+1 in the household, effect on LHA band

overloaded75

Hi everybody

I am going to explain the full story that leads to the title, as I might be missing something here.

I am a 41 yo single dad who is on income support. I live in a 2 bedroom house (1 normal size, and one single bedroom) with my 30-month old daughter, and have been on Income Support plus HB since 06/15 - I lost my job in 01/2015, and did not apply immediately, then I was forced as my ex dumped my daughter with me 06/2015 and I didn't have a job yet.

I also have a 5-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, on average 2-3 days per week. she comes over to stay for longer when she has school holidays etc.

The housing benefit team has assessed that I qualify for a 2-bedroom housing allowance. My rent is 1000 per month, but I only get 195 per week, so I am basically slowly getting more into debt and have been receiving loans from friends and family to make ends meet.

Now, last Thursday 05/05, a distant relative of mine, son of a cousin, calls me as he is leaving his job abruptly to tell me that he's afraid something is happening with his room on the other side of the city. A flatmate calls him to alert him that his room is open and has been thrashed.
He tells me he had fallen behind with payments on his rent, and had been threatened by a "strong man" of the agency that he "had to go". As soon as he gets home and finds his room in a state I tell him to sit in the living room and call the police. The police arrives, takes statements, forensics etc. And tells him to call again if anything at all happens again.

Evening comes and he starts getting some threatening messages on his mobile, He messages me that he is afraid and gets out of the house. I tell him to go back him and I call the police (he has a very rudimentary English ) But before the police arrives, this "strong man" of the agency gets in the house and starts moving things out of his room. At this point a bit afraid, he packs a couple of suitcases quickly and leaves with his bags for the community hospital close to where he leaves, intending to spend the night there. IT was late and I couldn't get there as I have a small child and we couldn't really afford a cab so distant. Anyway I tell him that he has nothing to fear to go back to check if the police has arrived. He goes back and the police is there, I speak with them on the phone, they get in and they speak with this agency man. But basically the situation wasn't exactly "clean anymore" all his things had been removed from the room, and he continued to be harassed by this person and "only allowed to sleep on the sofa for one night". Come morning, he told me he was packing up and leaving because he was too worried about his welfare in that place. Not having any other place where to go, I told him to come to mine rather than staying at the community hospital reception....

Now he is here, basically sleeping in the open plan kitchen we have.

A corollary of all this is that on the following day, on the friday, he was sacked from his job for having left early the previous day......

So now he's here, jobless and without a place where to go. I am thinking he should go claim immediately, and I have noticed we might now be classified as three bedroom for LHA, as it's 2 adults (we are of the same sex and not a couple) and my 2 year old daughter, without counting my other daugher that was never included anyway.

But before that he should apply for Universal Credit? I went to the application and it asks if he is homeless, to which I didn't really know what to answer. I am okay with him staying here but only if we can get an increase on the housing allowance - for three adults if would now get to 1k per month which would at least help me a bit, otherwise with the additional expenses of him being here it would be too much.

I have read that if we answer that he is homeless/ into temporary accomodation, then he can't apply for Universal Credit?

Would he need to put down a separate application for housing benefit?
Or should I just modify my existing claim?

Or maybe I should just kick him out and ask the council to help him / find him a place as I'm already too overstretched?

If he gets Universal Credit / JSA + the increase in LHA I get it might be just about enough to make us survive at least until he gets a job. I might be getting a job soon myself compatibly with the child rearing responsibilities. Nevertheless it could still be months and I am already very heavily in debt, and if the inflows stay what they are this is just unsustainable, we are going to miss payments on bills or rents and then it's all going to end up MUCH WORSE.

I really don't want to jeopardise our chances of getting help because of some application technicality...
Any advice welcome.

Thanks in advance.
Overloaded75

pmlindyloo

Let's split this up into you and then your friend/cousin.

First of all your predicament.

Check that you are claiming all that you are entitled to so you should be eligible for:

Income Support
Child Benefit
Child Tax credit
Housing Benefit
Council Tax Reduction
Child support (from your child's mother)

Your friend/cousin
He should make a claim for Universal Credit if he is going to be staying with you on a permanent basis (as a lodger/boarder - you provide food for at least breakfast as a boarder - see below)
He may be sanctioned (no money for a number of weeks) if he lost his job through gross misconduct so he needs to check whether his dismissal was lawful and the reasons given for dismissal.
If he is allowed to claim UC then you will need to provide proof that he is your lodger (a letter will do stating the rent) and he can claim housing costs and you will report a change of circumstances and you should be awarded the 3 bed rate of LHA.
I do not know if the fact he does not have a bedroom will not make any difference - I don't think so.

Some of rent he pays you as a lodger/boarder will be deducted from your Income Support. They disregard £20 and then take half of the remainder. This is for a boarder, not a lodger so you need to say he is a boarder.

Plus your bills are likely to be higher and he would need to contribute. How would he do so if he had no/little money?

At the moment he is a visitor so you and he need to make some enquiries re: his job circumstances, whether he will be sanctioned,whether he could afford to stay and pay the bills, whether you are better off or not.

Living with your cousin like this when he has no bedroom could be very difficult so my suggestion would be to help him out (as a visitor) and let him find some alternative accommodation with family/friends. The council will not help him as a single healthy male.

If you are claiming everything you are eligible for then the only alternative for you is to find somewhere cheaper to live, get a job (not easy in your circumstances I know), reduce your expenditure.

If you have not formalised things with your ex then I suggest this is something you need to do asap. If she can 'dump' your child on you like this then I have the feeling that you might be in for a 'bumpy road' ahead which may put you in a difficult situation finance wise and family wise.

PS. Forgot to say, if you decide to let your cousin board with you then you will probably have to ask your landlord for permission - something else to enquire about.

NYM

...

he can claim housing costs and you will report a change of circumstances and you should be awarded the 3 bed rate of LHA....

How does that work? The lodger/boarder claims his housing costs through a claim for UC which he pays over to the OP and the OP also receives an increase in his LHA to that of a 3 bed rate ?

Placitasgirl

Do bear in mind that as well as requesting permission from your landlord for your friend/cousin to stay with you, you will lose your Single Adult Council Tax reduction as you will have to declare that another adult is living in the property.

Please also consider the impact that this arrangement may have on your young daughter. It really isn't practical or sensible having another adult sleeping in your kitchen? As a short term or emergency measure it's pretty drastic, but probably not something that you should be allowing for more than a night or two.

pmlindyloo

NYM wrote: »

...

How does that work? The lodger/boarder claims his housing costs through a claim for UC which he pays over to the OP and the OP also receives an increase in his LHA to that of a 3 bed rate ?

I know it sounds strange but that is how I understand it.

if you put details into the entiteldto benefit calculator having a lodger gives you an extra bedroom. Also lodgers can claim HB/housing costs.

Perhaps I am wrong Where is HousingBenefit Officer?

The only other thing is as the OP's potential boarder/lodger is the son of his cousin then he may be classed as a non dependent????

All sounds very complicated.

NYM

I think I'm better off not needing to know a great deal about HB regulations/UC/Tax Credits... my brain can't cope :rotfl:

I'll just ask questions

xylophone

The cousin sounds vulnerable - should social services be involved?

Ames

I thought you could only get LHA for the size of your property, so even if entitled to the 3 bed rate if you live in a 2 bed you could only get the 2 bed rate.

allison445

Unlike in social housing (where the rules compare the number of rooms allowed with the number you have), in the private rented sector the number of rooms in your house is irrelevant.
For instance, if you have opposite sex children age 11 and 8, the three bedroom rate of Local Housing Allowance (LHA) applies. If you in fact live in a two bedroom house it doesn’t matter – your maximum Housing Benefit is still based on the three bedroom rate of LHA. The idea is that once you know the Local Housing Allowance that applies, you could choose a property with rent due up to that amount, or choose a more expensive property and pay the difference. The number of rooms you actually have does not matter, it is the amount of rent.

overloaded75

NYM wrote: »

...

How does that work? The lodger/boarder claims his housing costs through a claim for UC which he pays over to the OP and the OP also receives an increase in his LHA to that of a 3 bed rate ?

Yes, that was exactly my question when I read it. I don't understand this either.

overloaded75

allison445 wrote: »

Unlike in social housing (where the rules compare the number of rooms allowed with the number you have), in the private rented sector the number of rooms in your house is irrelevant.
For instance, if you have opposite sex children age 11 and 8, the three bedroom rate of Local Housing Allowance (LHA) applies. If you in fact live in a two bedroom house it doesn’t matter – your maximum Housing Benefit is still based on the three bedroom rate of LHA. The idea is that once you know the Local Housing Allowance that applies, you could choose a property with rent due up to that amount, or choose a more expensive property and pay the difference. The number of rooms you actually have does not matter, it is the amount of rent.

Yes this is my understand as well. In fact the 3-bedroom HLA limit is just enough to pay for a 2 bedroom in the area where I live, although I have nothing fancy, a completely "average" 2 bedroom. Incidentally the HLA rates are completely out of of touch with reality.

The only thing that I don't understand is - when I declare a change of circumstances to the housing department of my local authority, how should I "classify" him exactly?
I.e. Is he my "dependent"?
If yes, wouldn't that (i.e. he being my dependent) be incompatible with him claiming Universal Credit independently from me?

I don't really care about him having to pay me a rent, I would be happy with getting an increase in the housing benefit rate, without going in circles with him getting an increased allowance through universal credit, and myself getting a deduction from the income support...... It wasn't "easy" to get this claim in place last year (over 3-4 months loads of delays and mistakes), and with this type of setup god knows what the bureaucratic machine can degenerate into....