how many bedrooms allocated in council housing?

ladylumps45

just read somebodys thread and got a bit confused.we are on the homechoice council waiting list .we are a family of a husband and wife,a 12 year old daughter and a 14 month old baby daughter.
when we received our letter through to confirm our registration it said we could bid on 2 bedroom properties but ive just read that if a child is over the age of 12 it has its own bedroom and if there is more than 6 years age gap between the children then they would qualify for a seperate bedroom too?
so if this is the case we would have been told that we could bid on 3 bed properties.can anyone advise on this please.
i started a new thread as i didnt want to hijack the other one!:o thankyou.

tenmah

Hello

It may be that council's have different policies, but I work for a local authority and have just looked at our allocation policy for you which states that you are entitled to a three bed property as you have two children of the same sex where there is an age gap of at least 8 yrs between them.

ladylumps45

thanks temnah.ive looked at my local council and all i can find is the LHA(housing benefit) which says if you have 2 children the same sex they share til they one is 15.
im assuming its different for council houses but i cant find it on our council website.thankyou.

bestpud

I'd have said your local council will have the same criteria for LHA and council housing.

I'd have thought it would be unfair if people in council housing were given extra rooms.

I don't know; I'm just guessing.

You could ring and ask them to check?

bestpud

I've just checked with my local council and it is different for council housing than LHA!

For council housing anyone over 18 is entitled to a bedroom and same sex children can have a room each if there is 10 years between them in age.

For LHA two same sex children under 16 can share a room but over 16 they get their own.

So, it's worth double checking imo.

I found the council housing but in the policy documents for download on their site if that helps - it was in the letting policy pdf.

dmg24

I agree with bestpud, council housing policy does seem to vary ... and the information is difficult to find! LHA/ HB policy will be the same all over the UK, as it is set by legislation.

I searched out the policy for my LA, and it does not allow separate bedrooms for same sex siblings of any age. I also searched the next closest LA, but could not find their policy. However, I did discover that their search engine also suggests links from other internet sites ... and "same sex" brought up some interesting results! :eek:

ladylumps45

yeah it is extremely hard to find.i am with thanet council and cant find the council housing policy on this anywhere although the LHA was easy to find.
i just dont understand how a 14 month old baby can be expected to share a bedroom with a nearly 13 year old even though they are the same sex!

iamana1ias

ladylumps45 wrote: »

i just dont understand how a 14 month old baby can be expected to share a bedroom with a nearly 13 year old even though they are the same sex!

why shouldn't they?

whole generations of kids were brought up like that not so long ago!

busy_mom_2

ladylumps45 wrote: »

yeah it is extremely hard to find.i am with thanet council and cant find the council housing policy on this anywhere although the LHA was easy to find.
i just dont understand how a 14 month old baby can be expected to share a bedroom with a nearly 13 year old even though they are the same sex!

If it wasn't rented property and they had a mortgage they would have to make do

ladylumps45

thats fair enough and they will share as il just be glad to get somewhere if i ever do but what i mean is why does it differ in different areas? why in some areas does it mean that 3 bedrooms are allowed?the area makes no difference surely?

singlehouseholder

yip, varies from area to area, my brother and his wife are stuck in a 2 bed house with twin 5 year old boys and a 12 year old boy, they've been after a 3 bed since she was pregnant, no joy though.