housing benefit help

[beetlebug1]

hello all

my niece is moving in to her own place soon. she is 18 and not entitled to any other help. wondered if anyone could tell me how you qualify for housing benefit.

thanks in advance

[Zamzara]

It's based on income and savings, the lower they are the more of your rent is paid. If you get income support or income based JSA this automatically means you get full housing benefit, but you do not have to be receiving any other benefits as is sometimes claimed.

You can calculate her housing benefit at www.entitledto.com

[beetlebug1]

thanks for that

she has no savings. she works and takes home abouts 800 a month. the rent on the one bedroomed flat is going to be £385 a month plus council tax and other bills. do you think she will qualify?

[beetlebug1]

i have just looked on our local council website for the LHA rates. there is some information about claiming housing benefit if you are under 25 and certain restrictions applying. the way it is worded i do not know if she cannot claim at all or can only claim the shared room rate, even though it is a one bedroomed flat she wants to rent.

anyone had any experience of this?

[Zamzara]

Yes unfortunately that is right, she is restricted to the one room rent so probably won't qualify for anyhting.

[beetlebug1]

thanks zamzara

even £5- £10 a week would be better than nothing. she is going to struggle. the rent for the flat is about right for our area and there are no bedsits available.

[Zamzara]

Sorry my edit crossed with your post, you were too fast!

I previously posted hat she would get about £5-£10 a week if she is childless but I forgot about the shared room rate for under 25s, so it's unlikely she will get anyhting unless the shared room rate in your area is over £80.

[beetlebug1]

hello again the shared room rate in our area seems to vary from £57 to £75 are they any over top up payments available from the council or help with council tax. sorry to go on just a bit worried about how she will manage

£385 rent
£90 council tax
£120 bills
£80 food etc

not leaving much left over for the month

[nishi]

Beetle bug 1 - should she really be moving into a flat of her own if she cant afford it? maybe she should get a second job and let people who really need to claim benefits do so.

[InformedSearcher]

I've read this thread. In my case I was made redundant at the end of last August 2008. I've managed till now and but now forced to claim housing/council tax benefits. Whilst my wife works (low paid employment I'll add) I can imagine our council deciding my/our claim.
With respect, I'd agree with the comments above with regards to an 18yo person starting out. The local council is never going to consider a claim easily because their first notion is how did someone come to be able to rent a room/bedsit etc. initially as they'd have to paid a deposit and whatever else initially. Council's are very thorough these days and will check up all the details given to them. Of course if the council themselves housed someone themselves then all the paperwork would have been completed by them.
Okay, personally, shall we say because for the 1st time in my life, (and not getting younger!) this is a new thing for me to start claiming benefits. However it kind of niggles me that to my view (me remembering I've worked for 35+ years, paid NHI and PAYE) I get given a hard time. Heck even contribution based JCA was a nightmare of 64 pages! When I look at other ways people seem to be allocated not only benefits but housing too I need to take a blood pressure pill. Maybe I should change my nationality to something else, have 5 kids, never worked - I might be better looked at! LOL Sorry for that comment but it tends to be more fact than fiction these days. Oh, a totally different thing to the initial poster so not connected.
Michael

	What are your rights at work Follow this link to read the review of the Guide to your Rights at work, published by Lawpack

[Zamzara]

It's not up to the council or anyone else to make a judgement on whether the person deserves benefit or not, or how they came to be living where they are.

Entitlement depends on an income/savings equation with some adjustments for age and size of property. If the person is entitled to the benefit they have a legal right to the money.