advice regarding council housing/gateway to homechoice

maria08k

Hiya,
I was wondering if anyone could point us into the right direction or give us any advice?.......

I'am 24 and my partner is 26,we have a little boy who is 7 months. We are currently privately renting £495 a month
Which is just our rent,we also have our electric,water,council tax,tv license,motorbike tax and insurance,2 loans and a credit card to pay. We can afford
Childcare,even if I went back to work as my wages are so low so we have decided I will stay at home to look after my baby until he is at nursery or play school then I will get myself another job.
So anyway to cut a long story short we are really struggling to pay for everything,our landlord won't let us rent month to month so we can look for a cheaper property (contract ends 3rd december) so to save ourselves getting into a mass of debt we are moving in with my mum for a few months,
If anything to try and save ourselves abit of money to clear some debts. We have been thinking maybe we should notify the council of our situation and that maybe they will increase our band so we will be eligable for a few more propertys on the website (they run a bidding scheme,the worse off your income and situation the higher the band you receive meaning you can bid on more propertys)

We are currently band E which is the lowest, I have already informed them we are struggling to pay for our rent (which in our area is a low prices 2bedroom property) to which I was told to consider applying for housing benefits,sadly our landlord will not accept them!

I was just wondering if anyone has been in a silimar situation or has any knowledge of gateway to home choice and what our chances are? My partner earns a reasonable wage but we just can't do it.

Thankyou

puddy

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BitterAndTwisted

Your entitlement to LHA (Local Housing Allowance) is based on your income and the size of your property and it is paid direct to the tenant not the landlord. Get onto the housing office at your Local Authority and make an application if you haven't given notice yet. You might get some help towards your housing costs but if you don't apply for it you won't get it.

poppysarah

Your landlord wouldn't know if you got benefits. They get paid to you.

You should check you're getting all the benefits you should.

t0rt0ise

I don't understand the bit about your landlord not accepting housing benefit. It's not up to the landlord. You apply to the council and you get it paid to you. If he really will evict you when he hears that you are applying for benefit then you will have a good claim for housing from the council as you will be homeless.

Your rent works out at £114 a week which is actually pretty good. I was paying more than that for a Housing Association property in Kent recently and of course am paying far more than that now for a Housing Association property in London. Your best bet I'd have thought is to claim the Housing Benefit you're entitled to and see what happens, or failing that move to another property at similar price and then claim benefit.

Jowo_2

Choice based letting policies may be broadly similar across different social housing landlords in the way they award priority and bandings but it's best that you consult the specific calculations that your scheme uses before you take any actionm. For example, if you move in with your parents, it's possible that you won't get extra points because you are not in any greater housing need but it's also possible that you could be awarded extra if you are deemed to be overcrowded (but sometimes a living room is factored in as an available bedroom).

See the Direct Gov website for advice on debts or book an appointment with your Citizens Advice Bureau. Go to the Debt Free wanabee board and post an SOA so the knowledgeable members there will be able to advise you how to deal with your debts and how to reduce your expenses. Benefits will not take into account your personal debts and I am surprised that your income (or debts) influence the points you get for social housing. What does this scheme specifically say about the relationship between points and income?

Go to the LHA direct website to understand what the maximum LHA payable for a 2 bed property is in your local area, then enter your household details into the Turn2us benefit calculator website. Your local council or the Shelter website will explain how LHA works. How much does your husband earn and do you get any tax credits?

Simply by not signing a new fixed term contract, your tenancy will automatically become a periodic one (rolling month to month, if the rental period is monthly) until the tenant serves a month's notice or the landlord serves two, timed to expire with the rental period. The Shelter website shows how to end a periodic tenancy. Has your landlord already served the two month's notice, the S21, perhaps when you signed an AST?

Jowo_2

It says on the website that "if you are in the lowest band (Band E) and waiting for general needs housing it is unlikely that you will be housed."

https://www.gatewaytohomechoice.org.uk/Data/ASPPages/1/105.aspx

I had a quick look through the criteria for the bands and didn't see anything related to income that increases the applicants priority banding, though I only had a swift browse and may have missed this.

It did say those in overcrowded properties are placed in Band C but you'd have to check if they regard your actions in moving into your parents are an action which led to it and is unreasonable "If it is decided that the applicant has made their housing situation worse, they will remain in the band that reflects their housing need in their previous accommodation. "

http://www.braintree.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/C8C0F6F3-1F4A-4665-BA74-1F5627FA7CF3/0/cblpolicyjanuary09final.pdf

maria08k

Thankyou for all your advice everyone. The housing benefits form we had to fill out also went to our landlord to sign,he point blank wouldn't sign it saying he would not accept benefits?!?! We have no idea what's "allowed and what isn't" so we just left it and didn't push for a reconsideration.

I think we will move in with my mum for a few months to try and save some £ to pay off some debts and try with the council. We will be over crowded,I won't be able to sleep in my mums living room as I'm currently receiving physio on my back from a car crash,and know my doctor won't let me sleep on the floor, I would be reduced to tears with the pain. Getting a house via choice based lettings was never our 1st choice or our intention.
Someone just suggested it as a possibility, I think when we find a property (most likely private rented) we will reapply for housing benefits there.

Thankyou so much.

Jowo_2

As per my cursory review of the Gateway to choice documentation, you may well find you are banded exactly as before, that they may discount the awarding of any extra points that accrue due to the tenant's decision to move into accommodation that worsens their situation.

I believe with LHA that it only requires the tenant to submit a copy of their tenancy agreement and the landlord does not have to be contacted. Phone your local council to explain the landlord's reluctance to assist you with your claim to double check if it can proceed without the landlord's intervention.
Have you checked if you are entitled to LHA, according to the turn2us website?

If you are happy with the accommodation, get a debt management plan in place, and succeed with the LHA top up if any is due, you may be better off staying where you are rather than have to pay two lots of removal costs and find a new deposit and all the usual hassle involved with moving, particularly as many landlords won't accept LHA claimants or tenants with a poor credit history so onward accommodation from your parents could be tough.

Hammyman

You will not get put up a band because most of the reason you're struggling is because of the loans and credit card debt which is, quite rightly, not taken into account and by moving in with parents, you've deliberately created an overcrowding. As for cheaper rent, around my area, you'll not get anything other than a 1 bed flat for less than £495 and I'm in East Yorks, hardly a place of high income.

As for LHA.

I rent a house out to a nice lady on IS who has a son in my youngest lads class. She would be on HB/LHA. To be fair I'm not sure which because I've not received one single bit of paperwork from the council at all about anything - she just turns up on the first of every month with the rent. From what my brother says (he works in LA doing HB/LHA/CTB) if the tenant goes in with enough proof of rent (rent book/tenancy agreement) then there's no need to contact the landlord at all and its paid direct to the tenant if they wish.

Childcare:
You would get child care paid for through tax credits if you used a registered childminder.

PasturesNew

What used to happen, before all this tax credits stuff and childcare being paid for etc etc, was that a married couple would have the bloke (usually) working full-time - and the woman would find local part-time work. Evening jobs, bar work. Weekend work, waitressing, chip shop serving.

Could you find a part-time job evenings, when your OH could do the childcare?

Also, avon rep type work is commonly found.