OAP with £43 for a month due a refund

A PENSIONER whose wife recently died faced having to live off just £43 this month, despite warning Housing about his changed circumstances. Stanley Lester, 66, was upset that the department did not act to adjust his rental payments having told it about three weeks ago it would need to happen.

It is the department's policy to process rent-rebate applications within five working days of receiving all the information.

He rang Housing several times yesterday morning leaving messages, eventually getting a call back saying that the readjustment would now be made.

'It should have happened in the first place - they had nearly three weeks from when I first rang up and told them my wife had died,' said Mr Lester.

After that initial contact, he also received a letter informing him that the rent was to go up.

'I rang 'Housing minister' Deputy Jones who said those were already in the pipeline of going out anyway and that he had mentioned in cases like mine about being sympathetic.'

Mr Lester gets £482 a month pension and was shocked to discover £439.26 deducted from his bank account.

After the calls yesterday morning, Housing staff contacted Mr Lester and said the rent would be readjusted to take account of the changing circumstances.

He is to be reimbursed by cheque by tomorrow.

'I've never been in the red in my life and I don't want to be - we have always made a point of paying our bills.'

A spokesman said Housing did not comment publicly on an individual's circumstances.

'It is department policy to process rent-rebate applications within five working days of having received all the information,' he said.

'We also treat compassionate matters of this sort as priorities. As soon as we are told of a change in circumstances, we move as quickly as possible and encourage all the other agencies that we liaise with to process matters rapidly as well.

'Where a tenant has overpaid as a result of a delay in gathering the relevant information, they are refunded as appropriate as quickly as we can.'