Social Housing and Housing Benefit.

suelees1

Wench wrote: »

If you have a look on your local council website, *somewhere* it tells you what the current allowance is for 1,2,3,4+ bedrooms.

Not applicable if they move into council property which is what was queried in the first instance

outofmoney

Jowo wrote: »

Currently, private tenants whose LHA is greater than their rent can actually legitimately keep the first £15 each week but this is getting scrapped. It was designed to encourage and reward private tenants to find accommodation under their LHA limit.

Thank You. It isn't my aim to defraud anyone but as said IF our rent wasn't as much as the HB, we could keep the difference.

However, in this area, the amount for a 3 bed is £650 and considering most private 2 bed flats are this much there will not be many people able to take advantage of this extra amount.

Jowo_2

outofmoney wrote: »

Thank You. It isn't my aim to defraud anyone but as said IF our rent wasn't as much as the HB, we could keep the difference.
...

Just to clarify, my commments were in specific response to a different poster who may have given the impression that a tenant on benefits keeping the difference between the rent and the HB/LHA is fraud. Actually its legitimately allowed in certain circumstances (private tenants receiving LHA) but is getting scrapped in the future.

Just to go off thread a little, I remember when this £15 per week sum was introduced with LHA. I recall the number of 'offered' ads by landlords tended to exactly match or exceed the maximum LHA allowance on Gumtree in my area while the 'wanted' ads by LHA tenants generally pitched their maximum as £15 under their LHA allowance for the size of property they sought!

rozmister

outofmoney wrote: »

Thank You. It isn't my aim to defraud anyone but as said IF our rent wasn't as much as the HB, we could keep the difference.

However, in this area, the amount for a 3 bed is £650 and considering most private 2 bed flats are this much there will not be many people able to take advantage of this extra amount.

Sorry if I sounded harsh I didn't know you could keep the first £15, that's my mistake.

I only said it was fraud because off the top of my head I know 5 people in private lets claiming house benefit who have declared their rent at the top of the band (with their landlords help) and kept some of the difference between the advertised rent and the amount HB actually paid which is fraud! I didn't know there was a legitimate way to keep any because no one I know does it!

outofmoney

It's fine, no offence was taken.

Whilst I knew it was OK, I did not know there was a £15 limit. But as I said it is very rare that you can get a property for less than the LHA unless of course it is really bad or both the LL and tenant are in it together.

From above it looks like that happens from time to time.

suelees1

I've worked in social welfare law for 20 years and landlords have always been picky. There a good tenants and bad and I can vouch for the fact that also goes for landlords

outofmoney

I agree. Some tenants would rather have the HB as going direct to the LL can often cause problems.

We had a situation a few years back when the LL kept saying we owed money when all our rent was covered by HB. The reason was because he could not get his head round the fact that HB is paid (or was at the time) every 2 weeks so in some months he had two lots of money, others three. Over the year this worked out but he kept multiplying the amount he got by 24 and it always come up short, so thought we owed.

Also in our last property we had major problems as the LL was on a fiddle. Had the HB gone to him I dread to think what would have happened.

Talking to an agent before the main reason LL don't like tenants on benefits is because often it takes the council so long to work it out and then it is paid in arrears, meaning the rent could end up being late if the tenant doesn't have any other means to pay the rent.

Indie_Kid

skcollobcat10 wrote: »

And this is why landlords do not like having tenants on benefits. I am not saying all tenants would default, but some would. If the rent was paid direct to landlords more of them would allow tenants on benefits to rent from them.

I don't know the circumstances in which this can be done; but a landlord can receive their tenants LHA from the council. (so tenant doesn't have to give it to them)

outofmoney

But because of the reasons I mentioned they don't. Most would rather get it from the tenant since despite us being paid in arrears we are expected to pay rent on time.