Housing Benefit for under 25's being scrapped?

senileturtle

Asking for my sister as she is planning to move out soon, however cannot afford a place without the help of HB. It was mentioned last year that under 25's would have housing benefit scrapped altogether in October once Universal Credit rolls in. Is this still going ahead?

marybelle01

It hasn't yet gone past rhetoric, but if you are under 35 years old you only get the amount due to a single room in a shared house. Nothing more. Your local council website should be able to tell you how much they will pay.

senileturtle

Yeah, it was a maximum of £350 I think for under 35's. Was just a little worried they had gone ahead with the under 25's idea they were talking about last year.

Thanks. Guess will just have to wait and see what October brings.

HappyMJ

senileturtle wrote: »

Asking for my sister as she is planning to move out soon, however cannot afford a place without the help of HB. It was mentioned last year that under 25's would have housing benefit scrapped altogether in October once Universal Credit rolls in. Is this still going ahead?

Maybe...maybe not.....it won't be in October anyway..it's something for later on if at all. If your sister does not have a job or enough income to pay the rent without the help of HB then it's unlikely any landlord will rent to her anyway and if she does get a property she would only get the rent based on the shared rate of housing benefit.

Housing_Benefit_Officer

No changes in the pipeline - yet. Perhaps after the next General Election.

senileturtle

There are those who do rent to those on benefits or with low incomes and some benefits but they seem to be scarce.

PoorCharleyBear

This is the case in Australia- so I am guessing as it seems to work here, the UK will not be far behind in introducing this restriction.

Frxn

I was just having a look at the gov site, intending on moving out myself (finding it extremely depressing being 24 and still living "at home") but I only have part time work with no guaranteed hours.

If you’re single and under 35, you can only get Housing Benefit for bed-sit accommodation or a single room in shared accommodation.

https://www.gov.uk/housing-benefit/eligibility

Best talk to your local council about it though to be certain.

Confuseddot

This may sound like a silly question, but why would you want to move out if you can't afford to do so ? surely the answer would be to get a job that pays you enough to move first ?

oldboy64

Confuseddot wrote: »

This may sound like a silly question, but why would you want to move out if you can't afford to do so ? surely the answer would be to get a job that pays you enough to move first ?

The OP hasn't said that they can't afford to. They can as long as they can claim maximum housing benefit that pays all or most of the rent.

There is no need to be working to fund the rental payments - that is what HB is for - to pay the rent when the claimant can't.

If renting was only for the employed where would you expect the unemployed to live?

Confuseddot

oldboy64 wrote: »

The OP hasn't said that they can't afford to. They can as long as they can claim maximum housing benefit that pays all or most of the rent.

There is no need to be working to fund the rental payments - that is what HB is for - to pay the rent when the claimant can't.

If renting was only for the employed where would you expect the unemployed to live?

From the orginal post the person in question is currently staying somewhere where housing benefit is not required. Why move out until they can pay for it by themselves.

We obviously have different ideas on what afford means, maybe that's why the country is in such a mess.