Will you get paid housing benefit if you pay 6 months in advance?

fox_warrior

Given that you are eligible to claim and receive housing benefit, will you get paid housing benefit if you pay 6 months rental to a private landlord, in advance, rather than the usual one month at a time?

pmlindyloo

fox_warrior wrote: »

Given that you are eligible to claim and receive housing benefit, will you get paid housing benefit if you pay 6 months rental to a private landlord, in advance, rather than the usual one month at a time?

Yes, you will.

3.160 If rent has already been paid for a future period, the claimant
• is regarded as liable to make payments for the duration of the HB claim even though
payment has already been made for some or all of the period and the liability is therefore
discharged, and
• will receive HB for the benefit weeks covered by the advance payment, even though no
actual payments are due in those weeks. An example is when a claimant pays rent monthly
in advance

fox_warrior

pmlindyloo wrote: »

Yes, you will.

3.160 If rent has already been paid for a future period, the claimant
• is regarded as liable to make payments for the duration of the HB claim even though
payment has already been made for some or all of the period and the liability is therefore
discharged, and
• will receive HB for the benefit weeks covered by the advance payment, even though no
actual payments are due in those weeks. An example is when a claimant pays rent monthly
in advance

Thanks for your reply. I'm guessing from the (3.160) your quoting a paragraph from some form of document / rule. I'm interested to read more. If that's the case could you let me know where I can read / find it please?

Housing_Benefit_Officer

fox_warrior wrote: »

Thanks for your reply. I'm guessing from the (3.160) your quoting a paragraph from some form of document / rule. I'm interested to read more. If that's the case could you let me know where I can read / find it please?

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/housing-benefit-information-guidance-and-good-practice-for-local-authority-staff

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/236950/hbgm-a3-liability-to-make-payments.pdf

fox_warrior

Housing_Benefit_Officer wrote: »

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/housing-benefit-information-guidance-and-good-practice-for-local-authority-staff

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/236950/hbgm-a3-liability-to-make-payments.pdf

Thanks very much for the links. They look to be a mine of useful information that I would never have found without your help. I was / am going to ring my local authority to ask and explain further but the offices are closed so I thought I'd post on here as I know there are a lot of people that may be able to give an indication as you both have done. Thanks again for your replies.

RubyChewsday

Hi,

This Happened when my Grandfather sold his home, he paid 6 months rent In advance and my Unle in turn claimed the HB for it. May be an idea to have a chat with the CAB or welfare rights as to the legality of it though just to be on the safe side.

RC

fox_warrior

RubyChewsday wrote: »

Hi,

This Happened when my Grandfather sold his home, he paid 6 months rent In advance and my Unle in turn claimed the HB for it. May be an idea to have a chat with the CAB or welfare rights as to the legality of it though just to be on the safe side.

RC

Thanks RC. I'm going to phone my local housing benefit office tomorrow to find out what they say is allowed and how to go about it if they agree it's ok to rent that way and claim HB.

Housing_Benefit_Officer

fox_warrior wrote: »

Thanks RC. I'm going to phone my local housing benefit office tomorrow to find out what they say is allowed and how to go about it if they agree it's ok to rent that way and claim HB.

They will refer to the Housing Benefit legislation that has been quoted above.

fox_warrior

I've been in touch with my local HB office and they said there's no problem paying 6 months in advance. Given that the HB claim is accepted it will be paid in arrears 4 weekly. It doesn't matter who pays the 6 months rent, that's between the tenant and the landlord/lady. When/if a property is found the prospective tenant can ring the HB office and ask for a "Manual calculation" and get an amount of HB & Council Tax that they will receive before actually going ahead with the tenancy agreement.

Sallynull

Could anyone find any guidence about this regarding the housing element of UC. Is it still ok to pay 6 months in advance and receive housing element?

calcotti

Give that under UC all payments are converted to a monthly figure I see no reason for the housing element not to be included.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/720527/admf3.pdf

Calendar monthly average
F3080 All relevant payments will be taken into account as a calendar monthly amount
F3081 Where any relevant payment is due for a period other than calendar monthly it will be calculated as an average of all payments due in a 12 month period.