Housing benefit backdating question - please help!!!!!

loveangel88

me & partner are moving into a flat on Monday. we have paid the deposit and the first months rent in advance £400. this covers up to 10th of June...

I am on Income Support & DLA...partner is on JSA...We are going to put a claim in for housing benefit, and if we get it backdated, will we get the £400 we already paid back? as we are going to have the rent paid directly to landlord so will she get the 1st months rent backdated (that we already paid) or us?

confused.com

help!

karenx

How can you get a claim backdated for a period you wernt even living in the house? It starts from day you make the application if you have just moved in.

welshmoneylover

Depends on who wins the election, if labour get it you'll get every penny back and a nice stash of money for new flooring lol
If Cameron gets in, you'll get nothing and will probably have to fund your rent yourself

afc80

Local Housing Allowance is paid one month in arrears (hb regulations) and in 9 out of 10 cases is paid directly to the customer.

if your are on jsa(ib) or income support you can submit a claim within one month of your moving in date, if you do this LHA will start from your moving in date.

If you are in employment or jsa (c) for example and were not on LHA at your previous address it is paid from the monday following the date you claimed if you do not claim in the same benefit week as you moved in.

In answer to your original question, yes you will get your money back, but your benefit is paid monthly in arrears so payments often do not coincide with the date that your rent is due.

loveangel88

karenx wrote: »

How can you get a claim backdated for a period you wernt even living in the house? It starts from day you make the application if you have just moved in.

We are paying the first months rent on the day we move in, we are going to backdate from the day we move in, sorry should have made that clear

suelees1

To add to Afc80's sound advice -

HB is paid in arrears and landlords want rent in advance so although it seems the landlord has been paid twice for the same month he hasn't really and everything should sort itself out at the end of the tenancy.

jennilb

Hi

I think the advice about claiming any time in the first month for an automatic back payment may be location-specific or mistaken.

When I moved into my new flat I didn't cope very well (I have several diagnosed MH conditions and had been 'sofa surfing' for a while so it was all a bit of a shock)... anyway it meant it took me about a week to put in my LHA application form.

When I had the appointment with the LHA person to give in my documents, I asked when the rent would be paid from. He said the Monday after they recieved my form (so about 2 weeks of rent missing). I had to apply for a backdated payment and the reason I got it was the MH problems. He said being busy with moving or forgetting weren't good enough reasons.

He did also say that, where you know the date you're moving in etc you can put the form in before you move (even if at that point you don't have the tenancy agreement). They wont pay money until they have all the evidence they need, but when they do they will pay from the start of the tenancy.

I hope this helps
Jenni

Macro_3

jennilb wrote: »

Hi

I think the advice about claiming any time in the first month for an automatic back payment may be location-specific or mistaken.

When I moved into my new flat I didn't cope very well (I have several diagnosed MH conditions and had been 'sofa surfing' for a while so it was all a bit of a shock)... anyway it meant it took me about a week to put in my LHA application form.

When I had the appointment with the LHA person to give in my documents, I asked when the rent would be paid from. He said the Monday after they recieved my form (so about 2 weeks of rent missing). I had to apply for a backdated payment and the reason I got it was the MH problems. He said being busy with moving or forgetting weren't good enough reasons.

He did also say that, where you know the date you're moving in etc you can put the form in before you move (even if at that point you don't have the tenancy agreement). They wont pay money until they have all the evidence they need, but when they do they will pay from the start of the tenancy.

I hope this helps
Jenni

No, it's correct for people on IS/JSAIB as stated.