Confused about housing benefit

CompBunny

Hi there,

In December, my partner and I moved across the country to be near my mother because of my health problems. My partner was earning £25k but had to give up his job so we could move.

We are currently living with my mother. My partner claims JSA and is currently looking for a job/considering education+job. I claim incapacity benefit. Living in her home isn't ideal for either her (will be moving to a smaller house soon as her and my father are getting divorced) or us - I need to be near family for support/take pressure off my partner but living as a couple with parents is straining. But we are of course very grateful

Reading about housing benefit has left me pretty confused..:eek:
So a couple of questions:
1) Does my partner's previous salary mean we wouldn't qualify? They ask about it on the benefit checkup form on the website and it seems to disqualify us?
2) Does living with my mother remove our eligibility?
3) Would we qualify for social housing perhaps?

Our current situation:
Both aged 23/cohabiting for 4 years
Pay £100 per month rent to my mother (rising to £150 if her council tax increases with us living there)
No savings/£2k total in our current accounts
I have depression and CFS/chronic fatigue

I'd really appreciate some advice, the benefits system is so confusing.

Thankyou!:j

Indie_Kid

You can't get LHA if living with his mother. If you two moved into your own place, you may get some.

CompBunny

Thankyou SH1305. Do you think we'd qualify for social housing? Or is this the wrong board?

tomitma

By rights you should qualify, for social housing, but you will be spending years on the list.

nannytone_2

you may qualify for social housing, but qualifying for it and actually being allocated a home are very different things. in some areas, the wait for social housing is years!
if you rented privately, you would only be entitled for LHA for a one bed property. you could get more bedrooms if you wanted, but would still only be paiod the one bed rate.

CompBunny

Thanks everyone. I don't think we can afford to rent privately on £150 a week so for now we'll continue on as we are until we have more income. Thanks very much for your responses though, I love people on this site they always have the answer

Oldernotwiser

CompBunny wrote: »

Thanks everyone. I don't think we can afford to rent privately on £150 a week so for now we'll continue on as we are until we have more income. Thanks very much for your responses though, I love people on this site they always have the answer

You don't pay rent out of your existing income, you claim LHA as was suggested earlier.

viktory

I am surprised your partner was not sanctioned for voluntarily giving up a (well paid!) job.

CompBunny

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

You don't pay rent out of your existing income, you claim LHA as was suggested earlier.

Thankyou, I wasn't aware of this. In this case, where do you start? Because I can see nowhere taking you without much to pay rent long term, but the benefits office not awarding housing benefit until you are paying out on a place?

viktory wrote: »

I am surprised your partner was not sanctioned for voluntarily giving up a (well paid!) job.

His work needed to let some people go anyway so he was able to negotiate a compromise agreement (not penalised by DWP when full situation was honestly explained). Hence why after moving expenses etc etc we have some money left in the account to tide us over for a short time.:j