Savings whilst on housing benefit

emiai

Were in recipt of housing benefit, and are currently saving for a deposit on a private house (We are currently in a housing association property)

As the deposit required is going to be really substantial (I have had it estimated at 4.5k!!) Im worried that whilst saving this we will have our housing benefit stopped. Not just that if we use it to pay the deposit is it seen as depravation of capital? (Our claim is joint, my partner and I)

How much can we save without it affecting our HB and what exactly is this deprevation of capital. We saved money for a car deposit and nothing was said then.

Any advice is greatly recieved and appreciated.

MrsManda

I think it'll only start affecting your HB once your savings reach £6000

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/publications/specialist-guides/technical-guidance/rr2-a-guide-to-housing-benefit/who-can-claim-housing-benefit/

LLM

If you have £4.5k in savings, your HB won't stop, but may be affected as in they will take a percentage of the savings and class that as income.

I know for sure that you can have up to £16k savings before your HB would stop but I would probably give your local HB dept a call, or, alternatively, look for a web based benefit calculator and have a play about with it in the saving section if that makes sense?

emiai

Thanks for that.

pandaspot

Hi

Can I ask why you are going to give up a ha property to go to a non secure private tenancy?

emiai

My partner originally moved 200 miles to live with me, we now want to live close to his family and have been told the only way we will secure a move is to go private rental. We are up for exchange but the odds of getting that is slim.

We are on a bidding system in the area we wish to move to, but I spoke to a lady who honestly told me we had no chance of being allocated a property as we are not a priority need.

This is why I am trying to establish how much we can save under our current circumstances. As we are DSS the only properties we have been able to find private are through an agency that requires 6 months up from payment of the moneys LHA does not cover as well as deposit, first month, referances x3 fees and the agents fee. So £4.5-5.5k for a 6 months tenancy.

Doom_and_Gloom

Under 6K and benefits are not affected. After 6k and to 16k savings get taken into account. 16k+ and you get nothing.

emiai wrote: »

As we are DSS the only properties we have been able to find private are through an agency that requires 6 months up from payment of the moneys LHA does not cover as well as deposit, first month, referances x3 fees and the agents fee. So £4.5-5.5k for a 6 months tenancy.

My partner and I rent and get LHA. We haven't ever needed 6 months rent up front but we have needed a guarantor and they needed to earn enough. This ment we've only ever needed the deposit and 1 months rent to get the place we want, as well as the referencing for my partner, me and the guarantor.

Is there any chance of a guarantor and if there is could you talk to the estate agents about this? Saying that even if you do get a guarantor it is a good idea to have a few months rent saved as back up as LHA can take a while to come through!

emiai

http://www.ashwoodestateagents.co.uk are the guys we spoke to who gave us that sum.

We plan to visit family again in the summer holidays so I will make sure to approach some more estate agents then too, it seemed shocking that they would want so much.

Yes we have a guarantor who is also a working professional, so that goes in our favour.

Thanks for your reply

pandaspot

That's an awful lot of money to get up front. When you move to your new address you would be able to apply for a discretionary housing payment that would help pay any shortfall.

Councils now have a discretion to help pay for deposits, not sure if your la have decided to do this yet? Maybe ring them and ask?

Also there are bond schemes where the offer the money for the bond and you pay them back. That's for people on low income.

Have you found no other agents/landlords who would accept you?

emiai

They were the best ones we found at the time who accepted DSS, everyone else were not interested. We were directed to a fasttrack scheme, where we pay £99 to join an agency, but I wont part with any money to them - as the when I called them, I was informed they did not plan to take on any further properties in the area we were looking to move to.

There are alot of homeswapper schemes too, we joined one - but refuse to pay any more of them as we havn't had any interest whatsoever from anyone registered the one we subscribed too earlier this year.

I have sent a few emails off today asking for information, but my local housing association have told me to push for an exchange because we will lose alot of security we currently have with the HA tenancy.

We need to save regardless, so theres no rush and plenty of time. Were hoping for next summer holiday to move, unless an exchange comes up first.

pandaspot

yeah the last thing you want to do is give up a secure tenancy, especially as lha rates are changing all the time, and are probably going to get worse before they get better.

fingers crossed you find an exchange, and if you do then you would have a saved a bit of money too, which isnt bad