Housing benefit question

baconsandwich

Hi,

I live with my boyfriend in London, he is self employed and works 7 days a week from home to pay his bills and rent.

I have just finished college and I was paying my rent previously from my loan. I will no longer be receiving the loan and I'm currently out of work (I'm a college leaver).

I was in drama college so you could say my 'profession' is acting, I'm aware acting jobs are few and far between and if I cannot find another day job locally, either part or full time I will be without any money at all.

What would my options be for housing benefits to help towards my rent? I don't think I would need to sign onto job seekers allowance as I think we could manage for bills and food for the both of us. It is just my half of the rent (£125 a week) that I am going to struggle to pay if I am unable to find an income source.

Also does anyone have any advice or guidance on benefits they could help me with? Obviously securing a steady income that covers my rent plus extras would be my ideal goal, but if there's a period in between now and when that can happen I might need a little help.

Thank you

Oldernotwiser

baconsandwich wrote: »

Hi,

I live with my boyfriend in London, he is self employed and works 7 days a week from home to pay his bills and rent.

I have just finished college and I was paying my rent previously from my loan. I will no longer be receiving the loan and I'm currently out of work (I'm a college leaver).

I was in drama college so you could say my 'profession' is acting, I'm aware acting jobs are few and far between and if I cannot find another day job locally, either part or full time I will be without any money at all.

What would my options be for housing benefits to help towards my rent? I don't think I would need to sign onto job seekers allowance as I think we could manage for bills and food for the both of us. It is just my half of the rent (£125 a week) that I am going to struggle to pay if I am unable to find an income source.

Also does anyone have any advice or guidance on benefits they could help me with? Obviously securing a steady income that covers my rent plus extras would be my ideal goal, but if there's a period in between now and when that can happen I might need a little help.

Thank you

In your situation, all means tested benefits like JSA (I'm assuming you haven't been paying NICs) and HB/LHA will be assessed on your boyfriend's income.

You could start off by feeding his financial details into https://www.entitledto.co.uk to see whether you could make a joint claim for LHA.

afc80

you can make a joint claim for LHA, it would be based on your joint £250 per week rent/the LHA rate for you and your partner (1) and your joint income's. This is likely to be his self employed earnings as i doubt you would qualify for jsa.

If you made a claim for LHA he would have to provide his previous years audited accounts, if he does not have that, he would have to fill in the councils self employed income and expenditure form.

pbjackson

yes, entitled helped my claim Housing benefit. Or you could visit your local authority web site and they will have a calculator on there for claiming LHA. You can ask for info and an application form. You claim Council tax at the same time (if applicable). The rent you pay will be compared to what they actually think your rent should be. They will also determine if the house in "appropriate" for you, ie if it's 2 bedrooms they will probably only value the rent based on a one bedroom. They will ask for your net weekly income, they will compare this against what they "allow" you , which is also on the web. If you earn more than what they allow you, they deduct 65% of the "excess" and offset this against the aforementioned council assessed rent figure. Whatever this figure is they pay into your bank account, 2 weekly in arrears. Your landlord doesn't get to know. Go for it and good luck.,

nannytone_2

if you live together there is no such thing of 'your half of the rent' and 'his half of the rent'. you're assesed as a couple. although you wouldnt get any benefit from claiming JSA, you would get your NI contributions paid, which go towards your pension.

baconsandwich

Thanks everyone for the guidance and advice it's really help. I'm going to read it all and take a look over it now.

nannytone wrote: »

if you live together there is no such thing of 'your half of the rent' and 'his half of the rent'. you're assesed as a couple. although you wouldnt get any benefit from claiming JSA, you would get your NI contributions paid, which go towards your pension.

Even if contractually we are separate tenants, i.e contractually he only owes the landlord 50% of the rent and I owe the other 50%?

dmg24

baconsandwich wrote: »

Thanks everyone for the guidance and advice it's really help. I'm going to read it all and take a look over it now.



Even if contractually we are separate tenants, i.e contractually he only owes the landlord 50% of the rent and I owe the other 50%?

Yes, you are a couple so you will be assessed as such, irrespective of your contractual liability.

omen666

baconsandwich wrote: »

Thanks everyone for the guidance and advice it's really help. I'm going to read it all and take a look over it now.



Even if contractually we are separate tenants, i.e contractually he only owes the landlord 50% of the rent and I owe the other 50%?

a claim in this manner woud be fraudulent if you said you were not a couple

McKneff

You could always look for other work in between any acting jobs.

baconsandwich

omen666 wrote: »

a claim in this manner woud be fraudulent if you said you were not a couple

Ok, thanks just wanted to be sure on that, even if I do find it a little strange!

McKneff wrote: »

You could always look for other work in between any acting jobs.

I don't think you read my first post at all