Discretionary Housing Benefit Payment/Bankruptcy

singingsister

Hi everyone,

My family receives housing and council tax benefit. We recently got a letter that from June our housing benefit would be going down due to the new caps that were brought it. This would mean a difference between the housing benefit we recieve and our rent.

Having to make up the shortfall would mean our SOA will be very close to hitting zero (by a few pence) or going negative each month which obviously we don't want. We don't have an IPA.

I have discovered that we can apply (no guarantee in being accepted) for discretionary housing payment. But I'm not sure where to put about the bankruptcy.

There's two questions that I could answer with our bankruptcy.

"If you had to pay extra to make up the amount of rent and council tax not covered by your benefit, would this cause difficulty to you or members of your family".

OR

"Please tell us about anything else that you feel may help with your claim".

Now the space for the first question is about an inch long and the space for the second one is about 4 inches!

What do you think I should do?

And any suggestions how I should word it?

I also want to put in that we did try to negotiate lower rent when we renewed our tenacy last month but our landlady was only happy to keep the rent as it is for 6 months - with a view to increase in 6 months time (she doesn't know about the bankruptcy - we don't have any rent arrears). So when this increase happens in January - we'll be screwed again! Although we have been very lucky in that our landlady hasn't put our rent up since we moved in August 2009.

Advise and suggestions please.

Singingsister
x

tigerfeet2006

Hmm! debt doctor would probably be the one to help you on this. Might be an idea to PM him and ask him to look at this thread. He is usually around every couple of days or so.

debt_doctor

Hi,

Will be in touch tomorrow.

DD

debt_doctor

Hi,
The application has no relation to BR, there would be no need to mention it. What the council want to know is the potential effect of not giving you the descretionary payment, such as;

It will threaten my family with homelessness due to getting behind with the rent - we have no surplus funds to rely upon.
or...
If we have to attempt to make up the rent shortfall then our housekeeping budget would fall to a unrealistic level and we may not be able to afford our travel to work costs.

Something along those lines

DD

PippaGirl_2

Knowing someone who works for my local council in the office that deals with the discretionary payments, this council at least only offers the payments on a short term time limited basis so given that it might end at some stage and there will be a shortfall it might be worth finding something to rent cheaper. If that is not possible as nothing in that price range is around you can place yourself in the hands of the council to be rehoused. They rent properties from private landlords and rent them out to people in need, the benefits of that is the property is guaranteed to be within the LHA rates and you don't pay deposits or agency fees plus they repair things speedily and well.

singingsister

Hi everyone,

I know bankruptcy has no bearing on it, but would it not be a "reason" why we are struggling with the shortfall?

We can't rent anywhere cheaper as there isn't anywhere in my local area (and we are in contract with our current tenancy).

The council won't rehome us as we fall in the bottom of the priority "list" as we have a home over our head and don't have any arrears in our rent.

I'm not prepared to stop paying rent as I'm not going to risk being homeless with a 2 year old!

There are also a lot more people more needy that need to be on the council housing register than us!

PippaGirl_2

They may well make a discretionary payment until the end of your current tenancy (so less than 6 months) but what I am trying to say is they are unlikely to make extended or more payments than that. You may be seen as at the bottom of the list currently as you are housed but that changes once you cannot afford the rent. Once they know you cannot extend this current tenancy and they agree looking at your finances you cannot afford it (this is likely to be the case with you as you previously had more HB before the cap) they will and indeed have to, take responsibility for finding you somewhere to live that is affordable. That will happen at the end of this tenancy, but give them plenty of notice to find you somewhere. Most local councils as I say rent places from people and then rent them out to you. Private property owners get less rent when renting to the council as it has to be under the LHA but they are guaranteed rent every month even when empty and are guarnateed their property back in the condition it was rented to them as the council maintain it, plus the owners pay no agencies fees so many owners do rent via the council.

So, if you are in a home that is unaffordable and have to leave, you are not 'making yourself homeless' and are not seen as such by the council.

singingsister

PippaGirl wrote: »

They may well make a discretionary payment until the end of your current tenancy (so less than 6 months) but what I am trying to say is they are unlikely to make extended or more payments than that. You may be seen as at the bottom of the list currently as you are housed but that changes once you cannot afford the rent. Once they know you cannot extend this current tenancy and they agree looking at your finances you cannot afford it (this is likely to be the case with you as you previously had more HB before the cap) they will and indeed have to, take responsibility for finding you somewhere to live that is affordable. That will happen at the end of this tenancy, but give them plenty of notice to find you somewhere. Most local councils as I say rent places from people and then rent them out to you. Private property owners get less rent when renting to the council as it has to be under the LHA but they are guaranteed rent every month even when empty and are guarnateed their property back in the condition it was rented to them as the council maintain it, plus the owners pay no agencies fees so many owners do rent via the council.

So, if you are in a home that is unaffordable and have to leave, you are not 'making yourself homeless' and are not seen as such by the council.

What do I need to do to give them notice about wanting/needing the council to find us somewhere?

PippaGirl_2

Contact your local council housing needs team. Say that due to the benefit cap you are unable to afford the shortfall in rent beyond the end of your tenancy (and are in fact placing a claim for discretionary payments for that), tell them the date your tenancy ends and they will give this info to a homelessness officer who will meet with you and inform you of how they work and what will happen.
By law they have to accept you as homeless when you have less than 28 days left where you are, and if you cannot afford the rent due to factors beyond your control then this is not your fault. However most councils accept you as homeless with more than 28 days (I gave them 4 months) as this helps them find you somewhere in your prefered area.

singingsister

Do they have to house you in the area you currently live in? I don't really want to move far as we really like the area we live in.

PippaGirl_2

They don't have to, but they do their best and the longer notice they have the more likely they are to succeed.