Moving out of parents and possible redundancy

mannequin

I`ve been saving for about 6 months to move out of my parents house, and have been so excited about it, but it appears there may be jobs cuts soon at work, so obviously this news is a pain to hear.

Is it guaranteed, that if you are made redundant, you can get JSA? I`ve worked between 24-32 hours per week over the last 2 years, so would I get Contributions based JSA if I was entitled to it? I`m not sure about how it all works.

I`m also curious, if on the off chance it was me made redundant, would I be entitled to housing benefit and how definate would it be. Me and a friend are looking at places at the moment. I checked the LHA, I would be entitled upto £103.85 per week, living with him in a two/three bedroom place with the rent costing £115 per week.

Would I be right in assuming they would pay for my half of the rent, which would be £57.50 per week, and my half of the council tax, or have I got this wrong?

I`m 26 and and have been working for 10 years if that counts. Would I still be able to get LHA if me and my friend moved into a 3 bed place with just us two living there?

I`m a little concerned as I desperately want to move, but know it could be a long time away if I do get made redundant, whearas if I moved now, and on the off chance got made redundant, I`d have help, I think. Please advise, and please inform me if there is anything else I need to be aware off.

Cheers

ceridwen

Well - assuming this friend is just that - ie only a friend who happens to be male iyswim.....then you will certainly need to make it VERY plain to the DWP that you are just flatmates and friends and not a "couple". Otherwise - you'd start finding that you werent getting due benefit as a single. So - ensure that all records of everything (ie all financial transactions etc) make it quite plain that you are two totally unconnected people.

Be aware of the age restrictions on getting full benefit due. At present full benefit in all respects is payable as from 25th birthday onwards as I recall. I believe it is the case that the Government is soon going to restrict full housing benefit to those 35? upwards and it will be assumed that everyone under 35:eek: is sharing a house (or presumably in a bedsitter instead) and peeps under that age arent going to be allowed to live in a one bedroom flat on their own even (well - technically they will be - but they wont receive full rent for it).

Be aware of the maximum level of rent for your area that the Local Authority will cover in full - and that is in the process of being reduced (I believe claimants will only be allowed to pay rent levels that are in the bottom third of rents payable locally??)

Council Tax help is sort of not connected to being unemployed on benefit per se - its help that comes through courtesy of being on a low income (ie an employed person on the same level of income as a claimant would also not be liable to pay any Council Tax).

You would be best finding that rented place (that matches pricewise to current restrictions!) before you get told you are unemployed (if that should come to pass). If you do become unemployed you will be up against the fact that a huge number of landlords specify that they don't want claimants as tenants. Therefore get the place first - and then, should you become a claimant, you already safely have that place (even if your landlord doesnt take claimants). Obviously there will be no need for him to find out that your employment status has changed once you are safely in situ - as long as the rent money comes direct to you.

You had better check whether it is the case that that rent would come direct to you or no - or whether it would get paid direct to the landlord by the Council. I know back in my days of living in rented accommodation and subsequently becoming unemployed - the landlord didnt need to know/never found out - as my rent money was given straight to me and I just carried on paying it as normal. I'm not sure how things work on that these days...

I never had any delays at all back in my day of getting the rent and other benefit money coming to me exactly when they were due - even at the outset. These days I understand that a lot of people DO have delays in their benefit and/or rent money starting to commence payment - so be aware of that and check on the position and make sure you have some savings to hand to cover any delays (ie whilst you nag the powers-that-be to start handing over any overdue monies to you). Be aware that there is no benefit payable for the first 3 days of unemployment and peeps are supposed to "live on thin air" for that initial 3 days.

Oldernotwiser

You need to be using the shared accommodation rate to calculate the appropriate LHA amount, not taking the 2/3 bed rate and splitting it.

nimbo

hi also the biggest discount they would give you on the council tax is 25% off - meaning that the other tenant would be liable for the remaining 75%...

they would probably come round and asses the living arrangements, years ago when my sister had a gay house mate they still insisted on a visit to ensure that they weren't living as a couple. apparantly when David was in the job centre the rather camp JSA employee was chuckling away to himself as it was rather obvious to the world that he was gay, and still they came.

ceridwen

nimbo wrote: »

hi also the biggest discount they would give you on the council tax is 25% off - meaning that the other tenant would be liable for the remaining 75%...

I admit I have never heard of a benefit-claiming sharer being in a position where they would have to find 25% of someone else's C.T. bill out of their personal benefit money. That is what the above statement would imply - as obviously no benefit claimant could expect their sharer to pay more than the 50% they were due to pay and would have to reimburse them for it.:cool:

The single person discount on Council Tax is 25%. I think that is where the 25% figure came from.

My suspicion is that someone somewhere that this poster knows has been in a similar situation and found that the "official" they talked to about C.T. didnt know their job properly and therefore didnt give them the 50% of Council Tax bill on that property that they were due for (courtesy of sharing with one other person) and that, if it had been queried with a higher level "official" then the mistake would have been put right.

The other possibility is to why a claimant might not have been given enough benefit to cover all their share of the C.T. bill on a place would be connected with the fact that someone in the household was a student (as different rules apply to students).

For two employed sharers - then the one who becomes unemployed should get given coverage for their 50% share of the bill.

getmore4less

Sensible thing would be stay at home for now untill you know what is going to happen.

Much easier to find another job if you can be mobile, renting will commit you to 6months in the location chosen which may not have any jobs.