privatley rent, lost job, will he be entitled to housing benefit or anything

mirrorimage0

hi i am posting this for my brother and would really appreciate some advice.
my brother rents a two bedroom flat as he has a daughter which he sees regulary so needs the extra bedroom, he has just lost his job as he is self employed window fitter but they dont need him at the moment, he is ok for about the next month but if he cant get work soon will not be able to keep flat on. is there any chance he can claim housing benefit or anything, or if he takes a job in a supermarket or something on a low income will he get tax credits or something,
thankyou in advance for any help.

Bettyboop

Sorry to hear about your brothers employment situation. I rent privately as well and I'm on the verge of loosing my job so will be in a similar situation.

I will be keeping an eye on this post as I need this information to.

Best of luck to him.

Anthillmob

ok.

he will qualify providing he applies for job seekers. (JSA)

if he is paid jsa income based then he will get full rate.

jsa contributions based he will qualify dependinf on the amount and the total amount of his capital. usually people on cont. jsa do get full HB and CTB.
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however, as he rents privately his rent will be referred to the rent officer who will determine what is a fair rent for him. sometimes they agree the full rent but sometimes they dont and the claimant will have to make up the difference.

ALSO.... as he lives alone but rents a 2 bed he will be assessed by law as only needing 1 bedroom and 1 living room. if his daughter lived with him then it would be different but do not let hime claim that she does as that is fraudulent. he can always appeal to the rent officer but must give extremely good reasons as to why he needs the extra bedroom.

and.... if he is under 25 he will be assessed by the rent officer as only needing one room. this is called 'single room rent'

whateer the difference is he will need to pay the difference.

he will be able to apply for a discretionary housing payment once his HB decision has been made but these are not given to everyone because funds ae short.

hope that helps.

Anthillmob

btw he can still claim HB and CTB when he is self employed based on his earnings when he does find work. wether he will qualify i dont know buts its worth claiming.

mirrorimage0

thanks ever so much for that, he is 29 but the daughter lives with her mum full time and stays with him most weekends or basically when ever she wants, but officialy lives with her mum so he wouldnt claim for her. didnt realise that about still being able to claim if self employed based on earnings and i bet he didnt know either, the other thing i forgot to mention is that the rent is really reasonable but he rents of a family member wdo you know if that would make a difference or not,

thanks ever s mcuh for your help.

Anthillmob

renting from a family member he can expect to be asked to attend an 'interview'. we called these contirived interiews and he will basically be asked questions about the rental and the surroudings of why he rents from a family member.

i cant and wont go into detail of what they will ask because a., it would be giving the game away (though im not sayinng your brother is fraudulent) and b. the questions may well differ with each council.

ll he needs to do is be hnest. if the council cannot proove that his tenancy is not commercial then there should be no problems.

and yes you can claim HB na d CTB even if you work. i never realied this until i started working for an LA. but obviously if you earn a sh1tload tghen dont bother. some people do bother and its very annoying.

angeleyes

As he has been working before the council /housing benefit was required and then claimed jsa etc he should get it all paid - the should be no restriction on the rent for a certain period of time - which will either give him chance to find more work or move (think it is either 6 or 12 months)

Anthillmob

angeleyes wrote:

As he has been working before the council /housing benefit was required and then claimed jsa etc he should get it all paid - the should be no restriction on the rent for a certain period of time - which will either give him chance to find more work or move (think it is either 6 or 12 months)

does that include 2 beds when a 1 bed is needed? i know of such a rule bt ive never had to apply it so am not sure of what the regs are?

Morglin

In private housing, Council Tax rebate is applied to the size of the property required.

He should apply for it - if he has any problems, the local CAB will help him.

Lin

mirrorimage0

thanks for your help guys really appreciated, hopefully he wont need to claim and will be able to find some work asap with another window firm but at least i can pass on this info to him and he has all the options then, i will let him know about the wtc cause he was bringing home about £230 a week so its worth an ask. thanks again youve been really helpful.