If you steal you pay the consequences. Don't expect sympathy on YA
you have defrauded the council - that is a FACT
you cannot claim housing benefit if you own a house- that is a FACT
You did claim it and got the benefit - THAT IS FRAUD
You have absolutely no excuse - You claimed and got housing benefit by not declaring you already had a house
WHY you didnt live in it is irrelevent
You COULD have sold it and bought a house somewhere else and have no need to claim housing benefit
You chose not to but claimed benefit anyway - THAT is fraud.
There isi a good chance you are going to jail AND will have to repay every penny housing benefit you received over the 5 years. If that means the house you have has to be sold to repay it then its your own fault.
You shouldn't have been slaiming HB if you had a property, albeit mortgaged
You don't say if you rented out your property in the time you were in London
You have made a false claim for HB bu not declaring your other home, and will probably have to pay back the HB you falsely claimed
Well, the council is correct that you've not declared and so have unlawfully claimed.
But what you need is some proof (police reference number, etc) that you moved because of safety issues.
You'll still have to pay back the overpayment amount though. But you can negotiate the period over which you will pay it back. .
you apparently never not owned the property so you were probably not entitled to any housing benefits
this would be fraud on your part
reasons have nothing to do with the ownership of the property or your reason for applying for housing benefits
Hello, Me and My Family 5 years ago moved out of our own mortaged home to london and applied for Housing Benefit. We just moved back to our property and the only reason we moved to london was because our house got robed and we got racial abused by our neighbourhood everyday. We have now recieved a letter from the London council saying they know that we own a property and that they would like to ask us about property. Can someone who has experience or important advice please help me out. We only moved to london to get away from the racial abuse.. victim of robbery and recieving death threats.
