Renting a room with utility bills.

catlover57

Hi My son age 37 will be renting a room from a private landlord and all bills (heating, water council tax.....) is inclusive in his rent. I phoned universal credits, and they said when claiming put it down as a 1 bedroom. I then asked will they pay all his rent with the utility bills. He said they will pay the local housing allowance for your area regardless of bills.
Is this correct? as he doesn't want to do anything wrong.

Ajeet

Local housing will have a set amount of funds they will make available. Anything over this amount will need to be topped up. 

I would contact them and get something in writing to cover yourself. 

Newcad

For UC Housing Element in a Private rental he will get the lower of  either:
the actual rent, or.
the 1 bedroom LHA rate for where the flat is located.

In reality that is (almost certainly unless it's a very low all inclusive rent) going to be the LHA rate and he will have to make the rest up from elsewhere.
That's usually from the rest of his UC which is what is meant to cover your bills.

catlover57

Thank you for your quick reply.
I'm trying to get my head around this.
His rent with utility bills and service charge all inclusive is £450 P/M, the LHA in his area is £497 P/M.
So they will pay all his rent of £450 even though bills are included?

Newcad

Additional:

You can find the applicable LHA rate by selecting 1 bedroom and then putting the postcode in here:
https://lha-direct.voa.gov.uk/

That will give a figure for the weekly applicable LHA rate for the postcode, multiply by 52 and divide by 12 to get the UC Housing Element monthly rate.

catlover57

Sorry to copy and paste my previous post as I'm a bit anxious for an answer as you may have missed it.

Thank you for your quick reply.
I'm trying to get my head around this.
His rent with utility bills and service charge all inclusive is £450 P/M, the LHA in his area is £497 P/M.
So will they pay all his rent of £450 even though bills are included?

Newcad

Yes - For a private rental if his applicable LHA rate is higher than the actual rent that he has to pay then UC Housing Element will pay the figure for the actual rent.
In a private rental it does not matter whether that rent includes bills or not.

(If the LHA rate is lower than the rent figure then in a private rental UC Housing Element will only pay the LHA rate).

catlover57

Thank you Newcad 

catlover57

Sorry to come back on this one, but I forgot to mention he shares a kitchen, so is this still treated as a 1 bedroom LHA rate and Uc pay the £450 rent? I was told if he's over 35 it does, but just need to clarify this.

Spoonie_Turtle

catlover57 said:

Sorry to come back on this one, but I forgot to mention he shares a kitchen, so is this still treated as a 1 bedroom LHA rate and Uc pay the £450 rent? I was told if he's over 35 it does, but just need to clarify this.

Doesn't matter what type of property he actually rents, he is entitled to the 1 bedroom rate, so unless the rent he pays is lower that's the rate he will get.

catlover57

Lovely thank you 

Spoonie_Turtle