How Do HB Department Know Who Lives With You.

mojos.revenge

zzzLazyDaisy wrote: »

It is entirely up to you what you spend your money on. If you wish to use it to pay for flights for your son, and to keep a bedroom available for him when he comes to visit, that is entirely your choice. But under the new rules, the tax payer will not be subsidising your choices.

It is worth pointing out that this has been the case for private rented accommodation for years - my cousin lost her HB (now LHA) for the second bedroom when her son went to uni aged 18yrs, regardless of the fact that most of his possessions were still there, and he still needed a home during the long vacations. But he was no longer classed as a dependent, and as he was away at uni for most of the year, he was not classed as living there. She needed to continue to provide a home for him, so she went without in order to top up her HB so she could continue to provide a home for him.

Housing benefits for Social housing is just catching up with benefits for private rented accommodation.

Yes I am aware of that, in fact a family member of mine had a similar situation thrust on them. The most ridiculous thing of all is that she moved to a one bedroomed property as she was over housed, but the new flat is in a nicer area, a better flat and she is actually better off. The crunch being the rent for the one bedroom is higher than the two bedroom, as she is still within the financial boundaries the council are actually worse off now as their contribution is higher.
As I was trying to say, by my son staying abroad he is saving the system money as not claiming, if he were to come back, which he may well do at some point, if he can't get work then the benefit system will be shelling out more than the price of a room.
It doesn't make any sense not to be realistic about these sort of things.

missapril75

If your son is on a low income, is it possible the non dep deduction might be a more manageable sum to do without than the bedroom tax penalty?

The only problem then might be the proof of income which could indicate he's actually abroad and not really resident.

Confuseddot

I am slightly confused, are you saying that because he may come back in thefuture you need to keep the room but don't want to pay for it? Depending on howefficient your authority is I suppose will affect the outcome but surely it maybe a bit obvious if you are claiming single person discount but say there aretwo people living there.

You mentioned that he not costing the system anything at the moment but ashe not paying anything towards the system then not entirely sure that helps.

As far as I am aware there no guarantee that he will get any help when hereturns and doesn't find work. Also if he under 35 then he would only beentitled to the shared accommodation housing benefit so not a vast sum of moneyunless I am missing something.