I got a letter today which confused me.
It says that from the 1st of April 2013 :
I'll be getting a Council Tax Reduction (presumably this is the new name for CTx Benefit?) which is equal to the full amount. I should clarify that by saying that the full amount, according to the letter, has been reduced by a couple of quid. Basically I'm getting full council tax benefit. It also came with a CTx bill, saying that there's 0.00 to pay.
It also says that I'll be getting Housing Benefit which is equal to the full LHA that applies to me.
This is why I'm confused :
A while back I got a letter saying that from now on most or all people will have to pay some council tax. It mentioned a figure of 2 pound something. So why am I now being told that I'll be getting full council tax benefit?
Also, the fact of getting full housing benefit doesn't seem right. They say they're trying to make cuts, yet this letter basically says that I'm going to get more money now. The letter says that "the maximum rent that we can use in the calculation is either the weekly LHA rate or your rent, whichever is the lower".
The thing is, my rent is the lower, yet I'm going to be getting considerably more.
I looked at their calculations, and everything appears to be worked out weekly. Including my MONTHLY rent. As I type it has just occurred to me that usually in these letters they express my rent in weekly terms. But they've used the monthly figure. No wonder my rent is NOT the lower figure according to their calculations.
I had an inkling before that they may have made an error, but now I'm even more inclined to think so.
Two questions, for anyone who knows about this :
1) From what I've said, does it seem that they've made an error?
2) If they have made an error, I'm not going to say anything to them, certainly not on the record. What I'll do is hold onto the money, without spending it. If they ever find out, I'll just pay it all back and tell them not to be so careless next time with their calculations. So my question is : Is there a time limit? I mean, do they have a certain amount of time to realise their error before I am allowed to keep the money?
(Obviously I'm more concerned about the HBen than the relatively measly CTx Red).
By the way, even though a lot of council staff are idiots, surely none of them can be so stupid as to confuse monthly rent with weekly rent. They must have a system for translating monthly into weekly, so why didn't they apply it in this case? If this is a case of utter incompetence on their part, they deserve to be taken advantage of. But either way, I'll be keeping the money and holding onto it for a while.
It says that from the 1st of April 2013 :
I'll be getting a Council Tax Reduction (presumably this is the new name for CTx Benefit?) which is equal to the full amount. I should clarify that by saying that the full amount, according to the letter, has been reduced by a couple of quid. Basically I'm getting full council tax benefit. It also came with a CTx bill, saying that there's 0.00 to pay.
It also says that I'll be getting Housing Benefit which is equal to the full LHA that applies to me.
This is why I'm confused :
A while back I got a letter saying that from now on most or all people will have to pay some council tax. It mentioned a figure of 2 pound something. So why am I now being told that I'll be getting full council tax benefit?
Also, the fact of getting full housing benefit doesn't seem right. They say they're trying to make cuts, yet this letter basically says that I'm going to get more money now. The letter says that "the maximum rent that we can use in the calculation is either the weekly LHA rate or your rent, whichever is the lower".
The thing is, my rent is the lower, yet I'm going to be getting considerably more.
I looked at their calculations, and everything appears to be worked out weekly. Including my MONTHLY rent. As I type it has just occurred to me that usually in these letters they express my rent in weekly terms. But they've used the monthly figure. No wonder my rent is NOT the lower figure according to their calculations.
I had an inkling before that they may have made an error, but now I'm even more inclined to think so.
Two questions, for anyone who knows about this :
1) From what I've said, does it seem that they've made an error?
2) If they have made an error, I'm not going to say anything to them, certainly not on the record. What I'll do is hold onto the money, without spending it. If they ever find out, I'll just pay it all back and tell them not to be so careless next time with their calculations. So my question is : Is there a time limit? I mean, do they have a certain amount of time to realise their error before I am allowed to keep the money?
(Obviously I'm more concerned about the HBen than the relatively measly CTx Red).
By the way, even though a lot of council staff are idiots, surely none of them can be so stupid as to confuse monthly rent with weekly rent. They must have a system for translating monthly into weekly, so why didn't they apply it in this case? If this is a case of utter incompetence on their part, they deserve to be taken advantage of. But either way, I'll be keeping the money and holding onto it for a while.