Once you claim benefit you have a legal obligation to notify us immediately of any change to your circumstances that may affect your benefit claim. If you are not sure what affect it does have, then contact us and we will advise you.
Examples of changes could be:
- If you or anyone who lives in the same household as you has a change in income (wages, pension etc.) or benefit (Tax Credits, Child Benefit etc.),
- If you or anyone in your household moves out,
- If anyone moves into your household,
- If the amount of rent you have to pay changes,
- If you or your partner, or any of your children (under 18) who live with you, have a change to their savings,
Whilst this list is not exhaustive, it is important that you notify us of these changes immediately otherwise you may lose benefit that you are entitled to.
If the change causes an overpayment (you have been paid too much benefit), you will in most circumstances have to pay the money back. The longer the time before you notify us, the more the overpayment will be. Even if the delay in notifying us was unintentional the Council will still seek to recover the overpayment, through the court's if necessary. Any overpayment that is considered to be fraudulent, e.g. not advising the Council of an income with the sole purpose of benefiting from the system will be investigated and may lead to prosecution.
If the change to your circumstances means that you have had an underpayment (you are entitled to more benefit than you have been receiving), we will only be able to pay you the arrears if you have told us within one calendar month of the date the change happened. If you do not tell us of the change within one calendar month, we will only be able to pay you any extra benefit from the Monday following the date you told us of the change. (The one month time limit can be extended due to special circumstances). Please contact us by ringing 01803 861234 for further details if you feel this may apply to you.
