Housing benefit help

FloppySock

Hi everyone, I really need some help on housing benefit. Here's my story.

I finished university at the end of June and as I didn't have a job I applied for JSA but for various personal reasons couldn't do this until late July, and they kindly backdated my JSA to the end of June from when I was no longer a student. Along with this I also applied for housing benefit as my student digs ran out at the end of June as well.

I basically paid a lump sum to stay at the student address until the end of August and in this time I was hoping to find a job so I could continue to live in the city. It took me a while to get proof of my tenancy and rent paid cause my landlord was being difficult and only managed to get this information to the housing benefit office mid August, but a few people I know have told me they would basically pay me back for the rent I have paid out myself. I have yet to hear anything from them so far. To complicate matters further I have now had to move back home (totally different part of the country) with my parents for the time being as I can't afford to live by myself. I've notified the housing benefit office of this and asked to have any correspondence sent to my new address.

My father keeps telling me they are still likely to pay back the rent I paid out to stick around while I was on JSA but I don't think they will. Do the housing benefit office backdate any payments and will they even continue with my claim now that i'm not living in their area? I cannot currently contact via phone so am stuck with using email which takes a while to get a reply back from them.

Apologies as what i've written has probably been complicated by my poor writing style! Any help would be appreciated!