CAN I CLAIM ANY BENEFITS WHILE I AM WAITING FOR A TRIBUNAL DATE TO PLEA MY ESA CASE - HELP PLEASE!!

I have one more question to ask - does anyone know the in's and out's of the bedroom tax and ground maintenance payments, i have been paying a contribution towards my rent for years for the ground maintenance 5+ even though i inform the relevant department of housing association every time they write to inform the tenants of a rent increase ( FEBRUARY/MARCH of each year ) i should not be paying it ( they agree and inform me they will amend my account to state this) but yet they are still taking it from my bank account every week. i discovered just before easter that the shortfall in housing benefit to my housing is because of Bedroom Tax but i do not have a spare bedroom. There is confusion regarding the amount of rooms my home has, my original tenants agreement states 2 bedrooms ( WOULD THIS DOCUMENT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE TO THEM ) because they do not class the back room as a bedroom because of it's size - 7ft x 7ft.9. yet the council say they are paying my landlord for a 3 bedroom property, and as far as the council are concerned i have a spare bedroom, i live with my three children who are 11, 9 and 5 all this information was provided to the housing department of the council by a third party who themself works for the same council but in a different department, Is there anyway i can get a refund of all the money the landlord/council have taken in error, and is it correct that if you are classed as disabled you should get full housing benefit anyway. i would appreciate any information regarding the above.
Many Thanks Dawn

Comments
-
Hi Dawn
try putting your details into one of the on line benefit calculators
I think you should get f2f advice from CAB, welfare rights or similar, You have that many things going on and some of them are not straight forward
CR
0 -
Hi @dawn49, thanks for sharing this with us.
Using the online benefit calculator may be a good place to start in terms of working out which various benefits you may be entitled to.
I've forwarded this query onto our benefits advisors to see if there's anything they can add, but as CR says above, it may be a good idea to seek face to face advice with these queries. One place where you may be able to do so is Citizens Advice: you can find your local CAB here. I hope you find the answers you need soon, and please do keep us updated!0 -
Hi @dawn49
Sorry you are having such difficult with your benefits - let me see if I can break it down for you a bit...
ESA while on appeal:-
If your appeal relates to a medical issue (i.e. you have been assessed as fit got work, and the case does NOT relate to a failure to return a form or failure to attend a medical) then you can continue to receive ESA for the duration of your appeal. You would need a sick note from your doctor, but aside from that you would just need to call ESA and ask them to re-instate it. 0800 169 0310.
If your condition has deteriorated then yes you can re-claim (provided you have evidence there has been a significant deterioration). This could be backdated for the period of the deterioration. This would not be the same as payments on appeal, this would be a new claim based on a 'new' health condition.
You can't just re-claim after 6 months.
The exception to all the above is if you are in a full service UC area you would need to claim UC as no new claims can be made to ESA.
Carer's Allowance:-
Yes, your mother could claim CA for you even though you are Carer for your daughter. However if you are the only adult in your house this could reduce your entitlement to benefit, as if someone claims CA for you, you cannot receive a Severe Disability Premium on your benefit.
Housing Benefit:-
I think you are confused between ground rent, and service charges here. Ground rent is a rental payment on an owned property, whereas I think what you're talking about is confusion from the Council about paying for service charges that you're liable for as part of your ordinary rent?
This sounds to me like it would be an eligible service charge and should be paid for by HB.
The issue of Under Occupancy also sounds incorrect to me, as even if you have three bedrooms, they are all occupied, as only two children are expected to share. The weak link in all this is that it sounds like you may not have notified the council yourself of all this information, so I would recommend calling them up and just seeing what is going on, and if necessary asking for a review - if they can't take this over the phone, ask for their email address and email it over to them.
I hope this is of assistance - let us know if you need any further information.
Kind regards,
Mary
0
Categories
- All Categories
- 15.2K Start here and say hello!
- 7.2K Coffee lounge
- 87 Games den
- 1.7K People power
- 118 Announcements and information
- 24K Talk about life
- 5.7K Everyday life
- 373 Current affairs
- 2.4K Families and carers
- 863 Education and skills
- 1.9K Work
- 519 Money and bills
- 3.6K Housing and independent living
- 1K Transport and travel
- 879 Relationships
- 255 Sex and intimacy
- 1.5K Mental health and wellbeing
- 2.4K Talk about your impairment
- 863 Rare, invisible, and undiagnosed conditions
- 920 Neurological impairments and pain
- 2.1K Cerebral Palsy Network
- 1.2K Autism and neurodiversity
- 39.1K Talk about your benefits
- 5.9K Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
- 19.5K PIP, DLA, ADP and AA
- 8K Universal Credit (UC)
- 5.6K Benefits and income