Terms & Conditions

[walmslm]

Please can anyone provide some clarity

1 When processing a change of address whilst awaiting for the rent officer decision to be returned should we continue to pay the claim at the new address on –

a, the appropriate indicitive rent

b, normal benefit at the rate of the referral for the last address

2 When should we record the change of circumstance stat?

a, when the claim is opened at the new address

b, when the new rent officer decision is input

[chrisb]

In my opinion:

1) either – the rate you have been paying at the old address, or a lower amount, because you have part-suspended the existing award. (I don’t know of a system that will let you part-suspend easily, but there will be a manual work-round you can do if needed)

2) when you have input the RO decision for the new address, and so have made a full decision about the amount of the superseded award.

[Ozzies Mate]

As usual I await to be shot down in flames but here goes

I disagree with Chris

We here had several discussions around Q1 during the whole change of address being classed as a change of circs scenario & mailed DWP who advised us that eligible rent should continue to be used whether it be established by ROD or other method from previous address until new decision rec’d & then that should be applied using the regualtions concerning ROD’s. Were advised that the only time an IRL could be acceptable was if we had no previous rent figure to base assessment on i.e previous claim was CTB only.

By this I also disagree with Q2 in that the COC stat should be produced when the COA is actioned as it counts as a CTB stat as well. If you delay it for receipt of the ROD then you are elongated your processing times unnecessarily

[chrisb]

Perhaps I didn’t express myself as clearly as I may have done, but I’m not sure how much I’m being disagreed with.

Further to the point about IRLs in Q1 – if the previous address was CTB only, then you ave a new claim for HB, not a change of circs, and so using an IRL would be the right thing to do.

If there was an existing HB award, there are 3 possibilities:
– new rent higher
– same rents
– new rent lower

If the new rent is higher, or the same, then I would carry on paying the existing HB award until new RO decision is received.

If the new rent is lower (with a case-by-case decision about how much is significant), I would part-suspend payment of the existing award, to try to reduce the overpayment which would otherwise occur.

As for Q2, if there are both HB and CTB awards, then the CTB COC stat should be counted when the CTB award is changed, and the HB stat later, after the new RO decision is received.

[Ozzies Mate]

I’m with you now Chris, was probably just I went further in than your initial reply.

My apologies
😳

[Author]

Posts