Does anybody know?

rfdebt

Hi all,

We have decided that it will be in our best interest to give up our house and go into rented as it will be much cheaper. Next mortgage payment is due at the end of the week, am writing to ask for a payment holiday for 3 months as advised by the NDL, looks doubtful they'll agree as we've never made an over payment before, but have to try! Have been applying for loads of jobs but no success as yet, I am 52 shortly (wife is 51) so that’s probably not helping! Any future job applications we submit – unless they ask for it, we will be leaving off our age!! Damned annoying, as neither of us is over the hill yet!!!!

We are waiting to go BR, but want to secure employment (or failing that) at least secure a rental property first.

I have two pensions totalling £660 per month (only incomings at present) and have checked with our local council (via their website) to see if I am entitled to housing benefit. As one of my pensions is a war pension, it is disregarded as income, so therefore we could get help.

We can’t claim income support from DWP because they do count a war pension as income, so basically wouldn’t pay us anything as we wouldn’t be entitled.

I am fully aware of the difficulties entailed in obtaining private rental properties, i.e. distinct possibility of needing a guarantor and maybe even 6 months rent in advance. What concerns me is the 6 months rent and the deposit will amount to a significant sum. Has anyone had experience of paying 6 months rent up front and submitting an application to the council for housing benefit?

What I am wondering is: are the council likely to disallow housing benefit for those six months? We would be using most of the cash that we have managed to put aside to pay our mortgage (nearly a grand a month), utility bills, food etc (hence why we’re giving up the house).

Letters (and phone calls/texts to old mobile – which we ignore) are coming thick and fast, two of my creditors have accepted £1 token payments so far (for a short while and will review again). Lloyds TSB ( thought none of them had our landline number, they obviously slipped through the net) phoned our land line once and I told them I won’t discuss it over the telephone, that was two weeks ago and they seem to have got the message! The two worst are Co-Op (Smile) and Capital One, both keep harassing us to phone them. I nearly gave in with the Co-Op who sent a “tele message” by post (never seen one of those before!). My wife insisted that I don’t!! She’s right and also I have been told this by the NDL, so am going to send them a do not harass me letter instead!!!

Any thoughts, advice etc will be gratefully received – as always, thanks in advance.

LesleyL_2

hi, re the housing benefit

my experience with my council was that they did the financial checks by looking at proof of income and checking my bank statements etc
and they asked to see my rent agreement to confirm the monthly rent

they asked if they should pay the benefit to me or to my landlord and have never asked for proof that I actually paid it to him or when
so until someone with more knowledge comes along with any more detail, I would say that your 6 months in advance payment should be safe and not affect your claim at all.

My council applied the benefit from the Monday following my application but there was also an option to backdate although I think that would have involved more forms had it applied to me

hope that helps a little
Lesley

LesleyL_2

bumping this up hoping someone can add some non anecdotal info for you

rfdebt

Hi LesleyL,

Thanks for your message and help, also thanks for bumping my post

betterlatethannever

Hi
i agree with Lesley, i don't think it would be a problem, but if you'd like some more advice why not re-word you post ( maybe just say you have bad credit and need to pay 6 months up front etc) and post it on the benefits board? They tend to know a lot more about HB than us http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=139

Hopefully, later, someone will be around whos had some experience of this.
Good luck

Praxis99

rfbedt, just be sure that if you plan to apply for housing benefit you do so as soon as possible after you start to rent, i.e. it would be worth getting the forms now and filling them in as much as you are able - adding the details re your rental property when you have it. I say this because any benefit you receive will be backdated to your date of application so any delay in their submission may see you losing out on money you may be entitled too (that least is how my local authority operates).

I think it unlikely that you will be able to re-coup any benefits payable on your upfront rental payments in one go (though I am no expert in this regard). A more likely scenario is that you will receive a sum backdated from the date of your application (which can take a number of weeks to process depending on how busy they are and any queries they may come back to with re your application) and thereafter a backdated payment ever 2 or 4 weeks (payable directly to yourself or your landlord).

rfdebt

Hi and thanks for your replies

betterlatethannever: Thanks for your message and advice, I will take a look on the benefits board and maybe post there.

Praxis99: Thanks for your message and advice, I’m not sure, but I think I may have not worded my post too well concerning HB! If I’m reading your reply correctly – concerning “I think it unlikely that you will be able to re-coup any benefits payable on your upfront rental payments in one go”.

No, that’s not what I meant really. I didn’t think I would get the whole 6 months HB award in one go, but wondered if the council would still pay the HB award each month even though I had already paid 6 months upfront. Or whether they would consider that as we had already paid it upfront we wouldn’t be entitled to it (for those six months). Hope you see what I mean!

I apologise if I have got the wrong end of the stick!! I really appreciate your help and others, including those who have answered previous queries on my original thread.