Advice Required on Homelessness

Lady_Inversneckie

Hi Counterfeit,

I work in a one stop shop for my local Council.

The Local Housing Allowance is open to all adults.
The amount that you would be entitled to would be based on your income.
In general terms, if you were on a dwp benefit you would get the maximum Local Housing Allowance for a one bedroom flat/house.
If you are under 35 you would only get the allowance for shared facilities/one bedroom.

[STRIKE]I know it is early days...............
The Housing Benefit officer may allow the Local Housing Allowance for a two bedroom house/flat; if you have an official agreement in place for access to your children.
Three bedrooms would also be considered depending on the sex and age of your children[/STRIKE].

You would need to check the Local Housing Allowance for your area. If you look up your local Council Website, you would hopefully find it there.

I can only speak for the office that I work in but we have homeless officers and homeless prevention officers. The homeless prevention officer would assist to secure a deposit and perhaps a landlord that would accept "benefit tenants".

If you are able to secure the deposit. Establish how much the Local Housing Allowance will pay. Look for a suitable property. If you decide to sign for the property you can then claim Housing/Council Tax Benefit.

A Housing/Council Tax Benefit form should be completed at the earliest conevenience having secured a property.
Along with the completed form, you will need to take proof of ID, proof of address (when received), proof of income and the lease.
All documents must be originals.

Housing Benefit is alway paid in arrears.

Council Tax - you would receive approx 80% benefit if you are on a dwp benefit. You would still have approx 20% to pay and you must take this into account when doing your calculations.

I would also submit a Housing Application form and attached an official agreement that you have access to your children. This will help your application.

If I can help any further please just ask.

Good Luck

Ellejmorgan

counterfeit wrote: »

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.

Not sure if still the same but I was homeless and I was in Leeds I had to go to the housing place on Headrow...
Have they asked you to go to Dewsbury RD one stop center...
There are Mens hostels, and there used to be a mixed one called YWCA in Little London...
Was some time ago though....

BigAunty

Lady_Inversneckie wrote: »

...
The Housing Benefit officer may allow the Local Housing Allowance for a two bedroom house/flat; if you have an official agreement in place for access to your children.
Three bedrooms would also be considered depending on the sex and age of your children.

This will be news to many of the posters here.

We frequently get posts from men with children whose relationship has broken down and they often ask about the LHA rates.

They are always told that they can only have a rate equivalent to a room in a shared property if they are under 35 or a 1 bedroom place if 35 or older, that there's no latitude or discretion whatsoever by the authorities, that only one parent (the one with primary care) can have the LHA rate that includes bedrooms for children, that discretionary housing payment is only a temporary measure.

Lady_Inversneckie

They are always told that they can only have a rate equivalent to a room in a shared property if they are under 35 or a 1 bedroom place if 35 or older, that there's no latitude or discretion whatsoever by the authorities, that only one parent (the one with primary care) can have the LHA rate that includes bedrooms for children, that discretionary housing payment is only a temporary measure.

Hi BigAunty,

I can only speak for the Authority that I work for. I am an advisor for all Council Services, not a Housing Benefit Officer.
I'm happy with what I have advised and have experienced these circumstances in the office where I work.
[STRIKE]I have forgotten to say that the access to the children must be 50/50 shared responsibility in order to allow a higher rate of the Local Housing Allowance/bigger house.[/STRIKE]

BigAunty, I have not mentioned The Discretionary Housing Payment in my post.

Thanks

BigAunty

I'm not criticising your post, Lady I, I'm merely remarking that lots of non-resident parents have always been told that there is absolutely no flexibility in LHA rates to permit them to have an extra bedroom for the children, in which case lots of parents in relationship breakdowns have been repeatedly misinformed on this forum.

We've also never come across any DWP/HB regulations, nor expert advice on housing websites like Shelter that give these parents without primary care of their children any cause for optimism that they will get a higher rate of LHA to allow their children to stay.

We've also had the LHA claimants come onto this forum to say the same thing - that they've been told by their local council that they can only have either a shared room rate or 1 bedroom rate, depending on their age, and have told them to lump it - the children are not a factor if they aren't the primary one.

The 50/50 care thing has never featured as a determining factor, according to advisory posts on this forum - it's about who receives the Child Benefit, according to the posts, (perhaps the address where the child is registered for school?).

As the whole drive is to reduce the housing benefit bill and the housing shortage, I'm surprised about this concession, meaning both parents could receive full HB in the private sector for the childrens rooms at two locations, double counting them and leaving potentially tens, if not hundreds of thousands of rooms, unoccupied for 50% of the time that the tax payer is footing.

(I'm aware that currently social housing is sometimes allocated to a tenant larger than their actual household needs and that the housing benefit is paid in full even if there are unoccupied rooms, this will change next year).

Lady_Inversneckie

Thank you BigAunty, I did not feel criticised.


I have though upon the information you have stated; gone fishing on the internet:)


I'm embarrassed :mad: as I found the rules below;


Housing benefit rules allow:

• One bedroom for each adult or couple as part of the household. This means a couple is expected to need one bedroom and two adults who are not a couple to need two bedrooms.
• A child under the age of 16 is expected to share with another child of the same gender, while children under 10 are expected to share with another child regardless of gender.
• A bedroom for a non-resident carer is allowed where they provide care to a person with a disability.
• If you have extra bedrooms to accommodate children you have access rights to, you will not receive housing benefit to cover the extra bedroom(s) in your home.

I will speak to a Housing Benefit Manager on Monday as I know for a fact - not everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet.


I am sorry for the information I have given with regard to children and housing benefit.

missapril75

Might this just be a case that prior to LHA, LAs could pay HB to cover where a parent had weekend access for example and, maybe, the situation hasn't arisen enough (or at all) at Lady I's office under the new regime for the change (lack of leeway) to have been noticed?

Lady_Inversneckie

Hi Missapril75,

This could be the case. I will certainly raise it on Monday.
I do know from experience with phoning Housing Benefit officers with regard to claims. One officer can have a different answer to another officer. Piggy in the middle!

missapril75

Lady_Inversneckie wrote: »

I do know from experience with phoning Housing Benefit officers with regard to claims. One officer can have a different answer to another officer. Piggy in the middle!

Just like on here then. :rotfl:

LHA is after my time but in my decades dealing with with various benefits I saw loads of changes and quite often people would be doing things that were no longer appropriate if it was a situation that never cropped up that often.:(

counterfeit

Hi all

Thanks for the advice so far. There is no local Shelter office in Leeds (which I find surprising) but it was interesting to read the website to see what I was entitled to.

I spent a large part of yesterday afternoon at the Armley One Stop Centre in Leeds trying to get my situation resolved but all that seems to have happened is that I am now on the list for council accommodation but as I am classed as General Needs I was given an approximate wait time of 4 years. To be honest I was staggered at that but the lack of social housing is a political issue that can be kept for another day.

I was able to get a room at a city centre hotel for £9 for last night and had to borrow the money off my 9 year old daughter.

With regards to finding somewhere I am going to see a few flats today that will accept DSS tenants and don't even want a deposit (which suggests they might not be the flashest flats ever but beggars can't be choosers) but they do want the first month's rent upfront. If on of them is good enough I will have to somehow get the money and I was hoping to get a crisis loan.

I rang Crisis Loans yesterday and found the lady to be thoroughly unhelpful and she seemed most unwilling to give me anything until such time as I had JSA claim on file. I was under the misapprehension that anybody could get a Crisis Loan but it seems not.