Housing Benefit

sarahH1979

I am just in the process of leaving my partner.We currently live with his father and have a daughter who is 5yrs old. I am going to be moving out with my daughter and have been looking on internet for houses but have also been tryin to work out how much housing benefit i would be entitled to. LHA says i should get roughly 124.00 p/w.I have seen a 3 bedroomed property for 550.00p/m would i still get h/b even if i dont need a 3 bedroom???:o

DX2

sarahH1979 wrote: »

I am just in the process of leaving my partner.We currently live with his father and have a daughter who is 5yrs old. I am going to be moving out with my daughter and have been looking on internet for houses but have also been tryin to work out how much housing benefit i would be entitled to. LHA says i should get roughly 124.00 p/w.I have seen a 3 bedroomed property for 550.00p/m would i still get h/b even if i dont need a 3 bedroom???:o

At the moment yes you would get away with having a three bed house even though you don't need a three bed house. However bear in mind the changes that were announced from the budget.

Indie_Kid

LHA will only pay a set amount; but there's nothing to stop you renting a bigger house than what they say you need.

PasturesNew

In your area, there is a published figure for how much they'll pay for a 2-bed house. You can rent any size house you want, at any price, but that's the maximum they'll give you and it'd be up to you to make up the difference. Therefore, most of the time, that will limit you to being able to afford a 2-bed house.

As others have said, you need to understand the new prices that will come into effect next year - because the amount you'd get will be less, so if you can find a place now that matches the lower amount you'd potentially get, then it'll save stress/worry and having to move next year.

sarahH1979

Ah thank you. Just didnt seem right when i checked it out an said i would get 124 p/w which means i would then only be payin around 60p/m myself. I may seem really thick ha ha but i have never done anything like this an never even had a bill to pay!!!!!!:p

PasturesNew

In that case, there are some other things you need to check out:
- if you go through an agent, they will probably credit check you, which might cost £150-200
- they'll want a deposit from you, either 1 or 1.5x the month's rent, think about where that will come from
- your claim for LHA might be delayed for 6-8 weeks before you get it (it'll be backdated), but your landlord will expect the rent on time, so think about how you will get the money for, say, two months' rent before you get the LHA through.

So, to recap:
- £150 credit checks
- £500-800 deposit
- £1000 rent for first two months while claim's going through

That's about £2000.

sarahH1979

Thats a reallly great help thank-you. The house i am viewing the lady wants to do private, it is with an agent for 625p/m but she says she will go to 550p/m without the agents and she wants a months rent in advance..

sarahH1979

To be honest too i didnt really pay too much attention to the budget announcement cos at the time i wasnt claimin any h/b..... Is it going to drop by a lot next year? an will i be forced to move out of 3 bedroom property or would it simply be that i prob couldn afford it????

skint-student-nurse

sarahH1979 wrote: »

Thats a reallly great help thank-you. The house i am viewing the lady wants to do private, it is with an agent for 625p/m but she says she will go to 550p/m without the agents and she wants a months rent in advance..

make sure any deposit you pay gets protected in one of the approved schemes within 14 days of paying it...or you can claim upto 3 times of what you paid for your deposit (this happened to me last year...i got a large sum paid to me because my deposit wasnt protected:D)

make sure you know what you can claim,try https://www.entitledto.com to see what else you can claim,such as council tax benefit,etc.

Caz3121

If she agrees to £550 then you actually need to pay £13 per month yourself - £124*52/12 = £537 per month (although it will be paid 4 weekly so 13 payments in a year)