Discretionary Housing Payment query

DesperateSpock

Apologies if this has been covered/asked before but I have spent days online looking for advice and couldn't find any so have registered here to ask if anyone knows how long the backlog currently is for discretionary housing payments.

I'm 42 with a history of mental health problems. I have a masters degree and have always worked but about 18months ago I had a complete nervous & mental collapse and lost my career, my home, my fianc!, my whole life.

I have no surviving family and, due in part to my issues, have never had any friends or any sort of social circle.

Anyway, I moved into shared accommodation a year ago and have been living off my life savings. It was my psychiatrist who pushed me to apply for benefits when she realised I had run out of money and have no income whatsoever - so for the last 3 or 4 months I have been receiving housing benefit and ESA.

There is a shortfall of nearly £100 per month between my rent and the housing benefit I receive and have built up arrears. As of 10 days ago I owe my landlord 2 months rent. I have sold everything of value that I own and am losing weight at an alarming rate. I applied for DHP online exactly a week ago.

Is there any other help I can apply for?
Is it likely or unlikely they will award me DHP?
but most importantly, how long are they currently taking to process DHP applications?

Any help would be appreciated as I am losing my marbles further as the stress, worry and panic pushes me deeper.

tomtontom

Are you behind two full months rent or just the £200?

Do you receive DLA or PIP?

pmlindyloo

DesperateSpock wrote: »

Apologies if this has been covered/asked before but I have spent days online looking for advice and couldn't find any so have registered here to ask if anyone knows how long the backlog currently is for discretionary housing payments.

I'm 42 with a history of mental health problems. I have a masters degree and have always worked but about 18months ago I had a complete nervous & mental collapse and lost my career, my home, my fianc!, my whole life.

I have no surviving family and, due in part to my issues, have never had any friends or any sort of social circle.

Anyway, I moved into shared accommodation a year ago and have been living off my life savings. It was my psychiatrist who pushed me to apply for benefits when she realised I had run out of money and have no income whatsoever - so for the last 3 or 4 months I have been receiving housing benefit and ESA.

There is a shortfall of nearly £100 per month between my rent and the housing benefit I receive and have built up arrears. As of 10 days ago I owe my landlord 2 months rent. I have sold everything of value that I own and am losing weight at an alarming rate. I applied for DHP online exactly a week ago.

Is there any other help I can apply for?
Is it likely or unlikely they will award me DHP?
but most importantly, how long are they currently taking to process DHP applications?

Any help would be appreciated as I am losing my marbles further as the stress, worry and panic pushes me deeper.

When you applied for housing benefit you should have been eligible for the 13 week protection. This is when you have not claimed HB for the proceeding 52 weeks and could afford the tenancy when you took it on.

http://www.entitledto.co.uk/help/DateOfTenancy.aspx

From what you have said they should have considered this when you applied.

Do you fit that criteria?

Under this you should have received your full rent for 13 weeks.

I can not tell you how long a Discretionary Housing Payment will take as it varies from council to council.

I would take your bank statements, ESA award letter and tenancy agreement to the council and ask them why you were not considered for the 13 week protection rule and if it can be backdated. Now I do not know whether they will allow this but you could give good reason for not having asked previously as you suffer from mental health problems.

The 13 week protection period is to allow you to find new accommodation or sort yourself out financially.

As you are over 35 you are actually entitled to the local housing allowance rate for a one bed place. You can look up the amount on your local council website. Would renting a one bed place be feasible? Even though you are entitled to the one bed rate the fact that you are living in shared accommodation means that you would only be entitled to the shared accommodation rate.

Speak to the council about all this and see what housing advice they can give you.

As regards your rent arrears is your landlord understanding and knows you are seeking extra financial help?

Housing_Benefit_Officer

There is no guarantee you will get DHP, If awarded there is no guarantee how much you will be awarded or for what length of time as DHP is considered a short term solution for you to either re arrange your finances or move out to cheaper accommodation. DHP won't be awarded year after year - it is normally a one off for a set period perhaps a few weeks or months or 6 months. Your claim could take days or weeks or months depending on your Local Authorities backlogs.

DesperateSpock

Many thanks for the replies.

Sorry, it looks like I've missed out a bit of information.

My landlord is actually a really nice guy and has been incredibly understanding. He did allow me to build up arrears after all. He is not really applying much pressure, he is concerned about his rent but all the pressure is being applied by myself onto myself.

I know this sounds utterly pathetic and I can't explain why but after the breakdown everything is a bit of a blur. I buried my head and hid from life. I remember much of what has happened in the last 18 months but not all the details or indeed the order in which events happened.

I didn't go to see my GP when it first happened as I just wasn't functioning. My ex just nagged about my financial situation and daily questioning about me looking for a new job, which pushed me further into my shell. After a few months of me being a crying, pathetic sofa-slug she suggested we needed some distance and that I should temporarily move into shared accommodation so we could "rediscover our love and date again". The night I moved out she texted me saying it was over. It was a very long-term relationship and this destroyed me.

I've come close to suicide many times but on one occasion I decided to try and fix myself so made an emergency appointment at the local doctors surgery. Prior to this I hadn't been to see my GP for a while and was now in a different catchment area. This doctor referred me to the psychiatrist I have been seeing since.

I started my claim roughly 4 months ago and at that point they did actually backdate it. I received £1,300, some of which was swallowed up by me being over my overdraft (+fees) for quite some time as well as getting my rent up to date.

Since then I have been getting approx £70p/w ESA and £400p/m HB. My rent is £500p/m. I struggle to live on £70p/w so have been unable to ever make up the monthly shortfall of £100.

My rent falls due on the 1st whilst I receive HB on the 17th or thereabouts. Right now I owe £900 (this months rent of £500 and £400 worth of built-up arrears). I will get £400 HB on the 17th but as you can see I'm trapped in a cycle whereby I can't get my nose out in front, I'm just falling further and further behind.

Going forward I can't carry on like this so any DHP would have to be short-term help. Just the reality of being 'broken' and having no purpose is soul destroying. I need a job or a reason to wake up every day because even with psychiatric help I feel myself getting more and more isolated and odd the more I'm trapped in a moneyless and purposeless existence. I would also be more than happy to move somewhere cheaper (close enough for me to still see my psychiatrist - it's often a very hard and lengthy process getting one on the NHS so I can't walk away from that)

DesperateSpock

One other thing, I know this might sound incredibly weird or even disturbing to some people but the depths of my breakdown occurred at work.

I'd been fighting these issues and feelings for years but one day I just snapped - the reality of me wasting my finite time in a job I hated for a boss who hated me, as well as some much deeper and darker existential stuff which I don't think I'll ever be able to reconcile, resulted in me running around the office in a blind panic screaming my head off in the most unreal panic and terror I can describe. I told my boss what I thought of him and the way he treats people, told him I quit and ran as fast as I could out the office to the train station and then didn't even tell my ex what had happened for about 2 weeks.

Hence I, quite obviously, subsequently received no sick pay or support/advice from work.

Horseunderwater

Have you contacted the MIND charity - http://www.mind.org.uk/
& shelter for housing help - http://www.shelter.org.uk/ - might know of other help you could get.