mum and dad are my tenants, gran moving in happened a year ago. The gran previously lived in her own house, but it was very dilapidated and the family decided to move her in with them. They are on benefits. House is worth around 40k (council came out at the time and valued around 25k actually). Because of the fear of eventual care home costs, house was signed over to dad. This was all declared and accepted by the council 5 years ago. The house is a 2 bed completely unmodernised, with severe damp etc and completely unsuitable for gran, or indeed anyone from the family. Eventually, the idea was that the house would be sold and the money split three ways (dads brother and sister also due a 1/3 each). Now all of a sudden, someone in the council has reviewed the file, and seen that dad had assets worth over 16k. So the entire families benefits have been suspended, except grans pension. A family of 8 have for 3 months been existing on grans pension income. According to what i can figure out, they should be entitled to housing benefit even though they own this asset. For starters it is 2 beds and they are a family of 8. Secondly it was deemed unfit for habitation which is why gran lives with them. There is a rule somewhere about having a second home I think but i cannot find it? If anyone can point me in the right direction here, or to a specialist HB advisor, id be grateful. Im down three months of Housing Benefit rent, reluctant to serve notice on them if its a case of bureaucracy eventually sorting itself out. I dont think theyve done anything wrong, but i cannot wait forever. Eviction would most definitely mean that because they have so many kids, the family might be split up (even across multiple homeless hostels), and gran would likely end up in a care home (very far gone dementia). All of this would cost the state far more ££££ than just paying HB on one property, not to mention the damage to credit rating / grans health / family splitting up / schooling etc etc etc. Doesnt make sense to me. Another question: If gran and mum become joint tenants in another property i own, this would be a fresh claim and we could keep dad out of the claim as he would live at the old 2 bed. But ive been told that this would then rule out any possibility of the original HB claim being backdated for the missing months. So basically any attempt for them to start fresh claims elsewhere ruins any possibility of the disputed period being backdated? doesnt seem right to me. Anyway hope someone can point me in the right direction (specific legislation source, a solicitor or agency who specialise in this etc).
Posted on: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 12:00:31 +0000
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