Housing Benefit for single mum and Three Kids-How much? [Archive]

peakma

14-01-2006, 18:09

Hi a friend of mine is splitting up from her partner and needs to find somewhere( in a good /safe area) to rent ,.She is fairly skint and is a full time Mum.
How much housing benefit is she likely to receive, does it vary from area to area?and any idea how long it takes to sort out?Everywhere half decent looks so expensive.

Plain Talker

14-01-2006, 21:43

If she is going to be on Income Support, then, if the prospective landlord is registered as a fair rent landlord (or at least, if the property is a fair rent reg property) she SHOULD get her full benefit, that is, Subject to fulfilling certain criteria.

If she isn't on IS, and/ or the rent is higher than liberata think reasonable, she might have to pay a small proportion (sliding scale) of her rent.

She needs to talk, urgently to a C-A-B to get some good advice about her rights and entitlements.

Sadly, yes Liberata don't sort claims out on the hurry-up.

I often wonder if "imbecile" is part of the job description. Both they and their predecessor, CSL were as bad as one another.

I have never yet had a claim for HB, whether it was a change-of-circs, eg a house move or when i came off IS to go into work sorted out efficiently, or a renewal of a current claim without a huge pantomime surrounding the claim from their part.

I moved into my current HA property at the beginning of MAy '03. I was on IS then, and stayed on IS until April 04.

It took the eejits at HB 20 weeks, that's until mid September 03 to accept that, transferring to a fair-rent landlord, and staying on IS meant I was , actually, entitled to HB, and full HB at that.

Lackwits! Total Lackwits.

Best of luck to your mate, peakma. Tell her from me, all the best, and to dig her heels in, and, as I said, she needs to get full advice on her rights and all the implications of the split, from a C-A-B.

PT