Advice Required on Homelessness

counterfeit

As of today I am homeless as my wife and I have split up.

I have not worked for 13 months despite having filled in over 300 job applications but not been able to claim any benefit as my wife is F/T employed.

I have contacted DWP today and made a new claim but I need to find somewhere to live and make a claim for LHA. I have no idea how the process works so I would like some advice as it seems like a vicious circle to me.

It seems that I can't get LHA unless I have a claim to JSA and I can't get a flat as I have only £4 to live on. My new claim interview is on Monday and until then I will have to sleep in the car. Even then though I cannot get a bond/deposit and any LHA claim will take a while I understand, so how can I get a landlord to rent me a place?

I am really confused and quite distressed about this so any advice is more than welcome.

Thanks

BigAunty

Your local council will have a homelessness department within their housing division and may well have info on their website.

See the Shelter website about homelessness - they will tell you about your options, your rights and the local councils obligation towards you.

Councils have a statutory obligation to assist the homeless but have a reputation for being difficult to deal with, sometimes not following the guidelines/regulations. That's why the shelter site is good - it tells you what they must do, as opposed to what they may bother to do.

counterfeit

I will look at Shelter now

RAS

You need to present yourself to your local housing office as homeless, preferably in the next hour.

They will probably ask you if you have mates you can kip with.

The other option my be a hostel.

heartbreak_star

Any way you can briefly stay with your ex? Unless the split is for something like you cheating I'd be kicking up a fuss at being booted out of my own home!!

Good luck - hope you get sorted very soon!

HBS x

Dunroamin

Many people have to remain living in the marital home when they split up. Do you own or rent, are there children and how old are you?

counterfeit

I am 43, we have two kids aged 11 and 9 and it is rented. She is the leaseholder so I have no rights and we split because she is moving her new (and completely unknown to me) partner in.

To say I was devastated is an understatement but it's not particularly relevant to my problem.

I have no friends locally, we moved here last year when I was already out of work and most of my friends are about 50 miles away. My family live 300 miles away so I am left with nowhere, not even for a temporary solution.

It's so hard to comprehend. But, I need to get on with it. I have walked over to my local one stop shop for advice and i am waiting to be seen by the advisor. Ironically, my last interview was for this very job.

heartbreak_star

Is your name on the lease at all? Or council tax? Or any bills? Something to prove co-habitance so you can have some sort of foothold?

I'd say you also need to ensure you're getting contact with your kids and this new partner is not detrimental to them...

*hug*

HBS x

RAS

If the Op's name is no on the rental agreement, he has no right to anything other than reasonable notice and that could be 24 hours.

smiler651

Yes call Shelter. You can apply for a Crisis loan to cover the first four weeks rent, if you find a property, although they won't help with the deposit. Get the form from the Jobcentre for this.

Some councils have a scheme to help with deposits so it may be worth checking them out

GrungeMeister

smiler651 wrote: »

Yes call Shelter. You can apply for a Crisis loan to cover the first four weeks rent, if you find a property, although they won't help with the deposit. Get the form from the Jobcentre for this.

Some councils have a scheme to help with deposits so it may be worth checking them out

Crisis Loans for rent in advance are still being taken same day over the telephone. However, in order to qualify, the OP should have the deposit already in place via the council bond ... or paid some other way he can sort out ... and he should be able to provide the DWP staff with the name of the person/organisation paying the depost (plus their contact numbers) and obviously the name, address & telephone number of the landlord.

DWP will contact both the organisation paying the bond AND the landlord to verify the details. That's because so many people have claimed 4 weeks rent in advance via a crisis loan and then never reported any change of address ... they thought they'd found a loophole to screw money out the Social Fund budget by committing fraud.

But DWP now check everything that way, they've given up on trusting people because of the number of people ripping the !!!!.