Housing benefits

Wesigil1997

Hi,

I’m looking to apply for housing benefits in the near future, and I am unsure as to what LHA rate I would be awarded with my current benefits and employment which I will explain below.

Currently, I am 20 years old and will be 21 in February, 2018. I work part-time, up to 16hrs and earn less than £120 a week (so staying within the limit). I am in receipt of ESA (support group), so I earn £125.05 a week from that, and also PIP, the daily living component - standard rate, being £55.65/per week.

So I tried to do some research myself and according to the information I found, I would be able to get the 1 bedroom rate, and be paid the maximum housing allowance. Now I’m not sure if that is right, which is why I am asking on here, and I’m aware of the benefit cap too so it got me thinking.

I hope all this information provided to you, is clear and understandable. If you need anymore information on me, just let me know and I’ll be happy to provide that.

Thank you to anyone who takes the time to read and respond to this post.

steve51

Hi @Wesigil1997

Good afternoon & welcome.

It’s great to meet you today.

Have you tried our online “benefits calculator”

This will give you a good indication on what you can try to claim.

Sam_Alumni

Hi @Wesigil1997 welcome to the community, as Steve says the benefits calculator is a good place to start.

Wesigil1997

The results don’t say anything about housing benefits because I live at home currently.

steve51

Hi @Wesigil1997

I’m very very sorry, I have provided some info below for you:

https://www.gov.uk/housing-benefit

Many Thanks.

Sam_Alumni

@Debbie_Scope do you have any ideas?

Debbie_Alumni

Hi @Wesigil1997,

Thanks for your post about housing benefit and LHA. It's very complicated isn't it!

Firstly though, you won't be affected by the benefit cap so that's one less thing to worry about. You're exempt because of your PIP award and also because of your ESA support group award.

Due to your age, you would normally be restricted to the shared room rate of your local authority's LHA rates. However, owing to your PIP daily living award you would be eligible for the severe disability premium (if you were living alone and no-one was claiming Carers Allowance for you). Therefore you would not be restricted to the shared accommodation rate and would receive the 1 bedroom rate.

To further complicate things there is the issue with Universal Credit and how/when this will affect you. You're receiving income-related ESA and this is one of the benefits being replaced by Universal Credit. We've recently updated our Universal Credit content so please take a look as there are some changes in circumstances which can trigger an early move onto Universal Credit without any transitional protection. This is definitely something that you will need to factor into your decision making. There are tools within the content to help you find out what the status is where you live and where you're moving to.

If you need further advice about all of this please do let me know. It's really complicated and not easy to get definitive answers.

I hope this has been helpful so far.

Best wishes
Debbie

Wesigil1997

Thanks @Debbie_Scope

that information has helped. Would I also be able to claim for a two bedroom house at all? Because at night I sometimes need overnight care.

Debbie_Alumni

Hi @Wesigil1997,

There is potential for this and there's more information from entitled to about Local Housing Allowance.

To qualify for an extra bedroom for overnight care, the carer has to be non-resident (i.e they have their own accommodation). It can be a bit complex and you'll need evidence. There's no set amount of days you have to have the overnight care but in order to qualify the overnight care needs to be frequent rather than occasional.

Check with the local authority for their policy on this and if you need help just let me know.

Best wishes
Debbie