Housing benefits loop of doom! – Anyone have any good ideas on how to house my mum (80)

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I’ll try to keep this short.

My mum is 80, lives alone, and is currently in a private rental. She’s about to run out of savings and will soon be eligible to claim housing support and pension credit.

Her current landlord has said they won’t accept tenants on benefits, apparently due to insurance reasons, so she’ll need to move out.

We’ve looked at helping her ourselves by buying a small buy-to-let property and moving her in, but the council has told us they won’t pay housing benefit if she’s renting from family, even with a proper tenancy in place.

We also looked into shared ownership and part-buy schemes, but again, we’re being told she can’t live in a property as shes not the leaseholder, but they won't sell to her.

She can't get a mortgage.

So where is she meant to go?

There’s no social housing available in our area at the moment and we’re doing everything we can to give her some stability, but we keep hitting walls.

If anyone knows of a way through this or any schemes we’ve missed, I’d really appreciate it!

Explore if you have any almshouses locally OP - I have known of a few elderly people move into these.

Housing 21 allow pets :)

It’s an estate agency and a women owns the house who doesn’t live in the UK.

Have you looked at Almshouses? Many villages/towns/cities have them. Very cheap rent.

Amazing thank you, I have lots to do, I need to find out more about savings and what she can claim while she has some savings as she’s a bit panic stricken to have to run these down so far, I’m reassuring her that she will get supported but having never claimed I can totally see why she would like some security and savings.

I have another poster suggested them, there is nothing in our area but I’ve got them in my tabs to keep an eye out.

If you are buying the house to rent to her that would likely be seen as a contrived tenancy. If you had previously owned a house and had rented to others before renting to your family member then that would be viewed differently. Sorry but I think you would have great difficulty her getting housing benefit in this situation.

Remember she may need to furnish and redecorate and carpet new property so check what the savings fresh hold is and consider the extra cost if going into sheltered accommodation or like of ,

For Pension creidt the first 10k of savings is disregarded, then for each £1k above that there would be a £2 per week reduction in any pension credit. Ask Age Uk for a benefit check now. She won't get housing benefit if savings over 16k unless she has pension credit in place in which case that threshold doesn't apply.

Where do you live that there is no housing for the elderly? Yes there are shortages of social housing generally, but not for over 65's: there are loads going up everywhere that are ring fenced for the elderly. An 80yr old woman would not struggle to secure something.
If your mum reports to the council as homeless they will house her pretty quick, an 80yr old woman would be considered very vulnerable.

Stop volunteering information on how your mum plans to pay her rent. If she's asked, say she's you're still got savings or had a win at the bingo or you're paying it for her. How would they know otherwise?

You might also want to look at an extra care scheme https://www.hants.gov.uk/socialcareandhealth/adultsocialcare/extracarehousing
I'm in Yorkshire and there are some great ones near me. Usually they have a bistro downstairs so you can get a meal on site and are near other facilities- eg one I have visited is in the same block as the library. And the care element can be increased as the person gets older so its more future proof. It can really help with staying independent and active for longer. Good luck with your search.

Exactly this. Housing benefit is paid to the applicant ( your mum) so landlord need not even know she was claiming.

There is so much wrong in your OP.

Firstly the landlord cannot refuse to accept tenants on benefits. It’s discrimination.

https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/private_renting/how_to_challenge_dss_discrimination

The only way he can require your mother to leave is by obtaining a court order. He would be on a sticky wicket now if he tried to evict her as he’s basically already told her it’s due to benefits.

She also doesn’t need to tell her landlord at all that she’s claiming benefits - she can have the money paid to her and then she just pays her rent as normal. She can provide evidence and the council should not contact the landlord without consent.

Secondly, you can definitely get housing benefit for a property owned by close family as long as it’s a genuine tenancy (genuine commercial arrangement) and the close family landlord does not live in the property.

https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/benefits/claiming_benefits_if_you_rent_from_family

Don’t get benefits advice from the council (or even wise the job centre!). You very often get given incorrect information.

Just to clarify it’s not the landlord, she rents via an estate agency who state that they don’t accept HB, it maybe the case that as she’s already paying and in-situ it’s a non issue, it’s not some nasty male landlord trying to evict her illegally. I just need to on the careful I don’t out her in a situation, but the reassurance that their policy maybe outdated is great.

This look great for the future, at 80 mum is still whizzing about fully independent and fit and able she walks 12k steps and day, keep fit, helps out at community centres, I know everything at this age can change in a heartbeat but she would like independence for the next 5+ years or until she’s unable to drive and be active.

Can I ask when you say don’t get benefits advice from the council, where else is good? Age UK?

You can easily do your own benefit check on the Age Uk online calculator. It's very easy to use. Or they will do one for you.
Benefits Calculator - What benefits am I entitled to? | Age UK

@Miley23Thanks, I was on there earlier today. I hadn’t realised that was more accurate than the actual council.

I understood housing benefits went to the tenant who then pays the landlord so they shouldn’t know she’s on benefits, as long as the rent it paid.

The landlord or their agent won’t know your mum is on benefits unless you tell them and then they would have to go about evicting her. She claims the HB and it’s paid direct to her.

With regards to the capital limit for HB and CTR you’re not entitled if you have capital over £16k she can claim the minute it g drops below £16k but a ‘tariff’ income will be taken for every £250 over £10k she has. The tariff income is around £2.50 per week for every £250 she is over £10k. Once the capital is under £10k no tariff income is taken.

she can claim pension credit. There are 2 kinds savings credit (for people with savings not sure on limited etc). If she is in receipt of this then the capital figure used for pension credit award is used for the HB and CTR claims, and if over the £10k then a tariff is taken.

the other kind is guaranteed pension credit for people on low income. This is a primary benefit and will mean she will receive the maximum level of HB and CTR. For CTR this will mean her full ctax is covered. For HB it will mean she will receive the maximum amount of either the 1 bed lha or her rent which ever is lowest.

Re buying a property and renting to your mum. Look at regulation 9 of the housing benefits regulations 2006. (Pension regs say the same thing). You can rent from close family so long its not a contrived or non commercial tenancy.

contrived - the council will need to prove that the tenancy has been set up in order to take advantage of the benefits system.

to make sure it’s a commercial tenancy you will need to have a proper tenancy agreement in place, have all the safety/gas certificates etc in place. If you take a deposit make sure it’s in a rent deposit scheme etc.

if for example you set the rent at £1000pm knowing that your mum does not have the means to pay then it could look non-commercial as no commercial landlord would accept a tenant that could not pay the rent or the top up if claiming

You will need to contact the councils housing dept with regards to their criteria for being placed on the housing list. Lots of authorities need the person to have a local connections /have lived in the area for a number of years before they can go on the council lists. Each authority will set their own rules with regards to eligibility criteria same as the housing associations so a good idea to start looking in to it now. Good luck

@toomanyhobbies thank you so
much for your time writing all of that. I feel like I have a few ways forward. I’m actually adding in plan C as well which is building a granny annex, I write it a bit tongue in cheek but weirdly it would be feasible, if she wanted too live that close of course.

The trouble with benefits advice, as an ex benefits specialist for a charity, is the quality of advice you get really depends on the particular individual you happen to speak to. Having said that Age UK benefits advice is pretty good usually and a good place to start. You can also try Citizen’s Advice, but would probably go with Age UK in the first instance. Watch online benefit checkers, they are not always accurate (I used to log errors with the providers of them fairly consistently), and they are only as good as the questions you answer. And it can be difficult to know what to answer if you don’t know why the question is being asked. The answer to one question can dramatically alter the entitlement it spits out. So if you use one be really careful about how you fill it out. They also don’t cover all scenarios so make sure you are reading the “information” (usually under an icon you have to click on next to each question) carefully.

Then I’d challenge the estate agent - because the law applies to them. If they have told you ‘no DSS’ then they are breaking the law.

Agree re the option to just not disclose she’s claiming housing benefit. We rented out house to a family who were working but as soon as they moved in they have up work and claimed benefits instead and I was never informed. They paid the rent and I only found out when they moved back home to their European country and I received the letters showing they were still claiming!
Anyway the landlord can’t break the law and evict BUT the council aren’t going to pay for her to stay in an expensive 2 bed garden flat. Might only pay half then she’s still draining her savings.
I have an aunt of a similar age who spent all her money then went to the council asking for housing. Got it with no issues even in her London borough. She even got a choice. All 1 bed flats. All paid for even though Aunt had spent 100s of £k in the preceding decades and could have housed herself.
So current flat doesn’t sound like an option. Council will put her somewhere but she may not like it. Granny flat sounds perfect and will protect your outlay the best.