Will we be "intentionally homeless"?

mark86

My partner, myself and my 16 month old are currently in a private rent 2 bed flat, we've been here a year now, and have now been allowed to move our contract onto a month to month rolling contract.

But ever since we took the flat, and more so the past 6 months, we have been living beyond our means (£500 rent and £200 council tax is a pain for 2 parents that work part time) we've got more money going out that coming in and our OD is slowly reaching it's limit.

The last month and next month are a little better due to no council tax. But it's safe to say if we had to pay council tax, our Overdraft limit would of been hit and would have no money at all, so we're always in our OD.

We've decided that we need out now and are thinking of giving our month notice in and moving back in with my partners mother, as it's the only option we have (Private 2 bed flats in my area are £450-£500 minimum, we can't afford move into another.) Her mother and her sister live in their 2 bed council flat and we'd essentially be moving into her living room.

After moving back into her mothers would we be able to claim homelessness on these grounds? Or would this be "intentionally homeless" ? We haven't got any arrears, our rent and council tax is paid, but if we don't move out then in a few months time that would be a different story. We are simply moving out before it's too late, or do councils rather you were completely screwed before helping?

Edit: We live in Glasgow, Scotland.

MamaMoo_2

mark86 wrote: »

My partner, myself and my 16 month old are currently in a private rent 2 bed flat, we've been here a year now, and have now been allowed to move our contract onto a month to month rolling contract.

But ever since we took the flat, and more so the past 6 months, we have been living beyond our means (£500 rent and £200 council tax is a pain for 2 parents that work part time) we've got more money going out that coming in and our OD is slowly reaching it's limit.

The last month and next month are a little better due to no council tax. But it's safe to say if we had to pay council tax, our Overdraft limit would of been hit and would have no money at all, so we're always in our OD.

We've decided that we need out now and are thinking of giving our month notice in and moving back in with my partners mother, as it's the only option we have (Private 2 bed flats in my area are £450-£500 minimum, we can't afford move into another.) Her mother and her sister live in their 2 bed council flat and we'd essentially be moving into her living room.

After moving back into her mothers would we be able to claim homelessness on these grounds? Or would this be "intentionally homeless" ? We haven't got any arrears, our rent and council tax is paid, but if we don't move out then in a few months time that would be a different story. We are simply moving out before it's too late, or do councils rather you were completely screwed before helping?

Edit: We live in Glasgow, Scotland.

IME the council tend to wait until you're completely screwed. Ie arrears and a section 21 issued, before they help. Then you have to prove the arrears aren't your fault (ie for taking a house you knew you couldn't afford)
Have you had a look at the Entitledto website to see if you are entitled to any LHA or council tax benefit? We were, but didn't know for a long time, and during the entire homeless application nobody at the council even mentioned benefits. If they had, we'd have easily been able to stay where we were!

HappyMJ

mark86 wrote: »

My partner, myself and my 16 month old are currently in a private rent 2 bed flat, we've been here a year now, and have now been allowed to move our contract onto a month to month rolling contract.

But ever since we took the flat, and more so the past 6 months, we have been living beyond our means (£500 rent and £200 council tax is a pain for 2 parents that work part time) we've got more money going out that coming in and our OD is slowly reaching it's limit.

The last month and next month are a little better due to no council tax. But it's safe to say if we had to pay council tax, our Overdraft limit would of been hit and would have no money at all, so we're always in our OD.

We've decided that we need out now and are thinking of giving our month notice in and moving back in with my partners mother, as it's the only option we have (Private 2 bed flats in my area are £450-£500 minimum, we can't afford move into another.) Her mother and her sister live in their 2 bed council flat and we'd essentially be moving into her living room.

After moving back into her mothers would we be able to claim homelessness on these grounds? Or would this be "intentionally homeless" ? We haven't got any arrears, our rent and council tax is paid, but if we don't move out then in a few months time that would be a different story. We are simply moving out before it's too late, or do councils rather you were completely screwed before helping?

Edit: We live in Glasgow, Scotland.

Do you claim housing benefit at the moment?

On low income you should be entitled to some help with the rent and maybe some help with the council tax.

How much income do you have exactly? You should be left with (after tax, national insurance and the rent and council tax has been paid) the same if not more than someone who is not working at all....i.e about £200 a week.

If your rent is higher than your LHA rate then consider moving somewhere cheaper at or under the LHA rate for your area.

You can apply for social housing whilst having a rental property...it's just you won't be very high on the list and could be waiting years.

mark86

At the moment we are only entitled to the basic £80 Child Benefit a month, and About £100 Child tax credit a month.

But we did a credit calculator on the government website (think it was the gov website, not the actual hmrc one though) a few weeks and by the end of it, it said we were entitled to something like £60 a week child tax credit and £90 a week working tax credits. Based on our current income.

So a big difference in what we get now.. But we can't do anything about it until the renewal, which is like 6 months away.

cockaleekee

Has your income changed substantially this (financial) year? If so you should advise HMRC - they may be able to do an in year calculation.

mark86

I earn around £680 4 weekly after tax and NA, my partner, around £240 a week after tax and NA.

We aren't entitled to housing benefit, is LHA the same thing? I havent heard of that.

GlasweJen

Go onto the Glasgow.gov Council tax benefit calculator. It will work through some questions and if you're entitled it will lead you through the application for CTB and LHA.

mark86

We already advised them that our income would change last year, and they changed it, before we got the £107 child tax credit we got £40 a month.. But then the law's changed and we were even not entitled to that.

That's why we had to phone them to give them estimates. I think they may have over estimated me by a few thousand though.

Oct 2011 after my girl was born we got £40 a month Child tax credit, then around Jan or Feb 2012 the payment stopped and they said we weren't entitled to it. We never got any tax credit help until the renewal pack came in the summer. Then we had to essentially put our previous year p60 details in, the ones we had before our daughter was even born and which was both of us working full time.

They said we couldn't do anything until after we filled the form out and then phoned to say our incomes had changed. So we did, then gave the "estimate" for this year. which led to the £107 a month we have now.

cockaleekee

mark86 wrote: »

I earn around £680 4 weekly after tax and NA, my partner, around £240 a week after tax and NA.

We aren't entitled to housing benefit, is LHA the same thing? I havent heard of that.

That's £1640 every four weeks, plus £180 in child benefits. That leaves you with £1120 disposable income after rent and CT, which should be more than enough. I would suggest posting a Statement of Affairs on the Debtfree Wannabe board so they can help you manage your outgoings.

mark86

cockaleekee wrote: »

That's £1640 every four weeks, plus £180 in child benefits. That leaves you with £1120 disposable income after rent and CT, which should be more than enough. I would suggest posting a Statement of Affairs on the Debtfree Wannabe board so they can help you manage your outgoings.

Keep in mind we need to take off Travel expenses to get to work, bus tickets, Car insurance, petrol, gas & electric bill, phone bill, food bill, nappies, wipes, a tonne of soya milk (Our daughter is lactose intolerant) Not to mention clothes.

That's on a good month.

Also my partner doesn't get sick days, so if she has to take a day off due to ill health or if we have hospital appointments for our girl, she loses a days pay.

cockaleekee

mark86 wrote: »

Keep in mind we need to take off Travel expenses to get to work, bus tickets, Car insurance, petrol, gas & electric bill, phone bill, food bill, nappies, wipes, a tonne of soya milk (Our daughter is lactose intolerant) Not to mention clothes.

That's on a good month.

Also my partner doesn't get sick days, so if she has to take a day off due to ill health or if we have hospital appointments for our girl, she loses a days pay.

Yes, the normal day to day living costs we all have. £1120 is a healthy income, you need to look at where you can make cuts, hence my suggestion to post your SoA.