Housing Benefit + Rent Increase dilemma

Sven7

I've been claiming Income-Based Job Seekers Allowance, Council Tax Benefit & Housing Benefit. The Housing Benefit covered my £280 rent plus a small amount extra.

A few days ago I received a letter from the Housing Benefit office informing me there would no longer be any extra on top of the HB - it would now be exactly £280 a month.

Today I had a letter from my landlord telling me my rent would be going up in January to £300 per month. I've been living here since late 2009.

Am I going to have any luck with asking for the Housing Benefit to meet this increase?

It brings to mind a similar situation I had in 2008 where my then-landlord put the rent up by £30. The Housing Benefit office insisted the Rent Officer had valued my property at the original price and that was an end of it. I couldn't make up the difference by myself and eventually was asked to move out. I'm worried the same thing will happen again.

Any advice for this situation would be much appreciated.

Oldernotwiser

I suppose it would be a stupid question to ask if you've been putting this extra amount of money away to cover this sort of eventuality?

Adereterial

You'll need to make the extra yourself - £5 a week should not be difficult, if you budget properly.

Wee_Willy_Harris

Check the appropriate LHA level for your area, you may find it is more than the £280 you are getting now and may swallow the increase.

When LHA was first introduced, if you were renting for less than the LHA rate, you got to keep the difference up to a maximum of £15 a week. This stopped last year but may have had some transitional protection, so that may be the "little bit extra" that stopped. Certainly, it would be unusual for an LHA award to be higher than the rent stated on the tenancy agreement.

mandi

You don't have to agree to the rent increase Sven7

Landlords have a habit of increasing the rent yearly regardless of your situation or the state of a property .

If you don't agree or don't want to pay the increase then try & negotiate.

Best of Luck though .

Marmiter

The fact that you were receiving the extra payment would suggest that your rent was lower than your LHA rate.
This would mean that if you let your HB service know that your rent has increased, your payments may increase too. If not, then you will have to make the top up yourself, or make a claim for DHP.

Either way, you need to let HB know your rent has increased.

fluffymovie

The LHA rate that is now paid is the lower of your rent or the LHA rate. If your LHA rate has been recently renewed, it won't be affected by your rent increase.
The only way to increase it would be to break your claim for a week and reclaim which would mean we could use the higher rent.