Paul Burns Kirklees

19/04/20 to 25/04/20 Another week working from home. More and more new claims for ctr now coming in due to the effects of the Covid-19 outbreak on people's employment and finances. Nearly all are new UC claimants. Once their UC award is calculated we can then assess them for ctr. We also continue to receive monthly award updates for existing UC claimants. Some no longer qualify due to changes in their wages or AIF amounts. We  have a standard non-qualifier letter to which I have been adding an extra paragraph (when I remember) stating that if you have been furloughed then your ctr entitlement might resume when we get your next monthly UC award update. A couple of new ctr claims received via a UC claim were for people living with their parents and therefore not liable to pay council tax. I still processed these claims & issued our standard ineligible letter. One ctr claim received via a UC claim quoted an address where the customer was not liable. It appeared to be his paren...

12/04/20 to 18/04/20 Many more new claims for benefit coming in now as people are on reduced incomes or unable to work altogether. Most new claims are for ctr only and have been received via a claim for UC. I have registered these claims & will await the UC award info. I was able to process some claims received last month as we have now received the UC award info for these. For a couple of these there was no entitlement due to the UC Assessed Income Figure (UCAIF). The UCAIF was based on earnings in February or earlier however and this is likely to change when we receive next  months UCAIF because of the Covid-19 outbreak. I edited our standard 'non qualifier' ltr to advise that there may well be entitlement based on the next UC award breakdown if they had been furloughed from work. One claim received via a Universal Credit was from a Person from Abroad who had previously been the partner on a claim. His nationality had not been an issue on the joint claim. The claiman...

05/04/20 to 11/04/20 Shorter week this week as 10th April is Good Friday. We are starting to receive claims for benefit from people affected by the Covid-19 outbreak. Some have never applied for benefits before. I have had to issue our standard letter advising that housing costs are to be claimed via UC now (apart from certain groups). Most are new UC claimants and their ctr entitlement amount & start date will be determined by whatever the DWP decides regarding their claims. Others are not claiming UC but are on reduced income since the lockdown was imposed from 24/03/2020. They have generally requested backdates to 24th March and I am awarding these backdates. Some claims still require further info to be provided as there is a lot of confusion out there especially amongst people who have never claimed before or whose first language is not English. For self-employed people unable to work I am assessing on nil income as we have been instructed to do & setting a diary entry t...

29/03/20 to 04/04/20 This week again was taken up with dealing with changes in Universal Credit monthly awards affecting ctr claims. Those with significant changes were updated. Any that were non-qualifiers I also updated. Some started to qualify & some didn't. Some had an increase in entitlement & some had a reduction. For those whose ctr entitlement ended due to the UC change we have a standard non-qualifier letter which I sent out. Some were clearly Persons from Abroad but this had never been picked up on. I made clear notebook entries for these & also input a 'Personal Status' which clearly shows their PFA status at first glance. Most were EU nationals exercising their Treaty Rights by working. For a couple of others that are not EU nationals I have written out for proof of their immigration status as we had never seen proof of this. Also dealt with some brand new ctr claims which I have registered awaiting more information such as a breakdown of the UC a...