Housing benefit payments

Nicky321

My daughter has just been awarded housing benefit. She moved into the property on 19th Sept and had to pay 1 months rent £420 in advance and £580 as a deposit. Today she has received a letter saying they will pay £336.27 HB for 3 weeks and 3 days by cheque but the rent is due on 19th Oct and therefore the cheque wont have cleared by then. They will then pay £392.32 every 4 weeks starting on 12th November. I asked if she could receive payments weekly or fortnightly and they said no. I have heard that HB payments can be made weekly, 2 weekly or 4 weekly. Her rent is £420 per calendar month and receiving £392.32 every 4 weeks in arrears is only going to end up confusing.

krisskross

Nicky321 wrote: »

My daughter has just been awarded housing benefit. She moved into the property on 19th Sept and had to pay 1 months rent £420 in advance and £580 as a deposit. Today she has received a letter saying they will pay £336.27 HB for 3 weeks and 3 days by cheque but the rent is due on 19th Oct and therefore the cheque wont have cleared by then. They will then pay £392.32 every 4 weeks starting on 12th November. I asked if she could receive payments weekly or fortnightly and they said no. I have heard that HB payments can be made weekly, 2 weekly or 4 weekly. Her rent is £420 per calendar month and receiving £392.32 every 4 weeks in arrears is only going to end up confusing.

Can she open a different bank account specifically for the housing benefit then it will be a lot clearer. Can you lend her the money to sort out the next month's rent until the cheque has cleared?

SomeBozo

Nicky321 wrote: »

My daughter has just been awarded housing benefit. She moved into the property on 19th Sept and had to pay 1 months rent £420 in advance and £580 as a deposit. Today she has received a letter saying they will pay £336.27 HB for 3 weeks and 3 days by cheque but the rent is due on 19th Oct and therefore the cheque wont have cleared by then. They will then pay £392.32 every 4 weeks starting on 12th November. I asked if she could receive payments weekly or fortnightly and they said no. I have heard that HB payments can be made weekly, 2 weekly or 4 weekly. Her rent is £420 per calendar month and receiving £392.32 every 4 weeks in arrears is only going to end up confusing.

she does not have a bad deal really.

She just needs a little bit of liquid cash for the first time her rent is due.

Can you help her out? Can you make her landlord aware of the position?

The benefit system has done all it can for her, just the timings are out. Can she not help herself a little here?

Bozo

Oldernotwiser

You're more likely to be able to ask for flexibility from an individual landlord than from the government. Why not start off by asking to pay the rent 4 weekly to tie in with HB payments? Much better to do it that way round.

hm71_2

I was going to suggest getting the council to pay HB direct to the landlord, but not sure if they still do that with the new LHA system. Have they backdated the award to the 19th Sept?
sorry just to double check if I am understanding this correctly.
she paid £420 rent on the 19th Sept. this will cover rent till the 19th of October.
HB have awarded £336.27 this covers rent from 19th october to 12th November 3 weeks & 3 days. I think I would query if the HB has been backdated to the date she moved in? our local council will backdate up to 30 days.

Horace

I think it varies from council to council - mine pays my housing benefit 2 weekly in arrears.

Your daughter isnt getting such a bad deal. The council will never pay all the rent only part of it - e.g. my rent is £525 a month and they pay me £406 a month leaving me to find the rest.

Your daughter could try asking if the council will pay direct to the landlord although I too am not sure if they will do this under the new LHA system.

You learn to manage - I keep a spending diary so I know exactly what is coming in and what is leaving my account and when it is leaving my account.

colin13

getting a payment of £382 every 4 week works out at £5096 a year
where as

£420 a month works out at£5040 a year

so she is gettin all her rent payed BY HB it is just the initial
£580 she needs hope fully she can get this money and get in the house and settled soon

hm71_2

my local council work out HB by this calculation
using op figures
rent £420 X 12= £5040 / 52= £96.92 so weekly rent is £96.92
HBen £392.32 X 12= £4707.84 / 52=£90.54 so weekly HB is £90.54
so amount for op to find weekly is £6.38 so £25.52 four weekly.

Nicky321

Thanks for all the imput and help.

sorry ive been out for a few hours sorting out my recently deceased FIL affairs. Anyway, I wasnt clear in what i was asking. Is HB only payable every 4 weeks or has anyone received it weekly or fortnightly?


rent £420 X 12= £5040 / 52= £96.92 so weekly rent is £96.92
HBen £392.32 X 13 = £5100.16/ 52=£98.08 so weekly HB is £98.08
So no need for extra money to be found to top up HB

However because she originally had to find £420 (first month rent in advance) and £580 (for deposit) she had lent quite a bit of that and has no spare money.

she does manage her money, shes got a budget which we downloaded from this site. The problem is the cheque this month wont clear in time (leaving her to find £420 for rent due 19th Oct, then cheque clears but still leaves her with a debt of £83.73 for octobers rent, then next payment of HB will be due on 12th November this will be for £392.32 rent will be due 19th November £420 leaving her with a short fall of £27.68 add this to the shortfall for Octobers rent leaving a £111.41 short. each month a shortfall will occur increasing the total amount. This will (I assume) sort itself out over a 12 month period because the total amount due in HB would be £5100 and the total amount of rent payable would be £5040.

Thats why if HB was paid weekly it would probably be easier.

redmel1621

Hi

I don't know where you are but I have lived in both Brighton and Cheshire, in both places my HB was paid fortnightly. Obviously councils may vary in the way they pay you and unfortunatley I don't think you get a choice!!!!

One benefit of 4 weekly is dhe will have one month where she will recieve 2 rent payments in same month. She may just have to wing it until then and then she would be able to get completely straight,

Mel x

sumosami

I get my HB fortnightly but I'm afraid they don't help with the deposits. She could maybe try the Social Fund for a loan for that.