Housing and Council Tax Benefit Jargon
Fed up looking at letters from us and not knowing what they mean? Read this page to see if it can help you understand the jargon.
If you are not happy with a decision made by the Benefits section then you can appeal. a tribunal, independant from the Housing and Council Tax Benefits department will review the decision. This is called an appeal hearing.
The Government works out how much money they think that you need to live on each week. This is called your applicable amount. Your applicable amount is calculated taking the following things into account:
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the number of people who live with you as part of your family,
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your age and their ages,
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whether someone has a long-term illness or disability,
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whether you have been recently bereaved, and
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whether you care for someone for more than 35 hours a week.
Capital can be:
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spare cash,
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money in bank or building society accounts,
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unit trusts,
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stocks and shares,
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Land or Property (other than the one you live in)
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income or capital bonds,
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premium bonds, or
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lump sum redundancy payments.
If you have capital more than £6000 then an assummed amount (called tarriff income) will be taken as income when calculating how much benefit you may be entitled to. This is worked out by taking £1 for every £250 or part that you have over £6000. For example if you have capital of £7200 then £5.00 a week will be included as tarriff income. If you are aged 60 or over then the calculation is done on £1 for every £500 or part, therefore if you have capital of £7200 then a tarriff income of £3.00 is included in the income used to calculate your entitlement
To meet the definition of a carer, you should be looking after someone for an average of 35 hours per week. The person you look after should be getting Attendance Allowance or Disability Living Allowance (high or middle rate of the care component). You should have received Carer's Allowance or have been told that you would be entitled to Carer's Allowance if it were not for your income. Find out more on the direct.gov website.
A dependant is a child or young person who lives with you, whom you receive child benefit for, and is aged under 16 or 16-19 and still in school or college (studying GCE A level or advanced GNVQ) Once child benefit ceases then they will become non dependants as long as they still live with you.
Your eligible rent is the Local Housing Allowance rate applicable to you (for private rented claims made after 7 April 2008) or the rent that your landlord charges you minus any service charges that Housing Benefit cannot pay for, such as cooking or personal laundry.
The Housing Benefit department will work out how much you can afford to pay towards the eligible rent before deciding how much Housing Benefit you should be entitled to.
This refers to any money you have coming in. For example, it can include any benefits, wages or pensions.
A non-dependant is someone who lives with you
·who is not your husband, wife, civil partner or partner (including same-sex partners), and
·who you do not claim Child Benefit for, and
·who is over the age of 18.
The Housing/Council Tax Benefit department will assume that if you have a non-dependant living with you, that person can make a contribution to your rent and council tax. The amount of money taken off your benefit will be decided on the basis of the non-dependant's income.
If you ask the Housing/Council Tax Benefit department to look at their decision again, then this is called a revision. Someone different from the person who made the decision should look at the decision. If you are still not happy then you can appeal.
The Housing/Council Tax Benefit department will class you as severely disabled if:
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you receive Attendance Allowance, Disability Living Allowance (middle or high rate care), Severe Disability Allowance, and
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you live alone or with a partner who also gets one of the benefits above, and
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you do not have any non-dependants living with you (see above), and
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no one gets Carer's Allowance for looking after you.
To be seen as a sick or disabled person in relation to benefits, you should be getting:
Income Support because you are ill or have a disability, or
Incapacity Benefit, or
Disability Living Allowance, or
Severe Disablement Allowance, or
Attendance Allowance.
If you appeal against a decision made by the Housing/Council Tax Benefit department, it can be looked at again by someone who does not work for the council. You can be present when the decision is looked at again to put forward your side of the story. Someone from the Housing/Council Tax Benefit department can go too. This is called a tribunal or an appeal hearing.