Privately rent while receiving housing benefit.

[Deleted User]

There is also the benefit cap coming into play. This doesn't apply if you claim things like working tax credits, DLA, etc (see below).

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/housing_benefit_and_local_housing_allowance/changes_to_housing_benefit/benefit_cap

If she is receiving more than £500 per week in benefits (including council tax benefit and housing benefit etc etc) .., your scheme is going to have another problem. I suspect your proposed £1,300 rent will take the total well over that (that on its own is £300 a week).

Personally, when I was in housing need, I was just SO glad to have a roof over my head, little else mattered. I did the best I could with finding good schools etc.., and I did. I didn't expect the state to pay a higher rent so I could live in a 'good area'.

I can't quite believe people like you exist. No wonder my MP has the belief that the country can't afford people on benefits (we've been exchanging some eye opening emails).

ichidan

deannatrois wrote: »

I can't quite believe people like you exist. No wonder my MP has the belief that the country can't afford people on benefits (we've been exchanging some eye opening emails).

No need to get personal, it's a purely hypothetical discussion. Would you rather I carry out what I'm suggesting before asking whether it is legal? Factoring income tax and rental shortfall, I would be making a net loss just for helping a friend to get into a property and location that non-HB tenants can get. It's hardly immoral, just not legal. Or do you believe that people such as yourself don't deserve full access to the rental market? Essentially I'm trying to hide and cover any perceived risk for a LL to take on a HB tenant. This has nothing to do with stealing tax-payers money, just a case of using that same tax-payers money to pay a private landlord in a nicer area than a private landlord in a poorer area, as the landlord unfairly discriminates based on economic background.

People like me, lets see:

1. I pay many times over what the average working UK citizen pays in taxes.
2. I financially support my parents in everything, minus some pension money they get (that's rent, utility bills, food etc. Keep in mind this is London prices)
3. I financially support my partner & children (that's mortgage, council tax, utility bills, food etc. Again London prices)
4. I financially support another relative.
5. For what its worth, I'm a regular blood donor.
6? I'm trying to get a close friend to live in a nice area, with good state schools, so her and her children can break the downward spiral of generational benefits.

Yes, evil people like me, trying to scheme the system, so that people like you (on benefits) can live in accommodation and locations that people like me have easy access to.

If I were truly evil, I would suggest that all of you people on benefits (5 million UK citizens) be moved to a massive council estate in the cheapest part of the country so that less taxpayers money is spent on Housing Benefit. (which is essentially what the government have been doing). Simple economics, if we took all HB claimants in London and moved them to Manchester, we would certainly save billions of tax payers money annually. This is your MP's true beliefs, I kid you not!

Pixie5740

The DSS hasn't existed for years (except in Northern Ireland) so any advert that says no DSS is pretty meaningless. There are far more than 5 million people in the UK claiming benefits; housing benefit, JSA, ESA, child benefit, tax credits, state pension, pension credits, winter fuel allowance to name but a few. If landlords had a blanket ban on letting to people on benefits there'd be no-one left to rent to.

You say that you want your friend to live somewhere near a good state school but what makes a good state school? I went to a state school in Scotland that is always in the top five schools. Do you know why it's always in the top 5? Most of my peers had tutors to get them through the exams, that's all. Boy did some of them really struggle when they got to university where suddenly they had to think for themselves and manage their own time. My school also looked like it had good sports programmes as well but my athletic achievements were down to the athletics club I was a member of outside school, same goes for pretty much all the other sports teams, our successes had SFA to do with the school.

The most practical way to help your friend would be to offer to act as guarantor. Maybe you could offer to pay for some after school activities for the children since your original plan involved you picking up a shortfall in rent.