Renting after redundancy

auldblerk

I'm a month away from the end of a redundancy period and hope somebody here can give me some information.
I rent a one bedroomed flat through a letting agency and not sure what the procedure is. On the job section here, I asked about jsa and was informed that I have to sign on as they contact housing benefit / council tax people. I'm not expecting help with rent / council tax immediately as I am getting a pay out but how do they calculate when I am eligible for it ?
Cheers.

pmlindyloo

auldblerk wrote: »

I'm a month away from the end of a redundancy period and hope somebody here can give me some information.
I rent a one bedroomed flat through a letting agency and not sure what the procedure is. On the job section here, I asked about jsa and was informed that I have to sign on as they contact housing benefit / council tax people. I'm not expecting help with rent / council tax immediately as I am getting a pay out but how do they calculate when I am eligible for it ?
Cheers.

When you sign on for JSA you will be on contribution based if you have paid NI contributions for the last two tax years. This will last for 6 months then you will be assessed for income based JSA.

Usually, at the same time as applying, you will be asked about your savings.

HB/CT support is means tested (unlike your contribution based JSA) so if you have savings over £16000 then you will not be eligible.

Any savings between £6000 and £16000 will reduce your HB and CT support on a sliding scale.

So, depending on your savings you will need to contact them if your savings reduce to the amount which makes you eligible for HB/CT support.

You can spend your savings on day to day 'normal' living expenses but cannot 'blow' them on extravagant purchases as you would be depriving yourself of income in order to obtain benefits and they would treat you as if you still had it (called notional capital)

Come back if you have any particular questions about this

auldblerk

Thanks for your swift and helpful reply, I have less than £6000 in savings but what I was going to do is use some of the redundancy money to pay outgoings for a year instead of monthly dd i.e. TV Licence etc. Don't have many .. TV, water and House insurance.
Is this wise or not ?
Cheers.

pmlindyloo

Sorry, I didn't explain properly.

Your redundancy money will count as savings.

Not sure why you would want to pay something in advance for a year when you don't have to! TV licence, house insurance, car insurance - all those things which you can pay up front is fine.

The basic 'rule' is you can't engineer it so that you can claim means tested benefits quicker.

auldblerk

Redundancy money will still be less than £6000, the reason I want to pay them off in one go for 12 months is I don't want the worry of the monthly dd's in case something goes wrong but would the 'powers that be' look upon this as extravagant spending and do they project how long it will be before I qualify for housing and council tax help ?
Cheers.

pmlindyloo

auldblerk wrote: »

Redundancy money will still be less than £6000, the reason I want to pay them off in one go for 12 months is I don't want the worry of the monthly dd's in case something goes wrong but would the 'powers that be' look upon this as extravagant spending and do they project how long it will be before I qualify for housing and council tax help ?
Cheers.

If your total savings (including redundancy money) is less than £6000 then you will be entitled to HB and CT support straight away.

Don't worry about spending this money. They are only interested in amounts above £6000!

Just complete the application form for JSA. The DWP will do the rest. They will probably send you some forms to send in to claim HB and CT support and they will notify the council that you are receiving JSA.

(By the way I am assuming that you are single as your partner's income and savings wold be taken into account for HB and CT support.)

hellokitty08

You dont mention your age, dont forget many councils will now only give you a shared room rate if your under 35.

Luckily when this happened to me this year, the council give you 12 weeks full housing benefit, if you had lived in the property for over a year, this is to give you some room to look for a new job. Luck for me I was back to work in two weeks. (I would have got the 1 bed rate for the whole 12 weeks if needed, because i had taken on the private rental when I was able to pay the rent) and im 30.

auldblerk

Thanks and yes, I am single.
Hi hellokitty08, think you were posting whilst I was typing.
I am over 35.
.. and lived in the property for over a year

auldblerk

To be honest, I'd rather be working, don't want to be faffing about with benefits and are applying for all sorts of jobs but not even getting any replies but keep on hoping.
Cheers.

pmlindyloo

auldblerk wrote: »

Thanks and yes, I am single.
Hi hellokitty08, think you were posting whilst I was typing.
I am over 35.
.. and lived in the property for over a year

Actually the rule is that you haven't claimed HB during the previous 52 weeks (same thing almost). If you haven't then they will pay your current rent for a length of time regardless of whether this is more than your local housing allowance (for you, the one bed rate - you can look this up on your local council website)

Hope you find a new job soon.

harrys_dad

You have no idea how long it will take you to get work, so claim what you are entitled to. This will include contribution based JSA and HB and CTB. Post on the benefits board to get help or try looking at http://www.entitledto.co.uk/. If you enter your information it will work out your entitlement.

Keep your redundancy payout as long as you can to tide you over. You will not be able to live on JSA.