Just received two - two! - BENEFIT DECISION NOTICES, dated one day apart, in the post after having submitted a new letter from my landlord. Got the review I asked for and the result is I'm back to the council paying my whole rent with the amount for bills included. This leaves me with a dilemma. My understanding is that utility bills etc should not be included in calculating my benefit (which is fair enough I suppose). The whole point of my recent decrease in benefit was that they'd been over paying me.
So what to do? I don't have direct contact with the person making the calculation and neither does anyone that I talk to at the council - theoretically the rules are iron clad and just applied by the anonymous drone who makes the calculation. I have very little say in their decisions as I found out a month ago. Then it meant losing £15 a week, this month it means getting that back. I rang up the council to clarify what I'm getting now - it took 30 mins on hold (only the unemployed could possibly have the time to be able to get through to them). I wonder if it was something to do with being on both Income Support and Disability Living Allowance - I think that entitles me to a higher level of support.
A recent appeal court ruling says that Councils cannot reclaim any over-payments that result from a council mistake. See the Daily Mail report: Taxpayer foots £1bn benefits blunder bill as claimants told they don't have to return overpayments (they are not the most sympathetic paper to our plight, but came up first on Google).
My inclination is to keep my head down. I can't say I understand how they operate and every time I have any contact with them I both learn something new and find I was misinformed the last time I contacted them. It's incredibly stressful getting mucked about like this. I have resigned myself to being poorer, and I'm loath to kick off the whole process again if I don't have to.
It's not entirely ethical I suppose, but on balance I think I'm not going to ask them to consider paying me less. It's not a huge amount, and I do not live an extravagant life. It means I can put a little aside for those new winter boots I'll be needing before long.
1 comment:
Looking back I think this is due to them not registering that I am receiving the Incapacity Benefit and entitled to a higher level of support! I must remember to remind them of this next time!
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