Housing Benefit and Service Charges

[Mother's Little Helper]

Can anyone tell me if I would be able to claim the service charges on a retirement flat. I would like to move but it would take the capital I have invested in my current property to do so. My income (I am retired) means I will need to claim Pension Credit and Council Tax Benefit. Although I am currently self-employed this will have to stop soon as I need to care for my mother but this will not be enough hours to claim carers allowance and, because I get my state pension I would not get anything even if/when she needs more care.

 

Thanks for reading.

[id6052]

are you planning on owning or renting the retirement flat?

 

if you will own it, you will not be eligible for HB, but may be able to get help though Pension Credit, though that will be dependent upon your circumstances and which service charges

[Mother's Little Helper]

Thank you for the reply Id6052. My thoughts were to sell my current house and use the money released to buy an over 55s flat so, to answer your question, I would own it. However I would not be able to fund the service charge so that's why I asked the question. I kept seeing service charges mentioned on the on-line benefit calculators and wondered if they applied if you were not renting. I didn't really think they would!