Housing Benefit LHA Rate question
TRaven
Posts: 44 Forumite
Can somebody advise what constitutes a household for the purposes of LHA/Housing Benefit.
I am joint tenant with my brother in a three bed/two reception flat. We took two rooms each and share the third as a joint lounge. Since the place is in the middle of a noisy town centre the rent is about the same as a smaller property further out.
My brother is a carer for my mother who lives a few properties away.I am on ESA following a mental breakdown 4 years ago. We are both over 36 and single, no kids.
In 2017 we moved to out current flat where we signed the tenancy as joint tenants.
My question is for Housing Benefit/LHA purposes should we each be entitled to the Shared Room Rate or should we be entitled to the Bedroom Room Rate?
I believed that since we were related and living as family we would be regards as a household and therefore entitled to the 1 Bedroom Rate.
Am I wrong in this?
I am joint tenant with my brother in a three bed/two reception flat. We took two rooms each and share the third as a joint lounge. Since the place is in the middle of a noisy town centre the rent is about the same as a smaller property further out.
My brother is a carer for my mother who lives a few properties away.I am on ESA following a mental breakdown 4 years ago. We are both over 36 and single, no kids.
In 2017 we moved to out current flat where we signed the tenancy as joint tenants.
My question is for Housing Benefit/LHA purposes should we each be entitled to the Shared Room Rate or should we be entitled to the Bedroom Room Rate?
I believed that since we were related and living as family we would be regards as a household and therefore entitled to the 1 Bedroom Rate.
Am I wrong in this?
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Comments
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Single room rate isn!!!8217;t a thing. Do you mean one bedroom rate?
What is your rent and what are the HB rates for your area. Do you like an a UNiversal Credit area0 -
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Can somebody advise what constitutes a household for the purposes of LHA/Housing Benefit.
I am joint tenant with my brother in a three bed/two reception flat. We took two rooms each and share the third as a joint lounge. Since the place is in the middle of a noisy town centre the rent is about the same as a smaller property further out.
My brother is a carer for my mother who lives a few properties away.I am on ESA following a mental breakdown 4 years ago. We are both over 36 and single, no kids.
In 2017 we moved to out current flat where we signed the tenancy as joint tenants.
My question is for Housing Benefit/LHA purposes should we each be entitled to the Shared Room Rate or should we be entitled to the Bedroom Room Rate?
I believed that since we were related and living as family we would be regards as a household and therefore entitled to the 1 Bedroom Rate.
Am I wrong in this?]My mistake there. I meant 1 bedroom rate but have been typing shared room rate so many times today my thoughts went a little off.
The rent is £670 pcm we are each responsible for 50% so my share of rent would be £335
The 1 bedroom rate is £98 in this area
The shared room rate is £67 in this area
Wondering which rate it should be more than the actual amount.
and
Just to add the reason for this question is that there has been a dispute with my council about the rate of LHA I should receive. They say it is the shared room rate, I believe it should be the one bedroom rate.
According to the letter they sent me today the reason that I am entitled to the shared room rate is because I cannot live within the household without the help of my brother, which I strongly disagree with. They have taken my explanation of how I first came to live with my brother before we moved and I signed with him as a joint tenant and applied it to the current situation.
They also state that this is proven because my ESA is paid to his account and my rent is paid from the account.
You are entitled to the 1 bedroom self contained rate not the 1 bedroom shared rate
This is because you have rights to 2 rooms each
'2.060
Single customers aged 35 years and over and couples with no dependent children will be entitled to the rate for a one-bedroom property, for example a one-bedroom flat or studio or other kind of self-contained accommodation, provided they actually rent a property of at least this size.
2.061
If people in this category choose to live in a property where they do not have either: !!!8226; exclusive use of two or more rooms, or !!!8226; exclusive use of one room, a bathroom and toilet and a kitchen or facilities for cooking they will be entitled to only the shared room LHA rate.'
Link
take note of the notes on the guide
''Whether the tenant has exclusive use of rooms should normally be clear from the tenancy agreement'
as the LA may be using this to give you the shared room rate
You may wish to point out to the LA that even though you are brothers and joint tenants you are separate households but you maintain common households with your brother.so the 1 self contained room rate applies
same link
2.100
Joint tenants within the same household
In some cases joint tenants may be part of the same household but are not treated as members of the same family. For example, the customer may have a non-dependent son or daughter who is a joint tenant but they maintain a common household.
But bear in mind the 1 room rate is £424.66 per mth and your share is £335 so the £335 will be the rate they use for the assessment
Please contact the Citizens Advice Bureaux if you require help in disputing the room rate.“You’re only here for a short visit.
Don’t hurry, don't worry and be sure to smell the flowers along the way.”Walter Hagen
365 Day 1p Challenge for 2021 #41 ✅
Jar £440.31/£667.95 and Bank £389.67/£667.950 -
Actually the LA has somehow determined from responses to the questions they asked that one of us is incapable of living independently and therefore the shared room rate applies to one and the 1 bedroom rate applies to the other as we cannot be a common household..
We're trying to find out at the moment which part of the HB Regs allow them to make that assessment since it appears they have assessed that capability based on two sentences.
Suffice to say that one of us is quite offended by their assessment.0 -
Actually the LA has somehow determined from responses to the questions they asked that one of us is incapable of living independently and therefore the shared room rate applies to one and the 1 bedroom rate applies to the other as we cannot be a common household..
We're trying to find out at the moment which part of the HB Regs allow them to make that assessment since it appears they have assessed that capability based on two sentences.
Suffice to say that one of us is quite offended by their assessment.
Your earlier deleted post which has been quoted says that they believe you cannot live there without your brother and that was the case when you first came to live with your brother but now it isn’t?
Is this because of the reason you are claiming ESA. Are you claiming any PIP?0 -
There is a rule where a disabled person under 35 for whom someone receives carers allowance so they lose their Severe Disability Premium has their LHA restricted from 1 bedroom to SRR rate.
Can't figure out what legislation they are using in this case.I enjoy flower arranging, kittens, devil worship, the study of serial killers and their methods and road kill jigsaws.0 -
I don't get PIP. Have never applied for it to be honest. Mostly because I have seen some people I think really do need that support and probably had a much better basis for needing it get turned down and don't want the stress of applying etc.
I claim ESA for anxiety, depression and self-harm. I am currently getting back to a position where I can return to work
The actual events that took place were that around six months to a year before we started renting our current flat as joint tenants, I was without a home and had been sleeping on friends sofas for a while. My brother had a two bed flat and a spare room and offered me the chance to move in. I took it because trying to get a place of my own at that time would have been financially impossible (at that time I didn't even have a bank account of my own and had to have it paid into somebody else's bank). I was living as his non-dependent.
At the time we moved to the new flat I was in a position where I could have either moved with him or moved to my own place. I chose to move with him because it was a more affordable arrangement and because as brothers we get along quite well and it has always worked out in the past.0 -
You have the right to appeal this.
http://www.stevenage.gov.uk/benefits/19111/19140/
I can't get my head round how they have worked this out.
Take the council's decision letter to CAB and ask their opinion and help with the appeal.0 -
Yeah this is going to appeal.
Their argument makes very little sense and their timeline of decision making makes even less sense. On 7th November they revised a decision from March that the 1 bedroom rate applied, shifting it to the shared room rate. On the 8th they wrote out to ask for information to allow them to make that decision. They basically asked the questions like how is rent paid, food stored, bills arranged etc. and then decided the shared room rate applied.
Except they never read that response. Nor did they read the request for a review of their decision until January 2018 when they sent it to their appeals team. Then following a complaint to the council in March that it had taken them 2 months to actually forward the review to the correct team and they had still not responded after another two months, they then sent out to ask how I came to move in with my brother and become a joint tenant. They have then used that answer as the justification of their decision based on being unable to function without him.
Have got an appeal ready to go, will be sending them and Subject Access Request tomorrow to see if there are any notes that explain what they have done and will be contacting CAB0
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