Housing and Council tax Benefit based on Income Support

The original message was received at Fri, 12 Mar 2010 11:05:24 GMT
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[Cambridge City Council request email]
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Dear Mr Tyes,

The Local Authority's policy is to apply Regulation 11 of The Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations 2001. This states that we should suspend a claim where a question arises as to the person's ongoing entitlement to Housing Benefit and / or Council Tax Benefit. In other words, having been informed that the customer has come off Income Support we will suspend the claim until we have established what their income / savings now are.

In order to establish the above, we will write to the customer asking them to provide proof of income and capital (where appropriate) and allow them a month in which to provide this information. This is covered by Regulation 86 of The Housing Benefit Regulations 2006 and Regulation 72 of The Council Tax Benefit Regulations 2006.

If this information is not provided within the month and there is no good reason to extend the time allowed to the customer to provide this information, the Authority will terminate the claim under Regulation 14 of The Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit (Decisions and Appeals) Regulations 2001. Having terminated the claim, the Local Authority will notify the claimant of this decision and give them a month in which to dispute the decision i.e. to provide the requested information. If the customer provides the required information within this one-month "dispute period" the claim will be reinstated and re-calculated based on the customer's new circumstances.

If, however, they only present the requested information after the dispute period has lapsed, they must also provide an explanation as to why they could not present this information sooner. The customer has a maximum period of twelve months immediately after the dispute period has ended in which to do this. The Local Authority will only revise its decision to terminate the claim if the customer can demonstrate that special circumstances prevented the information being provided earlier.

The Local Authority will only terminate a claim immediately where the customer has, for example, left the area.

I hope the above is of some assistance. If you require any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,
Naomi Armstrong

Dear Cambridge City Council,

Please could you send me a copy of your current policy in
connection with Housing Benefit in the following circumstance:

When you are notified that a claimant's Income Support award has
terminated, what is your policy/procedure towards entitlement to
Housing and Council Tax Benefit?

Please specify the factors you take into account when deciding
whether to for example, write to the client asking for more
information, immediately cancel the claim or alternate approaches?

Yours faithfully,

Ian Tyes

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