A FAMILY of five face being thrown out of their home - because their housing benefit has not been paid for six months.

Lee Annell, his pregnant wife and their three children are victims of the crisis at Southampton City Council's benefits office that has affected thousands of people.

The Daily Echo first revealed in April that people were waiting for 16 weeks to receive payments.

When Mr Annell rang to find out why his housing benefit had been delayed twice as long he was told to call back when he had been evicted from his Southampton home.

Only a week after the City Council launched a massive drive to clear the backlog in housing benefit applications, Mr Annell's family was served with a letter threatening to evict them because the housing benefit money used to pay their council rent had not been paid since December last year.

While the council blames the benefits delay on a new government procedure aimed at combating fraud, the situation does not appear to have improved.

Southampton Itchen MP John Denham has now stepped into the crisis. He has visited the benefits office and spoken to managers to find out their plans for resolving the problems.

Mr Annell, 25, who is unable to work because of a nervous disorder, said: "When I try and get in contact with them they won't let me talk to the housing manager. The young girl said 'get back to us when you're evicted'. We were even told on the phone that they misplaced our form.

"We've been waiting since January to get housing benefit and now my wife is six months pregnant. We went to see our local housing officer last week. We've always been on benefit and now we've been told we owe £1,800 in rent arrears.

"We've been here two years with no gas central heating and no double-glazing."

Mr Annell and his wife, Jamie, 22, live in Kendal Court, Millbrook, with their four-year-old twin sons Kyle and Callum, and daughter Kenzie, three.

Although Mr Annell has not received housing benefit since he made a fresh application in December after getting married, the council has now billed him for an extra £700 in what it claims are housing benefits overpayments made since January. He now owes £1,800.

Last month the outgoing Cabinet member for finance Councillor Peter Marsh-Jenks approved £198,000 of funding to introduce agency staff to fill 16 vacancies at the housing benefits office. Those vacancies have now been filled and work is under way to clear the crisis.

A city council spokesman said it had been correct to issue the eviction notice because the benefits office had not made it clear yet whether or not the family was entitled to benefit.

She said: "We acknowledge that claimants are experiencing considerable delays in receiving their housing benefit, which have been caused by the introduction of the government's verification framework.

"The local housing office are aware that the family have been unable to pay their rent while their housing benefit claim is assessed and have been told that no action will be taken until a decision on their benefit entitlement is made."

She assured the family no action would be taken before their housing benefit delay has been sorted out.

In a separate statement the council said: "While we have had recruitment problems we have always used temporary and agency staff and prior to the verification framework we had no backlog."

After his visit to the housing benefits office in Castle Way, where he met housing benefits manager Martin Reynolds, Mr Denham was optimistic.

He said: "No one can pretend that the recent problems were acceptable. The service has clearly been hit by a combination of staff turnover, IT problems and most recently, the effects of tough new measures to combat benefit fraudsters.

"The delays have caused difficulties for tenants. It's also been pretty hard on the staff who have worked hard to try to maintain services.

"I was reassured by the plans to turn the situation round, and by the measures taken to ensure the improvements can be sustained in the future."

Southampton's Citizens Advice Bureau has reported it is still receiving around 12 calls each week from people worried about their housing benefit.

Lance Vinter, vice chairman of Southampton Tenants' and Residents' Federation, said the problem would never have arisen had the city's previous Labour administration not taken housing benefits officers out of the local housing offices.

Mr Vinter said: "We were assured when they were withdrawn that delays would not exceed 16 weeks but they have gone up. They blame it on the government but they had time if there was a problem with the benefit. We would like to see housing benefits staff return to the housing offices."