Supposing that....

margaretclare

Supposing that any of you MSEers know a young woman aged 25 who is homeless and unemployed, is gay, has no bank account, has a cat, is dyslexic, has been 'put forward' for a housing association flat in a complex just being built.

Suppose she is given the keys for a flat, she thinks she will get some help towards essential furnishings. Is this true?

Will a cat be allowed in a housing association flat?

Will she be given help with paying the rent/council tax? She actually needs some utilities bills to enable her to open a bank account - will she get normal bills or will she be restricted to pre-paying for electricity via a meter?

Reason she needs a bank account - her granny has offered to set up a standing order to help her with money on a regular basis, granny's cheques have so far had to be cashed at the MoneyShop in the town centre. (No prizes for guessing who her granny is *sigh*)

And also, of course she will need a bank account to get paid into when she finally does get a job. Her granny has also paid for her application for a Provisional Driving Licence and her parents have a friend who's a driving instructor. She'd be a 'natural' at that type of driving/delivering small parcels type of a job.

Minor disagreements between granny and step-grandad who feels very strongly that the young should stand on their own feet. However, what's the point of praying for the homeless in church and not doing anything to help and support our own.

Margaret

Fran

If she is living on Jobseekers Allowance, as Girl0174 says your contribution would count as income, perhaps help towards setting up her home would be more useful. She might be entitled to a Community Care Grant for help towards the essentials but it wouldn't cover all the expenses of setting up home.

She will not have a prepayment meter unless one is already set up.

If she claims JSA she should get full Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit.

msmicawber

It might be worth contacting the Housing Association or Local Council directly, Margaret Clare, as sometimes there are stores of furniture and household things that are available to people in your granddaughter's position. Also, they may have some advice on bank accounts since your granddaughter cannot be the first person they have come across that cannot open an account because she doesn't have a permanent home. If the HA or Council don't give useful advice, I would contact Shelter.

If you regularly give her money or pay bills for her, it will be construed as income for benefits purposes (certainly for Housing & Council Tax Benefits) and will result in her benefits being reduced accordingly. The rules are very strict, I'm afraid.

viktory

Check out freecycle and local charity shops for furnishings. Re the cat, I work for a local HA and mine has no problem with cats as pets. Mind you, the cat might not like it if it is an outdoor cat that is suddenly confined to barracks in a flat!

She should be entitled to HB and CTB.

margaretclare

Hi all, thanks for the help. It wasn't so much about giving her a regular income as about just trying to help her - she seemed so destitute. What happened in the past was that she was attempting to be a carer for her uncle who has ME and she was trying to switch from JSA to CA - for reasons that I don't understand this didn't work and for several weeks she appeared to have no income at all although she has been unemployed for all of this year. Now she has switched back but can only access her benefits through a Post Office savings account.

Hadn't realised that money gifts from family members counted as income and had to be declared!!! Difficult to help someone then, in that case, isn't it, without contravening some rule or other?

I think the poor cat will be happy when he finds somewhere more permanent to live apart from being carted about all over the place in a cat-box. Yes, I'd already decided not to give her any more money but to wait until she tells me what she needs. It's difficult to help at a distance of 250 miles - she's more in DoraTheExplorer's territory. I could buy her something like a washing-machine if that would help, a set of bedding, things that I can order and get delivered for her.

We've already introduced her to the idea of 'freecycle', and after all, most of us relied on second-hand goods when we set up home, however long ago it was!

Best wishes

Margaret

Fran

margaretclare wrote:

Hadn't realised that money gifts from family members counted as income

It's the regular payment of an amount that would make it count as income, one off gifts of money to help would be ok.

margaretclare

Fran wrote:

It's the regular payment of an amount that would make it count as income, one off gifts of money to help would be ok.

Thanks for this, Fran. But it would certainly be easier if I do send her any more money, to do it through a bank account rather than sending a cheque which she has to cash at the MoneyShop. I thought she had a bank account, she used to have one from the time her Grandad and I used to save money for them, and a BS account as well, don't know what has happened to them.

Margaret

Ted_Hutchinson

margaretclare wrote:

Hadn't realised that money gifts from family members counted as income and had to be declared!!! Difficult to help someone then, in that case, isn't it, without contravening some rule or other?

There would be a difference between a standing order paid every week, which would be a reliable source of income, and the purchase or donation of gifts, goods or capital items as and when needed. Say providing the cat food or paying the vets bill would not be regarded as income as it cannot be relied on nor would the recipient be in a position to resell it for income purposes. It is only when money is paid into a bank account and the benefit claimant has a personal choice about how to spend that money that it can be regarded as "Their" savings/income for benefit purposes. Captial items don't count.

Dora_the_Explorer_5

Margaret, A number of towns in West Yorks have a community furniture and white goods service for people in the situation your GD is in, either free or very small charge. Also many of the hospices have furniture warehouses with good stuff at very low prices. Perhaps you could offer to pay for some of her home furnishings and any delivery charge? As she doesn't have a bank account would postal orders work? Not sure what ID a post office needs to see when they're presented for cashing, sorry. HTH

Contains_Mild_Peril

margaretclare wrote:

Supposing that any of you MSEers know a young woman aged 25 who is homeless and unemployed, is gay, has no bank account, has a cat, is dyslexic, has been 'put forward' for a housing association flat in a complex just being built.

Suppose she is given the keys for a flat, she thinks she will get some help towards essential furnishings. Is this true?

She may be entitled to a grant: if not, she should be entitled to a DSS Social Fund loan, which would have affordable interest-free repayments deducted from her JSA. The loan can be anything up to £1000 last I checked, so she'll still have to shop around to furnish the flat on her budget. Local furniture projects may be able to help, and Freecycle is very useful! If you want to help her out, gifts of essential household items may be better than cash, since the latter may be questioned with regard to her benefit entitlement.

Will a cat be allowed in a housing association flat?

Ask the housing association: rules vary.

Will she be given help with paying the rent/council tax?

She'll probably get her whole rent paid by Housing Benefit direct to the landlord. She'll be entitled Council Tax benefit, but will still have to pay some.

She actually needs some utilities bills to enable her to open a bank account - will she get normal bills or will she be restricted to pre-paying for electricity via a meter?

If she's been homeless, presumably she has no utility bill arrears at present, so there's no reason she should be restricted to prepayment meters. If the flat already has them installed and she wants to receive bills instead, she should contact the relevant utility provider about getting the meter changed.

Ken-Dodds-Hairy-Knodule

Contains_Mild_Peril wrote:

She'll probably get her whole rent paid by Housing Benefit direct to the landlord. She'll be entitled Council Tax benefit, but will still have to pay some.

It's the other way around. CT will be paid in full. Rent will be upto the maximum allowed fair rent, which as it's a Housing Association she should get full rent paid.

she should contact the relevant utility provider about getting the meter changed.

She would have to check her tennancy first, as lots (most?) HA and local authorities don't allow the meters to be changed on their housing stock.

Also she won't have proof of previous address so the utility company will most likely want her to use a pre-payment meter initially until she has 'proven' herself (they will also accept a cash deposit and guarantor).


She will be entitled to a grant as she is a 'vulnerable person', but in reality lots of roofless people are declined the grant when they are finally rehoused. She should get a budgetting loan (interest free) without any problems. As a single person on JSA aged 25 and over she should be elligible for around £750, which she would have to pay back at a minimum of £3 a week (although they are more likely to ask for around £6 a week).

Depending on the HA she may also get a furnishing/decoration allowance - usually upto £150 (depends on area/HA).

Even restricted to Prepayment utilities she will still get a bill if she decides to open a bank account.

margaretclare wrote:

(No prizes for guessing who her granny is *sigh*)

If it's such a chore to offer her the money then you would be better off not doing so. She would probably rather starve than accept money from someone she felt was giving her money out of duty rather than because they wanted to.