Housing benefit when living in a touring caravan

[Surfer01]

We are not travellers but a couple that are battling to keep our heads above water. At present we get housing and council tax benefits for the flat that we live in but it does not cover all the rent or council tax.

Like most people we have debts that we are battling to pay off since I was made redundant and although we have a DMP with CCCs we are now just existing and not living.

We have a very large modern twin axle caravan with plenty of dual heating and have found a site where we can pitch it for 11 months of the year and as it is regarded as temporary accommodation, we are not charged council tax which is saving over £100 per month on that alone never mind utility costs.

We would like to know if we can still claim housing benefits to cover part of the rent until I can find gainful employment? The concern is that the site owner may not be too willing to state what he charges us per month in writing, but we would have a receipt for the payment of the rent. On presentation of the receipt, would you be able to use this to claim your housing benefit?

[Aviva]

Yes, site charges for caravans can be covered by HB. Not sure if they would accept a receipt as proof though. Usually they would want to see some sort of contract just as they want to see a tenancy agreement if you are renting privately.

[Surfer01]

Unfortunately caravan sites don't have any form of contract and will probably not agree to one anyway because you are not really permanent. The last thing we want to do is upset the caravan park owner who then asks us to move on which is why I suggested the receipt route. Bit complicated but if we can get HB it solves a lot of problems.

[ErikaPNP]

You can receive housing benefit in respect of site fees even when you own the caravan, but as with any rental agreement, you would need to prove that the agreement for the site rental is on a commercial basis to qualify for housing benefit, and a receipt would not likely suffice for this.

[Surfer01]

We would be renting the pitch from the owner of the caravan site. The caravan is a touring caravan and not a static caravan. We would be on site for 11 months and then we would have to move off for one month. We are trying to work out that in the event my ESA/JSA contribution stops whether we are better off living in the caravan or in our present flat. The big difference is council tax an dutilities. I have used various benefit calculators and between the two in benefits not much difference, but in caravan more cash left over at the end of the month. Hard decision!