Housing Benefit Question

ruch182

I can't seem to find a straight answer to this, and the calculators are giving me different results.

I'm currently earning 20k per year with no savings and will be shortly moving into a shared accommodation with 3 other people in central London, none of whom claim any type of benefits. The rent is £200 a week with council tax of roughly £75 per month (for myself).

The maximum housing benefit for a single room in this area is £250 per week.

Am I eligible for any housing benefits to pay towards my rent?

enabledebra

This is one way of looking at how a housing benefit/council tax benefit calculation works:

income: in your case weekly take home wages = A

disregarded earnings. in your case £5= B

Needs other than housing/council tax : in your case single person assumed over 25(edit) is £71=C

A-B-C = D (exess income)

D x 65% equals income available to pay rent - E
D x 20% equals income available to pay council tax - F

LHA rate which applies to you find out here:
https://lha-direct.voa.gov.uk/search.aspx

LHA minus E = Housing Benefit
council tax charge minus F = council tax benefit

Can others check if that calculation method has glitches as it's not how I usually do it and I'm not a numbers wiz - but I've tried to adapt it to be user friendly. I'm noticing people are having problems with the calculators and it would be good if we had a pen and paper alternatives to suggest.

ruch182

Thanks for the help. Just a quick note though - I'm 22. Failed to mention that earlier.

enabledebra

under 25 C = £56.25 I'm afraid

bazza5070

no you cant get help..... single person, no dependents and £20,000 per year.

Caz3121

ruch182 wrote: »

The maximum housing benefit for a single room in this area is £250 per week.

Central London is £123.50 for shared accommodation (£250 per week is for one bedroom rate for over 35s)

BigAunty

You can identify the LHA rate for a room in a shared property (applies to single people under 35) on the Direct Gov or local council website. As previously indicated, you have alighted on the wrong rate for your age - you have no entitlement to a 1 bedroom rate.

You can then enter the rate and your income into the Turn2us online benefit calculator to see if you have any entitlement to housing benefit.

The rent that you pay is totally irrelevant to any entitlement - it's based on age and income in your case and the rate is premised on the lowest third of local market rents (i.e. the cheapest 30% of local rent levels, i.e. it doesn't care what landlords charge their tenants).

You net around £1350 per month (approx £311 per week) but have elected to move into a property whose rent and council tax comes to approx £940 per month (£215 per week).

If you don't qualify for HB then you should either cancel your tenancy or work through the MSE website to identify how to make your remaining £96 stretch far, especially since you will also probably have telephone, tv, broadband, water and energy bills to contribute to, then travel, food, clothes and so on.