Here are some ideas to help you make the most of Housing Benefit and blast those arrears.

Please click on the links for more detailed information..

1. HB Offices can access a lot of information on the CIS system and therefore they should not be delaying assessing a tenant's entitlement or suspending/terminating claims awaiting this information from the tenant.
   
   
2. Make sure your HB Office isn’t one of the many who create unnecessary rent arrears by dealing with Tax Credits incorrectly. If they are, then help your tenants get back the HB they are entitled to.
    
3. Reduce the impact of overpayments on your rent accounts by ensuring the total overpayment has been reduced by underlying entitlement. If the tenant or their partner gets Attendance Allowance or any rate care component DLA, there should be no non-dependant deduction when their HB is assessed.
   
   
4. Make sure your families are not missing out on HB since the rules regarding Child Benefit changed on 2^nd November 2009. A family with 2 children could be entitled to over £20 a week. For more information see our October 2009 newsletter. Click here for a flyer you can use to advertise this change.
   
    
5. Fill gaps in entitlement for people of *Pension Credit age or over by checking that your HB Office gave the tenant the ‘backdating’ they were entitled to. If not, challenge their decision and reduce the arrears caused by the gap.
   
   
6. Where a non-dependant moves in with a tenant aged 65 or over, no charge ishould be made for 26 weeks.
   
   
7. Reduce your FTA’s by making sure every vacating/former tenant gets the HB for their notice period if entitled as many miss out. Such requests can be made several months (or years) after the tenancy end date!
   
   
8. No deduction should be made where a non-dependant is staying with the tenant on a temporary basis. You can help a tenant challenge an existing deduction, a previous deduction or an overpayment caused by the HB Office imposing a deduction.
   
   
9. When someone starts work and is entitled to an extended payment - the HB Office should be pro-actively looking into whether they can be paid so if your tenant has not been told they can have one then there is not time limit to request it! These rules changed in October 2008, so if you think your HB Office has not been doing this you can help your tenant get the extra HB they deserve!
   
   
10. If your tenant is complaining that their arrears are due to a HB problem, it might not be too late to help them challenge this. This is because if the normal time limits for an appeal have passed (one calendar month) , if they appeal and ask for a late appeal "in the interests of justice", the Tribunal Service might well agree to this even if the HB office originally refuse. 
    
     
11. For RSLs and private landlords, since 10th April 2006 Housing Benefit overpayments that have been caused by the tenant and which the landlord knew nothing about, should not be recovered  from a landlord - make sure you're challenging those invoices. Particulalry consider overpayments caused by a tenant abandoning.
    
     
12. Tenants not entitled to their maximum Housing Benefit can claim a Discretionary Housing Payment if they are facing hardship. (They do have to be getting some HB- at least 50p a week.)
    
    

13. Where a non-dependant is off work sick the lowest weekly  non-dependant deduction  should be made as they are not classed as in remunerative work. 

14. Since 10th November 2006 the date of a HB claim will be the date the claimant first contacted the HB Office as long as their HB claim is made within a calendar month.

*Pension Credit age is no longer 60, but is increasing over time, until 2018, when it will be 65 for both men and women, rising to 66 in 2020.  Further changes will affect Pension Credit age between 2024 and 2046, by which time it will increase to 68.  Click here for further information or click here for a simple calculator to work out what age this will be, based on the claimant's birthdate.