DSS and renting a house

willhub

Hi.

I find this whole DSS stuff a bit confusing, even after using their calculator.

I'm thinking of rather than waiting to get a job in Manchester, finding somewhere that is ok with DSS, and claiming DSS whilst I find a job which hopefully should not be too long.

If I for example found somewhere to live in Manchester in 2 weeks, and moved in, then using my savings to live, and I contacted the job center and applied for DSS -

How long would it take to get the DSS payments?
Do they get back dated from the day I start to pay rent?
I assume there is a limit, is it around £60 per week, so if I was renting at £90 per week the rest would come out of my pocket?
With DSS comes JSA, do you have to be on JSA to claim DSS?

I'm just trying to weigh up if it's feasible and "safe" for me to do it.

Thanks.

Tigsteroonie

Er .. DSS and rent costs? For a start, benefits for those out of work come from the DWP (Department for Work & Pensions, the DSS hasn't existed for years). And for a second, Housing Benefit (Local Housing Allowance) doesn't come from the DWP but instead from the local council (Manchester).

As regards your specific questions, I'm sure someone will be along shortly with advice. However, it might be worth you trying to speak in person to an advisor at the your local CAB as you seem quite confused about what you could claim and from where.

nannytone_2

DSS stands for Department of Social Security, which was what the DWP was called years ago.

you seem to be talking about Housing benefit, which when paid for a pribate rental is called Local Housing Allowaxne,

you need to find out the relevant LHA rate for the area you want to live in.

you dont need to be claiming other benefits to claim LGA, but savings may affect the amount of LHA you can receive.

anything above 6k will affect it, and above 16 will prevkude you from getting any

skintandscared_2

Depending on your age, you MAY only be entitled to a shared room rate of housing benefit (if you are single and under 35). You also need to make sure that the landlord of the place or room you want to rent will accept HB claimants - a lot don't unfortunately.

BigAunty

Yes, your housing benefit from the council will be back dated from the start of the tenancy agreement, AFAIK.

It can take anywhere from a few weeks to a miserable couple of months for a council to process a HB claim.

They are supposed to honour a request for an interim housing benefit payment if a claimant has not had their full HB claim processed 2 weeks after submitting it (if all the right paperwork has been submitted) but there is anecdotal evidence on here that some councils don't meet this obligation and there's little you can do about it.

There is a limit - Local Housing Allowance - which will depend on your age, if you have any dependents, the location of the property and so on. For example, single people without dependents under the age of 35 can only get the shared property rate (rate that covers a room in a shared property rather than their own 1 bedroom rate).

And yes, if the rent exceeds the LHA, then the claimant must meet it from their existing income but then again, landlords are very reluctant to take on HB claimants and will be more reluctant to grant a tenancy for rent that exceeds their LHA.

LHA is set at the lowest third of local market rents, meaning around 30%, the bottom cheapest third of properties are supposed to be affordable on LHA - this is debatable if they actually calculate this accurately.

Manchester Council website will give you pointers on your LHA entitlements.

lighting_up_the_chalice

BigAunty wrote: »

Yes, your housing benefit from the council will be back dated from the start of the tenancy agreement, AFAIK.

It will run from the Monday AFTER you claim it, unless you can provide good justification for not applying sooner.

willhub

I was calling it DSS because that's what landlords were referring to it as so that's what I thought it was called.

If I could get 50 pounds a week that'd be enough, I've got enough saved to afford rent for a bit as I have a graduate account with overdraft. Why don't a lot of people accept HB?

BigAunty

willhub wrote: »

... Why don't a lot of people accept HB?

Many, many reasons.

Some landlords have rent insurance policies or mortgages that exclude HB claimants.

HB is now usually paid directly to most private tenants - in the past, it could be paid to landlords, now landlords worry that the tenants will spend the HB on things other than their rent.

A tenant can take months to evict, even a non-paying one, and there is a perception that benefit claimants are vulnerable to getting into debt.

If there are rent arrears, a landlord can rarely recoup them back from a benefit claimant compared with a working tenant (you can't get money out of someone who doesn't have it whereas you can get an attachment of earnings or perhaps bailiff for those with means).

Benefit claimants have the reputation of being harder to evict - if a landlord serves notice, they are more likely to apply to the council as homeless and councils routinely tell tenants to ignore the notice and wait until the landlord has taken them to court and gained a possession order. If the tenants move of their own volition, ahead of the court case, the council won't help them whereas other tenants will simply respect the notice period.

Then there's reputational issues - a landlord is not going to be able to tell if a workless tenant is a victim of bad luck because they are unemployed or because the tenant has a chaotic personal life, addictions and so on, and can't hold down a job for those reasons, the type that are also likely to make them a nuisance tenant.

There's probably more reasons than that.

Perhaps you are better off couch or sofa surfing or getting short stay accommodation until you get a job because when you are in work, most tenancies will be available to you whereas a HB claimant might be excluded from 90% of potential accommodation, or you might end up in a crummy place, locked into a 6 month contract with a slum landlord who only accepts HB claimants because no one else is desperate enough to live there.

wayne0

BigAunty wrote: »

Yes, your housing benefit from the council will be back dated from the start of the tenancy agreement, AFAIK.
.

only if you can show just cause not for claiming it.. (IE: ESA you believed you would get SSP from work, but failed to qualify or w.e)

also, you can only claim HB on one property at a time... (i got a £40 overpayment in HB for one day when my tenancy overlapped on two properties some years back.

as soon as you know the move in date, notify the council that you will be moving into xxx on xxxx date. and would like to claim HB and CTB from this date... (complete claim form at the same time, with a covering letter, stating you are moving in hopes of increasing employment chances or w/e

BigAunty

wayne0 wrote: »

...

also, you can only claim HB on one property at a time... (i got a £40 overpayment in HB for one day when my tenancy overlapped on two properties some years back.

...

It is possible to claim HB for two properties for up to a month's overlap - here's the info on this

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/housing_benefit_and_local_housing_allowance/change_of_circumstances_affecting_housing_benefit/housing_benefit_for_two_homes