I work for the council housing register in my area. I’ve seen the problem quite a few times where someone needs to downsize but can’t as they have rent arrears. There doesn’t seem to be much we can do to help in those cases (In my council all the properties are owned by housing associations, not us, though we manage the waiting list.) . It is your responsibity at all times to know if your housing benefit claim is running smoothly or not; if it’s suspended they should’ve sent u a letter but ultimately it’s your job to make sure it’s always in payment. Does it go direct to the landlord?

As for them lying about the first property, they probably didn’t; probably the person who was offered it fell through. I can honestly say we never lie to people and we might get caught in auditing if we did, why would we lie? Feel free to ask me anything else :)