Housing Benefit Lower than expected

jane12345

I wonder if anyone could tell me if this is right please.

i have applied for housing benefit but have only been awarded £18 per week which is much lower than i had anticipated.

details;

married couple with one new born child.
Am on maternity allowance.
partner works part time

total combined income £1100 per month.

rent is £695 month, council tax £110 month
2 bedroom flat
Local Houing Allowance is £117
no savings in bank.

Does the awarded amount of £18 weekly sound right?

Many thanks.

Caz3121

does your combined income include your tax credits.

You can run your figures through turn2us site but part of the problem will be that your rent is so much higher than the LHA rate (In the calculattions they will use £507 as the rent figure and even if you had no income that is the maximum that would be payable)

hm71_2

i second using turn2us. although it only gives you a rough amount I found it to be quite accurate for our circumstances, are you in receipt of tax credits?
you can always ask for an explanation if you are not happy but run your information through turn 2 us and maybe that will make things a little clearer.

harrys_dad

Have you applied for Council Tax benefit too? Were you awarded any? As stated above the real problem is that your flat is so much more expensive than the LHA. It is not very sensible to be paying £695 a month from an income of £1100 a month, especially when the LHA is so much lower.

Have you considered finding somewhere cheaper?