Housing Benefit

brovahelpa

Can anyone answer a question for me. Should Housing benefit cover the rise in HA rent. My rent went up £4.77/wk but my bit of HB only rose by £3.60. The rise I had in pensions only left me 20p/wk better off after income tax went up. I thought pensioners were exempt from cuts but I may be wrong.

Housing_Benefit_Officer

brovahelpa wrote: »

Can anyone answer a question for me. Should Housing benefit cover the rise in HA rent. My rent went up £4.77/wk but my bit of HB only rose by £3.60. The rise I had in pensions only left me 20p/wk better off after income tax went up. I thought pensioners were exempt from cuts but I may be wrong.

If you qualify for maximum benefit your Housing Benefit will increase by the same amount as the rise in your Housing Association rent.

However each April the amount the Government says you need to live on increases - sometimes the Government will increase your pension by a larger percentage than the percentage increase in the amount you need to live on - meaning some of your increase reduces your help towards rent and council tax. So the Government give you extra money with one hand and reduces your benefit with the other.

harrys_dad

The tax allowance for pensioners has also been frozen, in order to eliminate the additional allowance they used to get. If you are paying tax presumably you have income other than state pension too, even if it is a fixed amount.

brovahelpa

Thank you for replies. Yes I have a small NHS pension as well as state one. However it really wasn't worth getting coz my tax code went up from 157P to 137P which took up all the increase bar 20p. So with the rent increase etc I'm actually £23 worse off each month and really can't work it out.

trevormax

HA's often have service charges and some of those service charges are not eligible for HB (one example I believe is community alarms in HA properties for the elderly). So although your gross rent went up by £x, you eligible rent might have gone up by £x - £1 (the £1 being the non-eligible service charge)

Housing_Benefit_Officer

brovahelpa wrote: »

Thank you for replies. Yes I have a small NHS pension as well as state one. However it really wasn't worth getting coz my tax code went up from 157P to 137P which took up all the increase bar 20p. So with the rent increase etc I'm actually £23 worse off each month and really can't work it out.

Can you list what income your latest benefit notification lists for you.
What rent figure they hold on your latest rent notification and what you actual rent is.

brovahelpa

My rent went up to £93.97 ( there is a community call alarm at £4.93 but I know thats not included for HB). The housing benefit went up to £45.26. I've not recieved a benefit notification for this year and when I phoned them they said they only send them if there is a significant change. I know the HB amount from the rent increase letter. I get a state pension plus £53 from occupational one.