Will I automatically fail the council affordability check?

stupidaspie

I'm on JSA and currently live with my mum but have applied for social housing. Can they do an affordability check based on my current benefits, without me failing because it doesn't cover/include housing costs? I know I could claim UC for the temporary increase but I don't want to until I have to (when I'm offered a property, assuming that I will be).

Caz3121

are you currently bidding on properties, are you a high priority? waiting lists in many areas are many years long and you may well be working by the time you get something offered

stupidaspie

I've only bid on two properties in nearly five months after applying, and I'm in band 3 of 6. I'm in the top 5 for most properties in my chosen Local Authority.

tinytiddles

I work for a housing association; when we do an affordability check where someone has a low income, we would ask the applicant how they would intend to pay the rent and if it is Universal Credit we would run a quick calculation to check entitlement and then use your bank statement info to check your other income and outgoings are sufficient to pay the other bills and commitments plus have an element of disposable income left at the end so you can also have a life.

I would advise that you also “up” your bidding and make sure you do it each week - some local authorities remove non-bidding applicants off the housing register and then you would have to go through the whole application and banding rigmarole again.

Good luck!

stupidaspie

tinytiddles said:

I work for a housing association; when we do an affordability check where someone has a low income, we would ask the applicant how they would intend to pay the rent and if it is Universal Credit we would run a quick calculation to check entitlement and then use your bank statement info to check your other income and outgoings are sufficient to pay the other bills and commitments plus have an element of disposable income left at the end so you can also have a life.

I would advise that you also “up” your bidding and make sure you do it each week - some local authorities remove non-bidding applicants off the housing register and then you would have to go through the whole application and banding rigmarole again.

Good luck!

Thanks for this. I have debts on an overdraft and a credit card from when I was a student but I'm on reduced repayment plans for them - the bank has been talking about selling the debt to a third party since the start of the year, but it doesn't seem to have happened. Could this be a problem?

I think my council only takes you off the register if you don't place any bids for 12 months.

[Deleted User]

Check this, if you have certain areas you don't want to live in and aren't that desperate.  I know when I was homeless the council would place bids for you after a year. automatically.  But I found if the property was in a really iffy area (and I do mean really iffy) I could go in the night before bids closed and cancel the bids in really bad areas. 

 I still placed bids every week though, we were desperate but I knew there were one or two areas that would have been impossible to live in with any degree of safety.  There will also come a time when your application will be assessed and if a housing officer sees a lack lustre bidding approach, they will be less disposed to help you.  There are still properties that don't appear on the bidding lists they offer to prospective tenants in need to get them off their housing lists.  But it is a gamble, sometime these properties aren't the bargain they seem to be.., but it is somewhere to live.