Rent allowance saga. Success finally

Graces7

When I moved to Cork, way back last August, as my only income is a small pension from the UK, and as I had had RA for some years before moving, I applied.

When I met the CWO ( after being given wrong times and places for the clinic three times..) she said I needed a housing list application etc.

That took until February.

When I had the requisite forms, I sent them off once more to the CWO; got a letter back saying they were all out of date and I must get new ones...

I was living on around E10 a week all winter and my credit card was used up by then. And I .. hit the roof; as some of the forms needed to come in from the UK, it would take probably another month.

So I called Citizens' Info.. to be assured that the CWO and Housing had made a major error. As I have been renting privately many years, there was no need for the housing list application. The new legislation states that it is either a housing list application OR renting six months.

So I emailed the CWO; pointed this out and asked that this be settled within the week or I would call the press and central govt.

She was on the doorstep first thing the following day and I had the RA within a few days, backdated to January....

I am now advised that they must backdate to the date I applied. So that will be addressed.

The moral is; always talk to Citizen's Information. I had no idea the rules had changed and clearly neither did the CWO or the Council Housing people.

The relief is huge. That was a hard winter indeed.

charlemont

Good to hear you got sorted out..

snubbleste

Cheers for letting us know Graces7..I've been following your saga for some time

notsobusy

Jesus!!!! Just goes to show that you have to put a bit of pressure on them to get them in gear!!! Well done you, glad it's all sorted out

Graces7

Applying pressure is something I hate doing. As i told the CWO, who claimed for weeks she was not getting my emails.. I simply then found her supervisor's email online....

Only once in a long life have I done this before. When I came to Ireland, I made sure what allowances were payable here; I am disabled so that mattered.

All was fine until I came to pension age. Then I got a letter telling me that they had overpaid me by 1,000 sterling and they wanted it back.

They were totally wrong of course.

Nothing I said made any difference; so I wrote to the then PM, Tony Blair, and it got fixed fast.

What do folk do who cannot write a good letter?

electron

well my cwo told me the housing list requirement was a NEW requirement and that the forms were simply out of date, blah blah blah. very interesting to hear your story.

magztar

Good to hear ya got sorted..Thank god for citezins advice

January

electron wrote: »

well my cwo told me the housing list requirement was a NEW requirement and that the forms were simply out of date, blah blah blah. very interesting to hear your story.

IF you haven't been renting privately for 6 months prior to applying for rent supplement then you have to be on the housing list. It is not a new requirement and has been in place for years.

donalg1

the fact that the Council assess your housing need in order to let the CWO know you are entitled to RA is a farce, the CWO should be taken out of the loop altogether let the Council assess your housing need and if proven you have one then sort your RA, especially as you will ultimately end up back at the council once on RA for 18months, CWO should no longer have anything to do with Housing or RA,

Balagan

January wrote: »

IF you haven't been renting privately for 6 months prior to applying for rent supplement then you have to be on the housing list. It is not a new requirement and has been in place for years.

You're correct. However, over the past year and a half, people posting on threads here have found that the CWO's are routinely making it a condition that you be renting for 6 months AND be approved for Council housing. The guidelines say otherwise but that is exactly what they have been doing. When challenged it doesn't hold up but very few will do that.

January

Balagan wrote: »

You're correct. However, over the past year and a half, people posting on threads here have found that the CWO's are routinely making it a condition that you be renting for 6 months AND be approved for Council housing. The guidelines say otherwise but that is exactly what they have been doing. When challenged it doesn't hold up but very few will do that.

Then you take it to their supervisor... Some CWO's love to play with the power they have over the people coming to see them. They'll be quickly put back in their place if everybody knows their rights.

It's always worth a quick visit to Citizens Information before you head to your CWO.

electron

yeah i have seen 3 cwo's and when asked about it they won't even entertain any argument, they just say no, sorry, you have to do both.

and as for the citizens information, all i got out of them was - ultimately everything is up to the cwo's discretion... (as they put it, since it's an allowance, not an entitlement, you don't really have any rights as such )

therefore most people, i reckon, are afraid to challenge the cwo because they are afraid they'll end up worse off if they do :(

which is why i'm rather glad to see the posts in this thread suggest otherwise! thanks everyone :cool: