Trying to help a prospective tenant with benefits

clutton_2

i have an application for a tenancy from a lovely young 24 year old (not 25 till January) who is 6 1/2 months pregnant with her first child .. baby due end of August


She has recently separated from her partner...

We think that until the baby is born she will only be entitled to Single Shared rate (£65pw) LHA but once baby arrives she will be entitled to £126pw LHA.

Her, and my concern, is how will she manage to live from now until the baby is born....

She has been told that she has to go onto JSA now for several weeks, and then will be changed to income support

She has no furniture - are there any grants for young people (as opposed to Crisis Loans) from Charitable bodies for furniture, white goods, baby goods etc

I dont mind her being in rent-arrears for the first 3 months until baby arrives.. it will level itself out over the 6 months initial fixed term

Offers of ideas please would be most grateful as i would like to house this young lass

Deepmistrust

clutton wrote: »

i have an application for a tenancy from a lovely young 24 year old (not 25 till January) who is 6 1/2 months pregnant with her first child .. baby due end of August


She has recently separated from her partner...

We think that until the baby is born she will only be entitled to Single Shared rate (£65pw) LHA but once baby arrives she will be entitled to £126pw LHA.

Her, and my concern, is how will she manage to live from now until the baby is born....

She has been told that she has to go onto JSA now for several weeks, and then will be changed to income support

She has no furniture - are there any grants for young people (as opposed to Crisis Loans) from Charitable bodies for furniture, white goods, baby goods etc

I dont mind her being in rent-arrears for the first 3 months until baby arrives.. it will level itself out over the 6 months initial fixed term

Offers of ideas please would be most grateful as i would like to house this young lass

I have no idea regards to benefits, but I just wanted to thank you for restoring my faith in human nature.

She might be eligble for a Sure Start grant, and I know that the council do grants for furniture when you move into one of their properties, perhaps they do something similar when tenants move into private rents too?

clutton_2

many thanks for your kind words... i have not come across the Sure start package... could you give me a little more detail please ?

thanks

bw

nannytone_2

with regards to furniture.......point her towards 'freecycle' or 'gumtree'.
people give away amazing stuff and all she has to do is arrange to collect it.

penguin83

Here is the info about the Sure Start Maternity Grant and links to the maternity related benefits that she may be eligible for.

I agree that Freecycle is a good place to look for the furnishings and white goods and NCT nearly new sales for baby clothes and equipment.

xxx

kingfisherblue

She should be able to get the Health in Pregnancy grant.

Some community centres and supermarkets have notice boards - it might be worth putting up a postcard saying what furniture is wanted.

She might be entitled to a Community Care grant for essential items.

In my area there is a community furniture recycling place, where donated furniture is available at very low prices.

clutton_2

how marvellous ! many thanks for these really useful ideas.. i will pass these on to her. its her first time on benefits and she is very motivated but does not know what is available and, i find, neither do i !!

fluffymovie

Wow, have to say, posts like this do make me feel that there are nice people in the world!

If your tenant were to put in a claim for LHA, she could also apply for a Discretionary Housing Payment to help with the shortfall until baby comes along or she tutns 25.

It is discretionary but I work with my Housing section and pretty much always award DHP's in these circumstances where the shortfall is only for a short period of time.

daimonde

my Local Authority would be the same with the DHP, theyre almost always awarded here in these circumstances. http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/dhpguide.pdf


i expect the rules for Community Care Grants have changed since i worked in those a few years ago, but this sounds like the kind of situation one of those could be awarded for also.

have a google for community care grant, the first result should be a direct gov link with info on these, tried to link it with tiny url but the forum gods dont like this

CACHAF

I left home at 21 as I was very ill with M.E and was awarded a flat but had nothing to take with me. I was able to buy furniture through the local Salvation Army furniture store and charity shop and my white goods came from a company called Remploy who refurbish electrical goods and then sell them at a reduced rate with safety certificates. I don't know if there is either of these near you as I am not sure where you are based, butboth of them may be worth a search.

Hope this helps,

Heather

clutton_2

all this information .. how utterly brilliant.. she called me late today and has been down to the council and DWP to do a lot of research for herself, and she looked into getting a Council Bond but did not qualify because she is not homeless......

She has discovered her LHA entitlement - and will now go back to discuss the Discretionary addition... i had utterly forgotten about this.. as i had a young lass 4 years ago who claimed, and got, this extra housing help.

i have passed all the above onto her and i do so hope we can do this tenancy as i think she will be a great tenant...

she is going to follow up on all the info above and i will let everyone know how we go on ..

her biggest problem is the deposit - i have asked her to contact the baby's dad to see if he will help.....

she is very keen on freecycle.. so... lets see what happens..