Housing benefit has been reduced to shared accommodation rate, joint tennacy with son, I'm disabled

calcotti

Andreaspage wrote: »

When we first moved into this flat, I was awarded half of our £825 rent and my son the shared room rate. Do you think the above was applied to our initial award? As I'm on middle rate care DLA does that not entitle me to higher housing benefit also?

Thanks for your help.

I had forgotten your son was 28, that information is in your other thread not this one. It does mean the shared room rate would apply to him.

This could be what the local authority did before. It is a mystery why they have changed the basis of the award. Perhaps you could quote this guidance to them. Just wait to see if any of the other posters here disagree with my interpretation.

tboo

Andreaspage wrote: »

Thank you both for your replies.

I have been reading up on this and as Citizens Advice weren't too sure about the rules I thought I'd ask your advice.

I don't think our landlord would make us a new tenancy agreement. He's not accommodating. Then the only route is as you say a DHP

As I'm on middle rate care DLA and need someone with me all the time, could my son be treated as my carer, for LHA calculations, when he is in fact my carer? No - editted info deleted

Could my son stop claiming carers allowance and I would then receive the severe disability premium? As he is getting CA for you he will lose the Income Support and will have to claim another income ie Universal credit

Would I get the severe disability premium if he still lived with me? No as you have a non dependant in the property

As I need overnight care that my son provides, could he be seen in the calculation as my carer? He's receiving carers allowance for you

The two bedroom LHA rate for our area is £149.79.

The decision maker is phoning me tomorrow. Citizens advice told me not to question him just to get everything in writing, but as their information is incorrect, re above post, what would you advise?

Thank you for your help

see the responses in red

tboo

calcotti wrote: »

Thanks to pmlindyloo for the link. That's what I couldn't find when I replied to OP in other thread they started on the same topic.

I think it's worth looking at this:

Joint tenants within the same household
2.100 In some cases joint tenants may be part of the same household but are not treated as members of the same family. For example, the customer may have a non-dependent son or daughter who is a joint tenant but they maintain a common household.
Example
Lee has a partner and two children aged under 10. He is a joint tenant with his mother but they form a single household. They pay £150 a week to rent a three bedroom house and they both claim Housing Benefit (HB).
Under the size criteria the three bedroom LHA rate applies to both Lee and his mother because they form a single household.

I think you and your son should be treated as forming a single household and therefore each permitted the LHA rate for two bedrooms. The local authority will probably then treat you as equally liable for the rent so the eligible rent is the lower of 50% of the actual rent or the LHA two bedroom rate.

The shared household rule won't apply if the other joint tenant is under 35 so the HB awards are correct


It may have been an error on the assessor part and they have now corrected it - but you can still query the award

Andreaspage

tboo wrote: »

see the responses in red

Thank you for your replies.

As I need over night care and in reception of middle rate care DLA, would my son not be classed as my over night carer?

Thanks

tboo

Andreaspage wrote: »

Thank you for your replies.

As I need over night care and in reception of middle rate care DLA, would my son not be classed as my over night carer?

Thanks

If you had the tenancy on your own then your son would be a non dependant with no non dependant deductions - you would then receive the full LHA rate of £149.79 a week (£649.09 a month)

As such there would be no point in classing him as an over night carer.


So as he's a joint tenant he can't be both an overnight carer and a joint tenant at the same time.


You both need to query the awards and ask for a DHP to cover the shortfall - but this may be refused or paid for a short time only, this may give you time to find more affordable accommodation.


You have to think ahead as to what if the landlord puts the rent up?

calcotti

Going off at a tangent. Are you having to pay any Council Tax or are you getting full Council Tax Reduction? Note that because your son is your carer I believe he should be disregarded for Council Tax purposes which means that you are a single adult and are entitled to a 25% reduction on the headline Council Tax bill.

Andreaspage

calcotti wrote: »

Going off at a tangent. Are you having to pay any Council Tax or are you getting full Council Tax Reduction? Note that because your son is your carer I believe he should be disregarded for Council Tax purposes which means that you are a single adult and are entitled to a 25% reduction on the headline Council Tax bill.

We have been only paying for water and sewerage, no council tax. Thank you for this info. I'll bear it in mind if we are now charged some council tax due to me only getting shared bedroom rate now.

It's strange because when we first got our joint tenancy, I phoned housing benefit, their benefits advice shop and did all the calculations on turn2us etc, and they all said the way it's worked out is I get half of our monthly rent in housing benefit. I even had a review last October due to starting to receive some occupational pension. Still received half of our housing benefit.

Thank you for your help. I appreciate your time.

Andreaspage

As I receive ESA in the support group and middle rate DLA, do all the premiums not get taken into account when working out the shared room rate? They did when the lease was in my name only in previous tenancies. I also saw on another borough that if you receive middle rate DLA they automatically give you the one bedroom rate.

I'm interested to know how housing benefit is calculated if anyone has time. I really appreciate your help.

calcotti

Andreaspage wrote: »

I also saw on another borough that if you receive middle rate DLA they automatically give you the one bedroom rate.

I think this only applies to people under 35. If you are over 35 and live in shared accommodation you only get the shared accommodation rate.


I still think my post at #11 is the way forward.

Andreaspage

calcotti wrote: »

I think this only applies to people under 35. If you are over 35 and live in shared accommodation you only get the shared accommodation rate.


I still think my post at #15 is the way forward.

Thank you for your help and time.