Housing benefit and pre-determination

BlueCat_2

Hope someone can give me some advice or guidance. My marriage has broken down completely and I'm looking to move to a rented house locally with my two children (They are not my husband's - from a previous marriage - and the house we live in is his so I don't feel I want to throw him out).

I'm self employed - I run a local magazine - but don't earn much and according to the entitledto website I should be able to claim full HB.

I've collected the forms from the council but they couldn't give me any idea of how much would be judged a fair rent for a three bed house in my area - there are three houses I'm going to view priced at £750, £825 and £900 a month - do I just go for the cheapest, or is there any way of guesstimating how much they will judge is fair?

Can anyone give me any guidance please?

mitchaa

How old are your children?

What area do you live in.

I very much doubt 3bed house LHA will cover even the lowest of your estimates of £750pm

BlueCat_2

My children are 10 and 13 - one girl, one boy so I need a 3 bed house.

I used to claim housing benefit in Hampshire a few years ago and they judged £650 for a two bed house to be fair. I'm now in south Oxfordshire - and the £750 is absolutely the lowest rent I have seen!

real1314

Unless you're going to move within the next 14 days, it will be looked at under the new Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rules. The allowable rents for LHA should be available on the internet, probably via the rent service website, in the meantime you could have a look at the figures here as a guideline:

http://www.therentservice.gov.uk/corporate-publications/local-reference-rents/local-reference-rents-31December2007.asp#R

dmg24

BlueCat wrote: »

My children are 10 and 13 - one girl, one boy so I need a 3 bed house.

I used to claim housing benefit in Hampshire a few years ago and they judged £650 for a two bed house to be fair. I'm now in south Oxfordshire - and the £750 is absolutely the lowest rent I have seen!

It might be worth giving your local Rent Service a call, and just make an informal enquiry as to how much you might get (they may be able to tell you the LHA figure by now).

A quick look at the Local Reference Rents (used to determine HB) would show that a family entitled to four rooms (three beds plus a living room) in Oxford would be entitled to up to £213.46 per week, so your potential rents may not be excessive.

BlueCat_2

Thanks for the advice - I was in my local council info place yesterday and they gave me HB and pre-determination forms and didn't mention the new scheme - now I'm wondering if I'd be better off hanging on to get LHA instead of HB.

Phoned the council now and they are completely clueless about it - they said that I would still be applying for HB (whereas my understanding is that LHA will replace HB for private rentals) and they are unable to give me any idea at all about where the bandings will be set as they don't yet have that info themselves yet!!

I've also called the Rent Office and they say that the current HB setting for Oxford, which was the £213.46 you mentioned, dmg24, does include the area I live in (about 15 miles south of Oxford) which would mean I could possibly rent somewhere up to about £925 - which makes me feel a lot happier as i know i can move now

Thanks everyone!

BlueCat_2

Having said all that, I've just looked at their annual report which puts me in a different area with a weekly rent of £157 - so a monthly rent of less than £700 ..... maybe this won't be so easy after all

real1314

LHA kicks in on 7th April, but I think the allowed rent figures will run from 1st of the month and be updated monthly, so they might be available next Tues.

There's no point delaying your claim though, as if you end up better off under the old HB scheme, you don't get it knocked down to LHA levels from 7th Apr. However I'd assume you're unlikely to be moving within 14 days anyway?

BlueCat_2

Not moving, no .... I've got a couple of places booked in to view but that won't be till next week.

Marmiter

dmg24 wrote: »

A quick look at the Local Reference Rents (used to determine HB) would show that a family entitled to four rooms (three beds plus a living room) in Oxford would be entitled to up to £213.46 per week, so your potential rents may not be excessive.

Living rooms are ignored now for the purpose of HB.
It is now calculated on how many bedrooms the CL needs, so in OPs case 1 bedroom for her and 1 for each of her children.
In portsmouth LHA area, that means £169.62 per week.

dmg24

rachyerbs wrote: »

Living rooms are ignored now for the purpose of HB.
It is now calculated on how many bedrooms the CL needs, so in OPs case 1 bedroom for her and 1 for each of her children.
In portsmouth LHA area, that means £169.62 per week.

My information is taken directly from the Rent Service website. Therefore if the terminology has changed, the figures are still accurate for the OP's size of family.