Housing benefit and rent maths help please :)

diaboliquesaint

Hi all,
I'm having a stupid moment I think so I thought I'd ask for a bit of advice.
I'm trying to work out what our rent should be as I think it is wrong.
Here are the figures and hopefully someone can agree with me or tell me where I'm going wrong.

Rent is 898 per calender month = £10776 per year
Housing benefit is £116.67 per week or £6606.84 per year

So what I've done is take the difference between the two, which is 4169.16 and divided by 12 to get the amount we have to pay to the landlord per month. Am I right in thinking this is the correct way to do it or am I doing something wrong? It just seems very low compared to what we're actually paying.

Thanks!

dodger1

Assuming the LL is being paid the HB direct then you are correct. The extra you need to pay the LL direct is £4169.16 divided by 12 which is £347.43 each month. If it's a private LL normally you would normally receive the benefit (LHA) yourself and pay the full rent direct to the LL.

benefitbaby

However... bear in mind that HB is paid 4-weekly in arrears not monthly. So whilst your sums are correct you should check that the LL as happy to take an overall annual view of things.

Some landlords expect their full monthly amount every month which can be challenging with HB in payment as the date of payment changes every month and some months 2 payments will be made depending on your HB pay day.

diaboliquesaint

Thanks for the advice. I haven't got the exact amounts of what we pay with me at the moment but I think its £483 per month, which does seem a bit too high. I'll double check on monday and contact them to see how they work it out.
Forgot to say, it is private landlord but we requested it to be paid directly so we just have to pay the extra.

diaboliquesaint

Quick update and hopefully someone can advise again?
My partner has just spoken to the secretary for the landlord and she said they work it out as yearly rent divided by 52 so then it is in the same format as housing benefit. But the tenancy agreement and the letters from them clearly say it is £898 per calender month. So I think this is wrong? We've been told that roughly £450 per month goes to rent and the rest to the arrears we have. No actual figure though. I think I'm right in my initial thought that we should only be paying £347 per month. I'm not too sure what to do about it though?

diaboliquesaint

Oops miscalculation, I think we should be paying £392.43
Housing benefit is actually £6066.84

Caz3121

diaboliquesaint wrote: »

Rent is 898 per calender month = £10776 per year
Housing benefit is £116.67 per week or £6606.84 per year

So what I've done is take the difference between the two, which is 4169.16 and divided by 12 to get the amount we have to pay to the landlord per month. Am I right in thinking this is the correct way to do it or am I doing something wrong? It just seems very low compared to what we're actually paying.

Housing benefit of £116.67 per week would equal £6066.84 leaving an annual delta of £4709.16 which is £392.43 per month or £90.56 per week

dodger1

Caz3121 wrote: »

Housing benefit of £116.67 per week would equal £6066.84 leaving an annual delta of £4709.16 which is £392.43 per month or £90.56 per week

Well spotted, don't know how I managed to miss that.