Legacy Housing Benefit and moving

Martynh

Hi,
We currently receive legacy housing benefit as we have lived in our current home for 14 years and are still on Income Support.
I need a bungalow for medical reasons, and we have found a private one that's about the same rent as the local social housing ones, but is £29 a week more than we currently get.

Does anyone know how Legacy Housing Benefit is calculated in these circumstances?
We are only a couple and the bungalow has one double bedroom and one single, but I do have supporting documents stating that I need a 2 bedroom due to medical equipment and future needs.

I called the council's benefits office but they won't comment, so the only way to find out how much rent would be paid is to move into the bungalow.
We could possibly apply for a discretionary housing payment, but again, we wouldn't be able to apply until we move in.

Has anyone got any experience of this kind of situation and can offer any advice or experience?

Lastly, we would need help with the bond and removal costs, would it be better to apply to the social fund or a discretionary housing payment?

I'm so out of touch in this area.

Thanks!

calcotti

Are you staying within the same local authority? If not you will not be able to take your Housing Benefit with you and would need to claim Universal Credit in order to get help with the rent.

The maximum help you can get for a private rental (regardless of whether it is HB or UC) is based on the Local Housing Allowance. You can check the rate for the number of bedrooms you are allowed and the postcode here. https://lha-direct.voa.gov.uk/Search.aspx

As regards the applicable number of bedrooms. Is your existing property two bedrooms and have the local authority accepted the need for that? If so it would be illogical for them to now decide you only need one so hopefully you would allowed up to the one bedroom rate. If your existing property is only one bedroom then it sounds as if you will not know in advance whether or not the local authority will accept that there is a medical need fort bedrooms.

If you move and there is then a rent shortfall because HB/UC does not cover all of the rent and you seek to make up with a DHP the local authority may be reluctant to provide that help on he grounds that you could not afford the property when you moved in. In any case a DHP is only temporary and would not help you in the long term.

As regards the last question I would speak to your local authority first.

Finally - I assume you have exhausted all possibilities of getting another local authority or housing association property that meets your needs. Renting in the private sector is always more precarious than in the socially rented sector and getting back into social housing if the private rental fails may be difficult.

janer1967

Hi there 

Glad your query has been answered 

I'm not sure where you would stand with help for bond and moving costs with you moving into private rent 

It's unlikely local council will help but I'm not sure 

Martynh

calcotti said:

Are you staying within the same local authority? If not you will not be able to take your Housing Benefit with you and would need to claim Universal Credit in order to get help with the rent.

The maximum help you can get for a private rental (regardless of whether it is HB or UC) is based on the Local Housing Allowance. You can check the rate for the number of bedrooms you are allowed and the postcode here. https://lha-direct.voa.gov.uk/Search.aspx

As regards the applicable number of bedrooms. Is your existing property two bedrooms and have the local authority accepted the need for that? If so it would be illogical for them to now decide you only need one so hopefully you would allowed up to the one bedroom rate. If your existing property is only one bedroom then it sounds as if you will not know in advance whether or not the local authority will accept that there is a medical need fort bedrooms.

If you move and there is then a rent shortfall because HB/UC does not cover all of the rent and you seek to make up with a DHP the local authority may be reluctant to provide that help on he grounds that you could not afford the property when you moved in. In any case a DHP is only temporary and would not help you in the long term.

As regards the last question I would speak to your local authority first.

Finally - I assume you have exhausted all possibilities of getting another local authority or housing association property that meets your needs. Renting in the private sector is always more precarious than in the socially rented sector and getting back into social housing if the private rental fails may be difficult.

It is the same local authority.

We currently have a 2 bedroom house but receive more than the LHA rates.

I've been in the list for a bungalow for 7 months but the only ones to come up have been for over 55s. Bungalows, especially accessible ones, are rarer than hen's teeth as it is, but even moreso if you are under 55.

Social Services are trying to see if they can adapt the house we rent, but the layout isn't ideal and the only place for a lift is in front of the back door, plus if we have that done, we have to stay here for 5 years and we have been suffering noise nuisance and ASB for over 18 months - our car was vandalised twice last week, once with a metal chair badly  damaging the roof and then acid thrown over it, so staying is fast becoming an impossibility.

calcotti

Martynh said: We currently have a 2 bedroom house but receive more than the LHA rates.

If you are currently in social housing LHA rates do not apply. You get the full rent less a deduction for any spare bedrooms (which you don't have as the council accept the need for two bedrooms).

If Housing Benefit currently accept that you need two bedrooms then it seems likely that they will still accept this if you move so the applicable LHA rate would be the two bedroom rate (I assume you get DLA or PIP).

It is common for there to be a shortfall between the LHA rate and the actual rent and a DHP, even if awarded, will not be a long term solution so you will be making up the shortfall from your other benefit income.

Perhaps Social Services can investigate what support is available for the bond and moving costs.

Martynh

calcotti said:

Martynh said: We currently have a 2 bedroom house but receive more than the LHA rates.

If you are currently in social housing LHA rates do not apply. You get the full rent less a deduction for any spare bedrooms (which you don't have as the council accept the need for two bedrooms).

If Housing Benefit currently accept that you need two bedrooms then it seems likely that they will still accept this if you move so the applicable LHA rate would be the two bedroom rate (I assume you get DLA or PIP).

It is common for there to be a shortfall between the LHA rate and the actual rent and a DHP, even if awarded, will not be a long term solution so you will be making up the shortfall from your other benefit income.

Perhaps Social Services can investigate what support is available for the bond and moving costs.

We aren't in social housing, we are in private rented.
We currently receive £10pw above the current LHA rate.

calcotti

Martynh said: We currently receive £10pw above the current LHA rate.

If you mean £10/week more than the 2 bedroom rate I don’t know why that would be.

calcotti

Thanks, Mike. Useful to know - I guess that policies will differ between local authorities.

Martynh

I've done some more checking and my LA do offer DHPs for bonds, removal fees and up to 52 week's rent top-up per year.

Obviously you aren't guaranteed to be awarded anything, but it's worth a try as there isn't likely to be anything available any time soon with social housing (there are 6 bungalows currently available, all are for over 55s).