JSA and house benefit

Chrysalis

He will struggle, the rent in a bedsit is likely to include council tax, it may well also include water rates both of these will be deducted from any housing benefit, in a situation where you pay council tax yourself you could normally cliam council tax benefit but in this situation it will be diffilcult. So hes then left with a situation as the above person says all this plus normal bills will have to be paid out of his jsa. Also its likely he will have to pay his rent whilst waiting for the housing benefit to be processed which could be months, remember rent is paid in advanced and benefit is done in arrears and he needs to pay his own deposit.

jonny0

he wont be there 24 hours a day......he will probably come home to get his clothes washed, eat, ETC

but he will sleep there and spend some time there.

and why would be not get his full rent paid by HB ? and why wouldnt he be able to apply to pay for the council tax ?

dmg24

jonny0,

I think what people are trying to say is that there are many more bills to pay than just the rent and the council tax, and Jobseekers Allowance does not go very far at all. Furthermore, there is likely to be a period of time where his Housing Benefit claim is being assessed, and he will still need to pay his rent during this time. He will also need at least a month's rent to pay a deposit.

The amount of Housing Benefit available is based on what the Rent Officer says is a reasonable rent for a room in your area. This will not necessarily be just your immediate area, and may include areas with much lower rents. Therefore it is possible that you would receive a great deal less in Housing Benefit than your brother actually has to pay.

I would imagine that your brother will get full Council Tax Benefit. However, the only people that can confirm this will be your LA.

Badger_Lady

When I was on Housing Benefit and JSA with my ex-OH (for all of 6 weeks!), the council assessed our flat as worth £450 a month and agreed to pay that amount in benefit.

The fact that I actually had to pay £575 a month, which was a low/medium price for a 1-bed flat in the area, didn't make any difference - the council has their own method of valuation which is completely alien from the housing market.

So, be careful that your brother doesn't end up moving in somewhere for £90 a week when, by the time the council has deducted bills etc and conducted their own valuation, he still has to pay for half of that and is therefore left with very little to live on.

If you can find a private landlord that will accept DHSS (good luck with that one)!