Housing benefit

freakyogre

I have recently made a claim for housing benefit as lost my job. I was also claiming earlier this year when I was made redundant.

The first time I claimed it was worked out that I would get approximately £110 a week for housing benefit plus council tax, I was claiming for around 2 months. This time around it is £60 a week and is due to drop to £50 next week. I assume this is because I turn 25 on the 14th of August.

I remember reading somewhere that they base housing benefit on your age and a single room and something about being under 25? (not 100% sure).

Does this mean once I turn 25 (if I haven't got a job) I need to put a new claim in? Or is the amount it is due to drop to correct? I appreciate benefits are meant to be a temporary thing and would rather not be claiming anything, but £200 a month wouldn't cover rent anywhere, so even if I am forced to move, i'm starting to worry a bit!

Bogof_Babe

How have you been advised that it is going to drop to £50? If you've had a letter, I'd have thought there would be some sort of explanation.

It sounds all wrong to me. After 25 you are entitled to the LHA for a one bed self contained flat, so I'd expect it to go up not down.

freakyogre

Yes, I received a letter. Looking at it, it seems the housing benefit goes down because my JSA will go up.

So I get around £10 more on JSA, but they lower my housing benefit by £10 and also my council tax drops by about £3 a week. So really i'm worse off in the end.

On the letter it says LHA is £61.38 (this is until the 11/08/09 - even though I don't turn 25 'til the 14th, then it drops to £52.70) and this is the maximum I could receive. Luckily I have some savings which i'll have to use, but how they expect people to survive on that amount is just puzzling.

Macro_3

It would seem to me that the award paid earlier in the year did not have a maximum rent restriction. When you apply for LHA, if your rent is higher than the LA rate and you meet the criteria (no claim within the previous 52 weeks, could afford the rent at the time the tenancy was taken) you get 13 weeks were you can be paid benefit up to your full rent amount without restriction. That would explain the higher amount on your first claim.

When you claimed again this time, you would not have qualified for maximum rent due to your previous claim, so the LHA rate applied. You were previously entitled to 50.95/week JSA C, but this has now risen to 64.30. You applicable amount appears not to have changed in line with this, so your applicable amount would still be 50.95 for the week of your birthday with an income of 64.30 you would therefore have an excess income of (64.30-50.95 = 13.35). This income reduces your entitlement to LHA by 65p in the £, which means a reduction of (13.35*0.65=8.68). Previous LHA minus the reduction = new entitlement of 52.70 which is what you quoted from your letters, so the number seem to tie in with this being the cause.

From the Monday following your birthday, your applicable amount should rise to 64.30, which means that your LHA would again be 61.38 - I would be willing to bet that this lower rate of LHA is just for a week and is due to your rise in JSA not taking place in line with your rise in applicable amount, or because someone has input the date of rise in JSA C incorrectly on your LHA claim.

Your claim will also need to be manually adjusted to give you the 1-bed rate, assuming that you are actually renting a property of 1-bed or larger. This will be done from the Monday following your birthday, and so your entitlement to LHA should rise substantially from then. However, it does need to be done manually so may take a few weeks to happen - and you really need to notify your LA that you are 25 just to make sure that they are aware and the change is not missed.

Obviously without seeing your letters etc the above might not be quite right, but reading between the lines it is what seems to have happened. Best to visit your LA to sort it all out and to notify them that you are 25, though.

freakyogre

The letter I received last time did say that after however many weeks, it would drop to the £60 amount, but I stopped the claim well before then as found a job.

I'll pop in once i'm 25 and ask them to double check it. I really don't understand it all which doesn't help matters =/

My JSA letter says they can't pay me after November, so I would assume housing benefits would stop then too. If I haven't got a job by then I won't be able to afford the rent anymore anyway, so they don't really need to worry about that. (Anyone got a box I can sleep in?!)

Bogof_Babe

If your JSA runs out in November it must be contributions based, and you mention having savings, so maybe this means you have too much capital to be entitled to means tested benefits. Are your savings over £6,000?

I'm not sure of the rules regarding LHA and savings, but I presume LHA is means tested too. Perhaps someone could clarify that?

freakyogre

Nope, no where near that amount and in a few months, what I do have will have gone towards rent etc so I won't have anything. Wish I did as that would cover my rent for a year without worrying about it!

I don't really understand the difference between contribution and income based JSA either. Sorry to sound so clueless, but never really had to worry about it before now.

Bogof_Babe

If you have paid full NI contributions for the two previous tax years (currently 2006/7 and 2007/8) you can get JSA regardless of what savings you have, but only for six months. This is CB (contribution based) JSA

If you don't have savings you might qualify for JSA income based, which goes on until either your circumstances change (inherit money, win lottery or move in with someone who is earning), provided you can prove that you are looking for work when you sign on every fortnight.

Income based JSA disregards the first £6,000 of savings, so I am surprised you have been told you won't get it after November. You might change from CB to IB, but not necessarily lose it altogether.

freakyogre

Bogof_Babe wrote: »

If you have paid full NI contributions for the two previous tax years (currently 2006/7 and 2007/8) you can get JSA regardless of what savings you have, but only for six months. This is CB (contribution based) JSA

If you don't have savings you might qualify for JSA income based, which goes on until either your circumstances change (inherit money, win lottery or move in with someone who is earning), provided you can prove that you are looking for work when you sign on every fortnight.

Income based JSA disregards the first £6,000 of savings, so I am surprised you have been told you won't get it after November. You might change from CB to IB, but not necessarily lose it altogether.

Thank you, that makes a lot more sense now. I might ask when i'm next at the job centre just to clarify it all.

Fingers crossed for a lottery win tonight! :rotfl: