Housing Benefit Reviews

To minimise the risk of fraud and error in the benefits system the Council will periodically review a proportion of our current caseload to ensure that you are getting the correct amount of benefit.

Throughout the year we will select claims via a variety of mechanisms, and in collaboration with the other government departments and agencies, with the aim of indentifying undeclared changes in circumstance, such as unreported increases in income, capital, and changes in household composition.

Please do not wait for the Council to review your claim otherwise you may be running up a large overpayment that you have to pay back later, or missing out on additional benefit which you are entitled to.

New Claim Reviews

All claimants will be subject to a “new claim review” within 3 months of their claim being paid. At this review our Visiting Officers will verify your circumstances and remind you of your rights and responsibilities. The Visiting Officer will need to see documentary evidence of your circumstances.

Reviews during the life of your claim

During the life of your claim the Council may write to you advising that we intend to review your claim and the way in which we intend to do this. Wrexham Council conduct five different review procedures, these are:

  • Visit Reviews (reviews conducted in your home by our Visiting Officers);
  • Postal Reviews (we will send you a review form for you to complete and return to us);
  • Partial Reviews (we will seek to verify an aspect of your claim such as your earnings);
  • Phone Reviews (we will phone you and verify your circumstances by phone);
  • Office Reviews (we will ask you to come into our offices and review your claim there).

When we contact you we will explain what we need you to do and what information we need to see. If you have any difficulty in completing the forms we have sent to you or in providing the documentation that we require, please contact the review team. The review team’s contact details can be found in the Contacts section.

If we decide to review your claim or an aspect of your claim, that we can’t cross check against other Government records, we will write to you asking you to provide the information and evidence we require within one calendar month. If we do not hear from you within this period we will suspend your claim. If we suspend your claim we will write to you explaining why we have suspended your claim, what you need to do get the suspension lifted, and give you a further calendar month to respond. If we fail to hear from you after a further month we will terminate your benefit claim from the date that we last paid you up to.

If the Council discovers an unreported change that leads to you receiving less benefit, the Council will apply the change back to the date upon which the change occurred. Inevitably if this leads to an overpayment which the Council may seek to recover from you, meaning that you will get even less benefit until the overpayment is cleared.

If the Council discovers a change that is beneficial to you (you will get more benefit), we will only be able to award you the extra benefit from the Monday after the date you provide us with the evidence and information. This could mean that you could miss out on a sizeable amount of benefit.

The last two paragraphs show the significance of providing the Council with up to date information about your circumstances.

The timing of reviews

We base our decision about when to review a person’s claim upon risk indicators. These risk indicators are based upon Government guidance and the circumstances of your claim will be match against this guidance.

For most claimants a review will occur every 6 months or as soon as possible thereafter. In some limited cases a review may be conducted every 3 months or as soon as possible thereafter.

Verifying details with other Government departments and agencies

There are occasions when we may check aspects of your income with other Government departments and agencies as part of your review, for example, we may choose to check your entitlement to Income Support, Jobseekers Allowance, Pension Credit, or Incapacity Benefit by cross checking your details against the records held by the Department of Works and Pensions, or the Pension Service.

Welfare Visits

The Review Team also carry out welfare visits to assist people who have difficulty completing and / or returning their benefit application. If you are feel you need assistance completing and / or returning your benefit application form please contact the Reviews Team on (01978) 292095 and explain why you need help completing / returning your benefit application.

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