Splitting up - housing benefit for me?

pmlindyloo

toasterman wrote: »

Sorry you're right. I was doing something stupidly more complicated (and wrong) maths wise.
I got those rates from the council website housing benefit checker thing..
I was multiplying the weekly rate by 4.2 to get an approx monthly figure, then comparing it to an 'exact' monthly rent. I'm really not awake today.

According to the Direct Gov LHA info, it is the 1 bedroom rate if:
"you are 25 years or over, and rent a room for your sole use in a shared accommodation.
Choose the ‘1 bedroom’ rate if you are 25 years or over and rent a self-contained property (eg a whole flat or house)."

The one bedroom rate for my area is 114.23 per week x 52 and /12 = £495 per month.

Does that mean that regardless of what it says on the Housing Benefit site, £495-a-month is the top limit?
If so, that's quite handy to know, because it effectively means I can only look at rooms in shared houses, and (possibly) studio flats...and makes searching a lot easier.

Yes, that's the top limit for a 1 bedroomed rate.

Remember if you go for a room in a shared house you will only get the shared room housing allowance.

pmlindyloo

menher wrote: »

Just being nosey, I have had a look in my area what you would get for the max of HA - 1 bed flat.

South East England - over 25, 1 bed flat - £86.54pw

Are the government trying to encourage ghettos? With what is available for £375 a month on Rightmove, I wouldn't want my worst enemy to live in any of them.

I didn't realise that they were doing this - if you are on benefit and get full HA, then you must live in the least disirable part of the county. Normally full of druggies, illegals, and prostitutes!! Why don't they just put up a 12' wall round the area and tell people its there or on the streets!

Disgusting way to treat people. Some might like to live in that sort of area, I can't think who!


Is it any wonder why there is this level of built up anger inside young benefit claimants. They have no hope of doing much with their lives - no jobs, poor education and are told where they must live.

Are you sure that is the 1 bedroomed rate and not the shared room rate?

Just looked at Maidstone, Kent and the 1 bed rate is £122.31 per week (£530 per month) and that is just about doable looking at Rightmove - areas aren't bad either.

toasterman

pmlindyloo wrote: »

Yes, that's the top limit for a 1 bedroomed rate.

Remember if you go for a room in a shared house you will only get the shared room housing allowance.

I think you may have lost me there. I'm likely going to be going for a studio flat if at all possible.
While I don't like cooking in my bedroom, I had some bad experiences in a houseshare.

Last houseshare was a 5-bed house, and I'd say about 80% of the tenants who came and went while I lived there were either smokers (and they would smoke in the house, or half hanging out the window, despite it being advertised as non-smoking) or just really really bad with money. The sort of people who seem surprised that the electricity/council tax is due every month, and go out drinking one night, then complain they have no money the day after.

Councils have no allowances for people sharing houses either. If you name one person for council tax, that person is exclusively liable for the entire house (it was £250+ a month for the whole house). If you put everybody down, then they're all jointly liable. If one person doesn't pay, or moves out on a weekend without telling anyone (as was the case with one person), then everyone else gets a court summons.
Even at this point it took me having meetings with the CAB and writing letters, before I could get the rest of the house to realise how serious this situation was.
Electricity/gas/phone will organise payment plans or give you extra time, but council tax is a real pain.

pmlindyloo

toasterman wrote: »

I think you may have lost me there. I'm likely going to be going for a studio flat if at all possible.
While I don't like cooking in my bedroom, I had some bad experiences in a houseshare.

Last houseshare was a 5-bed house, and I'd say about 80% of the tenants who came and went while I lived there were either smokers (and they would smoke in the house, or half hanging out the window, despite it being advertised as non-smoking) or just really really bad with money. The sort of people who seem surprised that the electricity/council tax is due every month, and go out drinking one night, then complain they have no money the day after.

Councils have no allowances for people sharing houses either. If you name one person for council tax, that person is exclusively liable for the entire house (it was £250+ a month for the whole house). If you put everybody down, then they're all jointly liable. If one person doesn't pay, or moves out on a weekend without telling anyone (as was the case with one person), then everyone else gets a court summons.
Even at this point it took me having meetings with the CAB and writing letters, before I could get the rest of the house to realise how serious this situation was.
Electricity/gas/phone will organise payment plans or give you extra time, but council tax is a real pain.

Yes, house sharing can be a pain. I think a studio flat might be the best way to go.

Have you checked to see if your council does a rent deposit (bond) scheme or are you borrowing the money?

You might want to visit your council's housing department and ask about the deposit scheme, check you have the right housing allowance rate (:D) and pick up some forms for Housing Benefit and Council Tax benefit.

With a bit of luck you might get a really helpful person!

MissMoneypenny

pmlindyloo wrote: »

If you are 25 yrs or under you would only be entitled to the shared room rate. This is likely to change (not sure when - anyone?) to 35 yrs and under!

I just googled this:-

Other changes


You may want to seek advice before you sign a new tenancy agreement

..................<SNIP>
Changes from January 2012

The shared accommodation rate currently applies to single people under the age of 25 living in accommodation that they rent from a private landlord. This will be extended to people aged under 35.
This means that single people under 35 will no longer receive Housing Benefit based on one bedroom self-contained accommodation.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Nl1/Newsroom/DG_192415

pmlindyloo

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

I just googled this:-

Other changes


You may want to seek advice before you sign a new tenancy agreement

..................<SNIP>
Changes from January 2012

The shared accommodation rate currently applies to single people under the age of 25 living in accommodation that they rent from a private landlord. This will be extended to people aged under 35.
This means that single people under 35 will no longer receive Housing Benefit based on one bedroom self-contained accommodation.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Nl1/Newsroom/DG_192415

I think the changes won't affect the OP too much for the near future.

If I'm reading it correctly, if you receive HB when the under 35 threshold comes in (January 2012) you can keep receiving the HB for some time (9 months after the local authority assessment after April 2012).

Ample time to get a job

Macro_3

pmlindyloo wrote: »

I think the changes won't affect the OP too much for the near future.

If I'm reading it correctly, if you receive HB when the under 35 threshold comes in (January 2012) you can keep receiving the HB for some time (9 months after the local authority assessment after April 2012).

Ample time to get a job

The 9 month transitional protection won't apply, unfortunately. That was just for the April '11 changes.

sandraroffey

in west sussex, the one bedroom rate is £499 per month. and you can get precisely nothing for that. unless you wanted to keep the dog in it. i have to top my rent up myself from my state pension by quite a bit. just because i want to live somewhere thats half decent.

MissMoneypenny

Macro wrote: »

The 9 month transitional protection won't apply, unfortunately. That was just for the April '11 changes.

That's how I read it too; that it changes to age 35 from January 2012. I think that is why the warning was on the site (which I put in my quote)

"You may want to seek advice before you sign a new tenancy agreement"

pmlindyloo

Macro wrote: »

The 9 month transitional protection won't apply, unfortunately. That was just for the April '11 changes.

Not saying you're wrong (:)) but from what I've read the new rates won't apply until the anniversary of your claim.

When will the changes affect me?
If you are already getting Housing Benefit you will have been told of the changes to the Local Housing Allowance rates from April 2011. You will have been given nine months protection from these changes. You will not be affected by the change to the shared accommodation rate until the nine months has ended.
The nine months start from when your local authority carries out your first Housing Benefit yearly assessment after 1 April 2011. For example, if your yearly review was in June 2011 the change to the shared accommodation rate will not affect you until March 2012 (nine months later).
If you make a new claim for Housing Benefit before 1 January 2012, the change will affect you from your next yearly review. This will also happen if your Housing Benefit is not worked out using the Local Housing Allowance arrangements because you have been claiming Housing Benefit from before April 2008.
If you live in a privately rented home and make a new claim for Housing Benefit from 1 January 2012, the change will affect you straightaway.

However, I am not surprised that we have read different things as I have looked at several different council websites and they are all saying different things!

To be honest, I suspect no-one knows exactly what is going to happen as the details of this particular change won't be finalised until later this year.

Personally I find this particular change badly thought through.
I think the government has looked at the numbers of people that this will affect and I wonder if they are fairly low. Not a good reason (in my opinion)

I think 30 years would be a reasonable compromise.

Sorry, didn't mean to start a discussion. :cool:

PS Apologies for huge print - copied and pasted!