Recent house move after dads traumatic death - UC pushing me over the edge

Please help me, I am a vulnerable person, I have only just recently come out of psychiatric hospital after being there for a week admitted on a section 2 for not wanting to carry on living. a few months ago I was left hallucinating for 6 weeks with no help or support from any services. 4 months ago my dad died after a cardiac arrest on a busy road and cpr failed leaving him severely brain damaged and he died 10 days later in icu. I was with him the whole time he was in hospital right up until he died. this severely worsened my mental health and as a result I ended up having no other option but to leave my nursing course.

Christmas was the worst time of last year, then in January it was my first birthday without my dad being alive. the mental health team tried to discharge me on the 23rd December and then finally discarded me on the 30th of January just days after the first birthday I’ve spent since dad tragically died.

Then in the new year I had to find somewhere else to live because with no student loan or bursary, I could no longer afford my current accommodation, and I’ve been too mentally unwell to work since dealing with dads death. I don’t receive any support from services, and I’m not under a mental health team.

I then found somewhere else cheaper to live, and had to deal with a stressful house move when I’m already at breaking point, as I had no other choice, being unable to afford my previous flat. I moved in to the new address on the 6th February.

So then I sent over a copy of my tenancy agreement to universal credit. it’s an assured shorthold tenancy agreement, which clearly details the monthly rental charge with a breakdown of costs. I uploaded this, along with most recent bank statement showing new address. exactly as asked for.

However, universal credit claim that they ‘can’t accept the tenancy agreement as proof of housing costs’ and told me that they will need to see a ‘paper rent book’, which it’s obvious I can’t provide as I use internet banking to make my rent payments.

After this, they insisted on seeing a utility bill (in my name) addressed to me, and delivered to the new address. but they know already from my tenancy agreement that utilities are already included in the rent meaning that I won’t receive utility bills in my name at the new address. they know this already because it clearly states this in the tenancy agreement.

So now, they are demanding an accompanying letter from the landlord confirming that I live there before they will be willing to accept the tenancy agreement as proof of housing costs.

following this there were several messages online asking me to upload proof of housing costs and proof of address worded as though I had given no proof….

I then had a couple of phone calls with them. somebody on the first call falsely reassured me that it would all be resolved, but then I got another journal message telling me to upload proof of housing costs and proof of address.

so I phoned again….

the woman told me that she ‘couldn’t help me if she wanted to’… because ‘your upload has been deleted by advisors now, no one can see what you’ve sent anyway and your housing costs element has been removed’.

They’ve failed so far to provide any explanation or even any basic justification for doing this, or for their refusal to accept my tenancy agreement as proof of housing costs nor would they explain why they are demanding a written letter from the landlord before they would recognise housing costs.

After this insanity, I then logged in to see that an advisor had in fact removed the housing costs element, and attached a false statement declaring ‘no housing costs’.

other sites are telling me that my landlord needs to re- write the tenancy because utilities are included in the rent, but I’ve never had this issue before and all the places I’ve lived this has been the agreement, and always given uc my tenancy, and has nothing like this happened at all. my landlord also said that they can’t re- write the tenancy agreement either, as then they’d have to change it for all of their tenants in the building and that have said that it would be impractical and unreasonable and they can’t understand why universal credit are demanding it and then using that to threaten to refuse to acknowledge that I live there or that I have housing costs.

I’m worried the stress of this is going to literally kill me. I don’t have the money to look for somewhere else either having just moved house.

Hello Emily87,

I am so sorry you had to go through all this darkness, Emily87.

May I recommend that you see the people of the Citizen's Advice Bureau? They are trained to also work with people with Mental Health Issues and they can fight your corner by sending in a new form or appeal (depending on what is appropriate at that moment).

Depending on where you are in the UK it may take a few days to a few weeks to get an appointment, but once "in" they will work with you and for you to get your housing benefit back. Just make sure you have all expenses, income, outgoings, and contracts at hand (or easily to e-mail through), so you make their lives easier as well.

As for your loss and going through so much hurt and trouble, I can only say: don't give up. My husband went through similar, but he had someone to support him, which helped.

You are doing the right thing to reach out. Keep reaching out and keep asking for help. As for every 3 "no", there will be a 4th "yes".

It is best if you go to a Jobcentre and show a member of staff the payments going to the landlord. This can be on your phone banking app or a paper statement. Some cashpoints do mini statements that are allowed. As you have a tenancy agreement already, the proof of payments is all that is needed for the staff to log onto UC and clear the Housing To Do.
The Housing To Do requires either Receipts with Matching Data or Recent Bank Statements Showing Rent Payments.
You don't need to make an appointment to attend the Jobcentre. It is best not to phone UC as you end up with a telephony agent who wants to end the call as quickly as possible for their stats.

Hi, Really sorry you are going through such a traumatic time . I would personally contact my local MP to see if they can sort this out for you, as my MP has helped me before.
Hope you get this sorted.
Kind regards