Please help - Claiming Bereavement Allowance but expected to pay towards rent?

lisae03

I am posting this on behalf of my Mum as she has been on the phone all morning trying to get to the bottom of it only to be fobbed of. She is very upset and feels it is wrong!

My Mum lives with my 29 year old autisic/disabled brother and can't work because she is his carer.

She gets bereavement allowance £90.81 per week for herself while my brother claims Income support with an element of incompacity giving him £93.45 per week plus he also gets disability living allowance in 2 parts ; £19.95 mobility and £47.80 attendance.

Her rent is £88 per week and she has been told she needs to contribute £25 a week towards this. Surely her rent should be covered by housing benefit?

DX2

If you are on Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) or the guarantee credit of Pension Credit (whether you get it on its own or with the savings credit), Housing Benefit will cover all of your eligible rent. But you need to remember that not all of your rent or housing costs may be covered.
Also, the Housing Benefit you can get may be reduced if another person lives with you who could be expected to pay towards their accommodation, even if they do not.

An adult who lives in your home and who is not a tenant or boarder, other than your partner, is called a non-dependant. For example, you might have a friend, parent, grown-up son or daughter or another relative living with you. If you have a non-dependant living in your home, an amount will usually be deducted from your Housing Benefit on the assumption that they could give you some money towards the costs of accommodation, even if they do not do so. The amount of the deduction depends on their circumstances.
http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_money/benefits/help_with_your_rent_-_housing_benefit.htm#adults_who_live_in_someone_else’s_home
£12.50 per adult in the household, seems pretty fair.

lisae03

Thank you for your reply.
So even though she is his carer he is a non dependant in the eyes of the dwp?
I think what we find it hard to understand is that this time last year all her rent was covered apart from £8.00 per month when she was claiming with my step dad, my autisic brothers money was the same and my younger brother (getting Tax Credit for him). Since then obviously things have changed, my step died died hence she started getting bereavement benefit and my brother has left and to gone to uni recently. This got me thinking, does anyone think the change here that makes the difference is that she no longer has a dependant child living at home?
If the amount she has to pay is correct than we would just appreciate some help to understand what has made such a difference. She is coming around later and I would like to help her see it more clearly.
Thanks

Jowo_2

You can double check her entitlements on the Turn2us online benefit calculator. Does she receive housing benefit or local housing allowance? If LHA, you can identify the maximum LHA allowance on the LHA direct website. How many bedrooms does the property have and what's her bedroom entitlement according to this site? Is it possible that she is living in a property that is more expensive than the LHA and requires her to top up the difference?

AsknAnswer2

Bereavement Allowance is not an income based benefit, therefore it does not passport her to full housing benefit and council tax benefit. How much she qualifies for will depend on her income.

A dependant is a person who is your partner or a child under the age of 18 for benefits purposes. By "dependent" they mean "financially dependent". As the lad is entitled to benefit in his own right he is not considered "fiancially depenedent" on his mother.

thorsoak

If your autistic brother is considered mentally incapable, I think she may be able to claim a council tax discount - which could bring her council tax down by 25%.

lisae03

Hi everyone, really appreciate your input here.
I have just been on the turn to us website and its saying pretty much the same in the way of rent so this must be correct. It also says she will only get £10.24 towards her council tax per week which will be a further blow as she hasn't got this sorted yet, going on thorsoaks post though she may get a 25 % discount. The reason everything is up in the air is because she moved from Somerset to the Midlands at the beginning of September. She has a 3 bedroom council house, effectively she has a spare bedroom some of the time which my brother will use for 4 months a year when he comes home from uni.

HRV

Could it be because she has a 3 bed house and now there are only 2 people permanently there? They would lower the number of bedrooms she is entitled to and tehrefore the rate of housing benefit- could that be it? (although I don't know how it works when someone is away at uni?) and that might be why she now has to contribute towards the cost