housing benefit, family of 5 are we entitled to a 3 bedroom please?

Dontknowanymore

I gave up a secure tenancy in April last year and just moved into a council flat 4 weeks ago.
My circumstances are not the norm at all though and I count my lucky stars that not only was I allowed to go back onto a housing list in a new area, but that I bidded on and HAD to accept a assive flat in a lovely area, and now I have just signed the forms to do a mutual exchange to a 3 bed house down the road.
I would never give up a secure tenancy again unless I was forced to like last time.

Also OP are you on the council's transfer list? do they operate the bidding system in your area? In the area I live in, the transfer list (which means people already in social housing) is rather good, the lettings dept operate on the basis that where possible, half of available properties are given to housing register appplicants/homeless and the other half are given to those on the transfer list.
I posted this on a previous thread

I have recently, 3 weeks ago moved into a council property under the 'choice based lettings system' what a load of old tosh! You don't get a choice, not really, only if you already are a social tenant and are on the housing transfer list.
For people in higher bands, in my area, you are given 3 months to bid yourself, then if you haven't been successful then the council makes bids on your behalf.
Bidding comes out every fortnight so that means in a 3 month period, there are 6 chances to bid, may seem like a lot, but when you have 3 of those times where there is 1 or even no properties that you are eligable to bid on then your chances of actually choosing somewhere are slim to none.

I ended up bidding on this flat for fear of getting put right over the other side of the district, meaning havng to change my son's school for the 4th time in a year, no way I was going to do that, but since hardly any properties come up in the town we were living, I now have to drive from this town to our old town to keep my son in school, luckily it is only a 10 minute drive.
It has actually worked out well for me as I have found someone who wants to swap their 3 bed house for my 2 bed flat
BTW The only reason I have said it's a load of tosh is because I do not agree with the council saying it's a choice based system when by and large it is not.

Oh and Lewt is right, behind my flat there is a brand new development being built, of around 200 homes, a fair few will be going to people on the council's housing list, also just up the road by the beach they have almost finished the last phase of a brand new development, there were 30 properties up for bidding this week, mainly 2 bed flats but a couple of 3 beds and 1 beds.

mazy_m

DX2 wrote: »

Of course they are overcrowded. Where are the children meant to sleep in a one bed place?

Common sense would agree....however the council don't!! fuming!!

dcems

mazy_m wrote: »

Common sense would agree....however the council don't!! fuming!!

Is this a council who feel you can use a living room as a bedroom? Westminster have just recently brought this rule in,believe it or not!

erdd2

mazy_m wrote: »

Common sense would agree....however the council don't!! fuming!!

mazy you gotta lower your expectations, a council with common sense would be a miracle!

dcems

erdd2 wrote: »

mazy you gotta lower your expectations, a council with common sense would be a miracle!

Thats a bit unfair.:cool:

Children under 10 are only classed as half a person. The legal defination hasnt changed since 1935,so its very complex. On the face of it I would say the family are o/c,but we dont have the full facts.