Housing benefit and under occupancy

Cate1976

Rules on bedroom size are on Shelter's website. Put overcrowding into the search box, the sizes make interesting reading. On disabled children sharing rooms, I think that if the child has conditions such as Autism and would disturb a sibling/s then they might be allowed seperate bedrooms or could be under old rules.

Back to OP's question, best thing to do would be to write to the Housing Association and ask if the extra room is allowed in their situation. There's lots of things which need sorting out. Housing Federation have them on their website. Google bedroom tax and link is not far down first page that comes up

PippaGirl_2

oh that's a different thing though Cate, that's to do with over crowding rather than a room not being large enough to be considered a bedroom.

Cate1976

Although the rules relate more to overcrowding, they could be important for people such as yourself in houses with very small bedrooms.

BigAunty

Cate1976 wrote: »

Although the rules relate more to overcrowding, they could be important for people such as yourself in houses with very small bedrooms.

I think challenging the housing benefit reduction by claiming that a room is too small to be classed as a bedroom might be grasping at straws.

I'd want to see an actual regulation in benefits rules/laws rather than a plea from a charity to revise overcrowding rules.

There's nothing that I've seen in writing that leads me to believe some HB claimants can simply tell the local council to ignore small bedrooms when it comes to the recalculations that take place next year. "Oh, well I've claimed HB for a 3 bedroom property for x years now but it's really just 2 bedroom anyway..."

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/repairs_and_bad_conditions/home_safety/overcrowding

fluffymovie

I work in Housing Benefits so hope I can help a bit with some of the queries.

Re: 2nd bedroom for a non-resident carer - there doesn't have to be DLA in payment although this helps the LA to make the decision. Have a look here for information which was given to all LA's some time ago, http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/a3-2011.pdf. It has to be regular care needed overnight.

Regarding the square footage, that does not apply in such cases. There is no minimum bedroom size that we need to consider.

The big problem for Social Landlords is that they will be seeing a reduction in their income and will need to recover this from tenants already struggling so they are being really proactive to try to find accommodation that will not attract the 14 and 25% reduction.

With the changes coming in all over the Welfare State, I am worried this is a sign of the dark times coming.

elliegirl

I have heard today that a friend received an email from her HA stating that she will be under occupied as her son cannot be counted as he is over 16, working and can go find a place for himself.

Can this be right. If so I am in trouble as I have 2 daughters living with me, both working and paying an amount to rent as decided by the housing benefit.

Am I supposed to throw them out on the streets?

BigAunty

elliegirl wrote: »

I have heard today that a friend received an email from her HA stating that she will be under occupied as her son cannot be counted as he is over 16, working and can go find a place for himself.

I think this is another misunderstanding or miscommunication.

It has to be an unoccupied room.

All that will happen to her housing benefit, if she is a claimant, is that it will be reduced because her son is no longer a dependent. As a non-dependent who earns an income, he's expected to pay for his keep rather than the taxpayers pay the full rent on her property, for example.

Non-dependent deductions for housing benefit/council tax have taken place for years in both private and social housing - a modest deduction in discounts which the other working occupant is meant to make up by contributing to household expenses.

Her local council website will have a table of non-dependent deductions and her reduction in HB will depend on his income.

So, no, there is no discounting of rooms with occupants in, just a clampdown on genuinely spare rooms but this also means that people who like to have relatives to stay over, or keep their disability equipment in another room, cannot expect to have this funded by the taxpayer.

PippaGirl_2

It used to be a modest deduction from the non dependent child as it used to be capped however the Condems have removed the cap and technically a young adult can pay a considerable amount of the total rent.

My young adult son working minimum wage was asked to pay 60% of the whole rent of this house, and he's in the 5ft by 6ft room! Had his wage been higher he would have been asked to pay more.

And, this is the worst part - whereas with the main benefit claimant the LA only use their take home pay wrt calculations of how much they should pay towards their rent and council tax and therefore how much benefit they receive, so they disregard amounts taken out of the pay packet towards reimbursed business expenses such as mileage paid by work, or student loan deducted from pay so never received - with the young adult non dependents the Government has forgotton to say that these can be disregarded from their wage so a young adult who has mileage and phone call costs reimbursed or loses money from their wages towards a student loan won't have that taken into account and they can be asked to pay more money towards the household rent than they actually receive!

That happened to me as my son drives in four counties daily for his work so his mileage is considerable. I couldn't ask him to pay more than he had so ended up paying the shortfall in rent myself and once my rent/council tax/elec/gas/water was paid I was at -£80 a month before buying food! It was impossible.

The Government needs to sort themselves out and start taking only a non dependent adults take home pay not including reimbursed expenses into account when deciding what they should pay. The citizens advice bureau told me to chuck him out but what parent can do that.

Popperwell

I under occupy the present house I am in but properties around here that you can downsize to are practically nil, those that are smaller are in undesirable parts of the town, well away from the areas you need to visit often.

It will be difficult but if due to my illness and ongoing conditions, I could continue to get the equivalent of DLA(which is being scrapped)and Income support just maybe I could absorb the cost of the Bedroom tax even though that will mean finding approx £25-£30 per week by reducing what I spend somewhere else.

The few properties suitable for a single person really are too small for one person. If I move into a property with a spare bedroom I'd still have to find an extra £13 or I could say that I am only saving £13 by moving.

I have read of people in LA sheltered accomodation who had to take a two bedroom property and have to pay for the second bedroom.

And we all know rents and CT increases every year anyhow...so will the BT charge stay at approx £13 per room or keep creeping up each year?

It will be hard but I don't have TV licence, I eat less than I use to so try to keep food costs down, try to avoid using gadgets that use a lot of power to cook meals if I do have something hot, I try to avoid using the gas CH staying warm by using charity shop jumpers, PJ's, staying under the duvet, wearing thermals etc...don't go out much so I can avoid using taxi's and buses.

So if I could manage even if I really was struggling can I stay put?

Also if I understand correctly from this thread(bet they change the age you get them)from the age of 60 I may entitled to pension credits?

If that is so, really all I have to do is try and hang on in there until I am old enough not to be classed as of working age...as it appears that if I am reading things correctly, BT is not applied to properties of people not classed as working age. Perhaps I'm wrong...and I have read it wrong.

The real trouble is if they apply when you are of retirement age strictly they have put the the retirement age back to 67 so I have approx 12 years to go before they leave me alone.

A lot of people are in for a shock not helped by the way the media has all but ignored this topic and they just seem to like going on about the few thay class as scroungers and give the public at large a wrong impression...

The last post where a son or daughter living with parents is now expected to pay 60% towards the cost of the house is the last straw so even if a house is not under occupied you still have to pay one way or another, it just seems so wrong.

Perhaps a different matter if as a parent you come to an arrangement with your offspring to pay towards the daily cost of living...

So if as our PM suggested 25 year olds should go back home and live with their parents I assume what he's really hoping is that they will be caught up in a similar scenario so what are they gaining by returning to the parental home.

They'll get you every way they can...and usually those who can least afford to pay extra.

PippaGirl_2

Worse still, 100% council tax benefit ends in April 2013, from then on it will be a maximum of 90% so people who are living on just one benefit, say JSA, will have to find and pay for 10% of their annual council tax bill. I'm like you, I get DLA and this will help swallow the shortfall for a while but DLA shouldn't be for that, it should be to help you provide the care you need.