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SharonD
Community member Posts: 2 Listener
Hello - this is my first post and need a little advice please. My adult daughter lives with us and i am her carer (she is 29). She has fibromyalgia and poor mental health (and claims ESA in the support group). Myself and husband are getting to the point where we need to sell our house and get somewhere smaller and more manageable and she is ready to move to somewhere on her own (near to us so i can still care for her). We really have no idea how to go about it - The money she gets on ESA will not be enough to support her so presume she will get housing benefit? how does it all work and what are the first steps?. I really need to get her settled somewhere before we move. Thank you.
Comments
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Hello and welcome to Scope @SharonD!
Have you contacted your local council or not? Alternatively you can take a look at this helpful article on housing benefit. https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/help-if-on-a-low-income/housing-benefit/help-with-your-housing-benefit-claim/check-if-you-can-get-housing-benefit/.
You may also wish to read this useful article on the process of applying for it too.
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/help-if-on-a-low-income/housing-benefit/help-with-your-housing-benefit-claim/how-to-claim-housing-benefit/
I hope this is useful. -
Hi @SharonD and welcome to the Community. It's nice to meet you and thank you for sharing with us. I can appreciate you wishing to get your daughter settled into a new home before you move also. I hope you have found the above good links and advice given by @April2018mom to be helpful. Here also is some information put together by Scope about Housing Benefit -
https://www.scope.org.uk/advice-and-support/housing-benefit/
Good luck with both of your moves and please let us know how you get on with everything. If we can be of any help/support to you then please just let us know. All the best.Winner of the Scope New Volunteer Award 2019. -
Hi @SharonD
I've linked a benefits checker below.
If you check on here and put that your daughter is already renting somewhere and put a realistic amount of rent for your area, it should bring up what she'd be entitled to.
https://www.scope.org.uk/advice-and-support/calculate-your-benefits/
Best wishes
LouiseLouise Hesketh
Community Champion -
Hi,
Does she receive PIP or just ESA? It's quite difficult to live alone just on ESA & HB - I've been doing it for the last 5 years now.
She'll only be allowed the shared rate of Housing Benefit due to her age and the local housing allowance cap. This means that she's not likely to be able to cover even a studio flat, just a room in shared accommodation, which may not be suitable for her?
Lastly, she can't claim Housing Benefit in order to move away from home, she will only be able to claim once in a new place. Finding a landlord that will allow benefits tenants can be very difficult, especially when you don't have enough income to show.
In my case, I received some inheritance and was able to put down 6 months rent in advance - I know the majority of people will not be in a position to do that. If you can find an accepting landlord, they will most likely need yourself or your husband to be a guarantor - effectively saying that you will pay the rent if she is unable to for any reason.
Finally, along with Housing Benefit, she will also be able to access Council Tax Reduction which dramatically reduces the amount of council tax she'll have to pay. So thats one major cost that she won't have to cover from ESA.
Hope that helps, and I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong on any of the above, but thats been my experience.
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Thank you all, some really good information on where to start and it's much appreciated. She is just in the process of applying for PIP so im sure i will be back here looking for more information soon.
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Welcome to the community @SharonD
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Hi @SharonD, just wanted to check in to see how you are getting on.
Scope -
How are you doing @SharonD?
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