Homeless and on JSA

Froudeez

Hi all,
I hope you can help me. Sorry if it's a mess or confusing my head is just all over the place!! I am going to become homeless in the next 6 weeks. I am 25 and never been through anything like this before and I'm really panicking.

I have recently split with my partner of 5 years, he is moving out over the next few days, leaving me with the house and all the furniture. I had a temporary job but it ended 3 months ago and the only income I have is job seekers allowance. He is leaving me with no money.

Luckily my tenancy contract ends in November so I will only be in 1 month arrears. I can't afford to pay the admin fee my landlord charges to renew the contract and I definitely can't afford to pay the rent and bills by myself.

I have no where else to go, I have 2 family members who are both full. Don't have many friends. I am a hard working, motivated girl and am trying really hard to get back into work.

I have been offered an 'immediately available' council flat, the lady I spoke to says she will need to come to my house and see if I can afford the rent for the flat, which is £112 per week. I only get £73.10 on JSA and she knows this but is still coming round. She doesn't know my whole situation.

Stupid question but where do I go for help?
Is it likely the council can help me to pay the extra cost of the rent?
If I am made homeless, can I still get JSA without a fixed address?
Do I need to tell the job centre anything?
Will I be able to get a loan or any financial help with.moving my furniture or am I best trying to sell everything I own?

Thanks in advance for your help,, any tips of suggestions would be amazing

poppy12345

Do you have any disabilities and do you have any children? I must admit i've never heard of a landlord charging admin fees for renewing a tenancy agreement before and i've privately rented myself for many years.


Firstly you need to check what's in your area, if it's a full Universal Credit area then it's this you'll need to claim and not housing benefit. Check here

http://ucpostcode.entitledto.co.uk/ucdate


If it's a full UC area then you need to claiming this with the housing element part of UC. For this you'll need your tenancy agreement. If you have no children then you'll only be entitled to the 1 bedroom rate of your LHA.



If your area isn't a full UC area then you can claim housing benefit from your local council, tenancy agreement needed also.

calcotti

poppy12345 wrote: »

i've never heard of a landlord charging admin fees for renewing a tenancy agreement before and i've privately rented myself for many years.

Sadly it happens a lot especially if the landlord uses a letting agency.

pmduk

Froudeez wrote: »

I have been offered an 'immediately available' council flat, the lady I spoke to says she will need to come to my house and see if I can afford the rent for the flat, which is £112 per week. I only get £73.10 on JSA and she knows this but is still coming round. She doesn't know my whole situation.

You should be able to get help with the rent for this property, either as housing benefit or universal credit.

I'd tell the jobcentre, they can be very helpful, if nothing else, this is likely to impact on your jobsearch for a while.

Ames

I expect that part of the woman's job when she comes round is to do a benefit check to see if you can afford the rent with any help you'll be entitled to.

What are your job prospects like? If they're good and the council flat is a lower rent than private ones then it will probably leave you better off in the long run.

PasturesNew

Just you, just JSA, you should be able to get:

- help towards your current rent, at the "shared room" rate for your postcode; but, your boyfriend is also liable for the rent legally even though he's moved out, so they might "get you" on that bit and say he should be paying it.

New/council place - should be 100% housing benefit paid to you for that one, so investigate that.

Council tax - you should be able to get most of this paid as benefits. You might have to contribute a couple of quid a week, but benefits pays most of it.

[Deleted User]

Try your council website too, if it’s them that will pay the rent (check as if your area is UC than you would have to apply for that).

Their website often has a calculator that will tell you how much help you would get with HB etc.

parkrunner

PasturesNew wrote: »

Just you, just JSA, you should be able to get:

- help towards your current rent, at the "shared room" rate for your postcode; but, your boyfriend is also liable for the rent legally even though he's moved out, so they might "get you" on that bit and say he should be paying it.

New/council place - should be 100% housing benefit paid to you for that one, so investigate that.

Council tax - you should be able to get most of this paid as benefits. You might have to contribute a couple of quid a week, but benefits pays most of it.

Would't that be at the shared room rate as OP is only 25? Or is that only for private rentals or indeed stopped completely?

poppy12345

parkrunner wrote: »

Would't that be at the shared room rate as OP is only 25? Or is that only for private rentals or indeed stopped completely?

It will be the shared room rate unless the OP receives a disability benefit like DLA or PIP.

poppy12345

Sunny_Intervals wrote: »

Shared accommodation. I used to say shared room too, then I realised it might give folk the wrong impression.


It's different for council housing, though, isn't it?

Haha good point :rotfl:no it's not different for council housing.

Froudeez

Thanks for all the replies so far �� its given me something to think about. And yeah its just me, no kids, no disabilities. Although I have severe depression and attend counselling.