Re-applying for housing benefit at a rental property

DaffyDuck316

Hi everyone, 

My mother has reached retirement/pension age. She is currently on housing benefit.

I hear when she applies for a pension she will lose her housing benefit and have to re-apply for it.

She is worried that if she does this, there might be a delay, and then she won't be able to pay the rent for the month. She has not mentioned to her landlord she receives housing benefit.

Is this something that we should be concerned about? My mother is delaying claiming her pension for this reason.

Thanks for any response 

huckster

Go to Council and get form to report change of circumstances to advise of pensions when they become due and return form once pension received. The quicker the completed form is received by Council, the less chance of delayed HB being paid.

Spoonie_Turtle

DaffyDuck316 said:

Hi everyone, 

My mother has reached retirement/pension age. She is currently on housing benefit.

I hear when she applies for a pension she will lose her housing benefit and have to re-apply for it.

…

Is this something that we should be concerned about? My mother is delaying claiming her pension for this reason.

Thanks for any response 

This is concerning.  I'm not very familiar with legacy benefits but I would have thought the trigger to change from standard HB to pension age HB would be the fact she's reached pension age, not whether she's actually receiving her state pension.

Can any more knowledgeable members please confirm/correct?

OP what's she living on currently?

Murphybear

Before I retired I was claiming ESA and got full housing benefit.  When I reached retirement age the DWP switched me from ESA to SP seamlessly, I didn’t have to do anything.  I emailed the council to let them know of my change of circumstances and they responded they already knew and I didn’t need to reapply for housing benefit.  

The same happened recently when I was awarded Pension Credit.  They sent me a letter saying they knew about it before I had a chance to contact them.  I don’t ’now if different councils do things differently but ours is pretty good at things like this 

DaffyDuck316

Oh I am interested by your experience Murphy bear, your council sounds on the ball.

My mother's current HB also covers most bills (which seems odd) and I give her £200/month atm