Housing Benefit Advice

louisemol

Hi There,
First time on this so be gentle with me.....

Just a quick question really. I am single parent with two children aged 15 and 4. I am currently living at home with my parents (divorced three years ago and had to make myself bankrupt as my lovely ex husband made me take out lots of loans and cards and when I left this violent and controlling marriage I had the debts lumbered on me) Nice Eh?
Anyway I work part time 22 hours per week, earning approx £650 per month. I claim CT and WT credits (approx £600 per month) and pay £248 per month in child care fees. (this will end in September as my son starts school) . I receive Child Benefit too.
I am now saving up to move out so we can have our own home...renting of course privately. A typical 3 bed house I am looking for is about £595 per month rent. Do you think I would be entitled to housing benefit and council tax benefit? If I can't claim these I don't think I will be able to move....
I am so scared about moving and not being able to afford to move.

Any advice would be great.
Louise
:rolleyes:

KylieFan24

Hi,

Do a check on entitledto.com so you can get a bit of an idea or give your local council benefits section a call and they might be able to help, my local council were suprisingly helpful when I asked them for advice! Good Luck!

real1314

Ok, so your weekly income is about £320 inc Chb, Tax credits and wages. About £40 of this can be disregarded, leaving £280

For Hb you'd be regarded as needing a minimum income of approx £165, which means that you have about £115 above this. Income above the minimum is "tapered" at 65% for Hb, so this leaves about £75.

If you had an allowable rent of £100 a week, this would mean that you would get £25 (£100 rent - £75) in HB towards it.

This is based on your situation after september, which is probably the way you should look at it. However it may be that some of your tax credits are for child care costs and the rate will drop when that cost stops.

fuzzgun19

I have a similar question about moving to a private property, but not being able to afford it without housing benefit.

Hub earns minimum wage, and earns about £220 gross per week.
We have 2 children under 16.
The rent would be £450-£550 per month.

I have been on entitledto.com and according to that, we would get nearly all the rent per week paid in housing benefit.

Is entitledto.com a reliable estimate?

We would hate to actually be moved in, then apply for HB, to then be told we can't have as much if any..

The council just say we would have to apply when we were moved in.

lil_me

entitled to is only as accurate as the information given, it's not a guaranteed amount. The best way is to contact the local housing benefit office and apply there, which can be done before you take on the tenancy. The rates are LHA rates now which additionally would have a 'maximum payable' for the type of property you are 'entitled' to.