Applied for housing (London) and was rejected

[PetitDiable]

I couldn't find a suitable topic to post this in, so I'm posting here.

I'm nearly 8 months pregnant and living with my mother in a 2 bedroom flat with my two other brothers because my XP threw me out 3 weeks ago. Come December, when baby is due , my two other siblings will return home from university. I am currently sleeping in my sister's box room.

I applied to join the housing register 2 weeks ago, but received an email telling me I'm not eligible. How can this be? Perhaps there are a lack of homes in my borough. It's a pretty affluent area so I wouldn't be surprised. But what am I suppose to do? I can't live in an overcrowded home with a baby. We would have nowhere to sleep once baby is here and my siblings return home.

I have no job. I've just set up a claim for income support. I can't get any help financially from my family. My mother is on a state pension and my siblings are on a low income.

Has anyone been in a similar position?

OP when you say you are mid 20's are you under 25? this alone is a reason you would not get social housing property. (not taking into you pregnancy into consideration)

have you provided documentation that your are pregnant or did you just fill out the form stating you were pregnant but with no confirmation of pregnancy (MATB!) ?

Also I am afraid to say, lots of people are pregnant/or have children, who are in more dire need of housing than yourself, who are currently in temporary accommodation, and have been for years on the hosuing waiting list!

if you get offered a house, take it, you can be picky about the area you live in, however expect to be guaranteed to be on the waiting list for longer/years.

Hosing associations/councils just don't have the property, and with all the latest news that most HA/councils are needing to make redundancies/cuts... (one local to me today, has told there workforce that 350 people will be made redundant in April 2015) as the government have told them they need to make HA/council cuts by !% each year, for 4 years, which is for most associations/councils is millions of pounds each year.

You will find also, and I also agree with this, that HA will be very picky in offering those who need HB with a proven track record of poor credit control/history, with the universal credit coming in, its already a huge migraine for most HA/council.... because no money coming in, means they cant pay their staff.

I've personally seen the state of one companies books... some are now going straight to the high courts, for evictions!

people pay as little as £8 per week, but yet are thousands in debt in rent and also HB recovery, which the tenant owes the company, not HB!

I've dealt with this week 9 high court evictions this week... all with young families...

logically you cannot just think that you will get social housing property, you cannot thinks that's your only option, because frankly you will be waiting along time, you need to be proactive in trying to source other property via other means... I'm not sure of you applied for council or housing association.. there is quite a few types of housing tenure that you need to be looking at.

2016

I forgot to state also, David Cameron has also said that council accommodation, is also not to be fixed tenancy, (assured tenancy) from April 2016, new tenancy sign ups, wont be fixed agreements, they will be temporary ones... which is good for the companies, not so good for those in housing need!.

DC announcement that people have the "right to buy" social housing.... because the need for social housing is not critical enough... and that's not even including market rents....

so DC has stated he wants companies to reduce housing by 1% for the next 4 years... cut most funding... opening the "right to buy" ... but yet not allowing councils to then put the right to buy money back into build new properties... all so he can show he's making the savings of billions.... yet more people are now under the poverty line, and the number is rising twofold yearly, in the United Kingdom!

Could you work? I worked until I went into labour and went back full time when the baby was 2 weeks old. Works for some of us and then you provide your own housing and pay your own rent. It also feels nicer than having to have the state provide for you.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Yes, lots of people are going to dish out jobs to a massively pg woman, aren't they?

What's the 'zzzz'comment for!?

grazia banging on about working whilst in full labour again and again

"banging" on, as far as iv'e seen, and I will be corrected if I am wrong... Grazia has only posted once.

I don't think commenting on a post with an option is "banging" on.

Its not unrealistic to get a job soon after birth, lot of people have no other option but to get back into work after childbirth, I was lucky that I got to stay at home for 4 months after DC1 yet needed to go back as I had a mortgage to pay.

DS2 I had a full time career by then so was able to have full pay on maternity leave... which then afforded me to stay at home longer.

welllllllll

Grazia has been a poster for years and has a new name now

she is very well known for repeating aspects of her life story and how others should live by her example

is it not possible to rent privately and get assistance from the council if you cannot cover the rent? You are in need you shouldn't feel guilty about taking this help that's what its for. There are plenty of people scrounging when they don't need it.

It would be cheaper to share a house with a mature individual rather than rent alone especially in London. I don't know anything about costs except its crazy expensive to live there?

Your brothers just coming for the holidays? If so they can crash out in sleeping bags in the living room, you are pregnant, any loving sibling should understand.

Yes you can live/apply in/for a social housing accommodation, and apply for housing benefit (this isn't council, council tax is council, HB is not!)

However only if a landlord will accept those claiming HB, this will become worse when universal credit comes in.

"I love that people imagine that a "council house" in Westminster is actually a house, rather than a flat"

Well, it's not a matter of imagination. A council house is a house. A council flat is a flat. Wherever it is.

legally its not the landlords business to know if you're on housing benefit, nor where you get your money from as long as you can pay. So if you have the 2 months rent up front and the deposit you will have np, this way if the housing benefit is late your rent payment will never be late because you payed an extra month up front.

the reason some landlords say no dss is because payments can be late arriving and the tenant blames the social services, the landlord doesn't care they are running a business they want to get paid on time.

as soon as you secure accomodation apply for housing benefit ideally a few weeks before moving in that way you should get the help faster.

I think a landlord can actually refuse those on HB. It's to do with their insurance, it's not always their choice but they genuinely aren't allowed. That being said, HB would be paid direct to the tenant so they wouldn't necessarily know if you were claiming HB. I wouldn't advise not telling them though.

How will this work when UC comes in? A lot of people now who get tax credits but not HB would be prevented from renting?

Grazia, yes, you worked. But when your children were little you had a DH who was working term-time hours and you earned enough between you for an au pair. Oranges and apples.

And if he hadn't supported you during that time, you wouldn't have had to pay out the enormous sum upon divorce which you are always whinging about on MN.

oddsocks what choice would he have if shes desperate to move out. Shes not cheating the landlord of money a long as she has an extra month rent on hand and is never late. my brother was in a similar predicament cab told him he doest have to inform the landlord because the money goes straight into the claimant account. The agent he wanted to rent from told him the exact same thing.

but I understand what you are saying about being honest I agree, but ive never been in OP situation if I was desperate I wouldn't tell the landlord

she*

I imagine a lot of tenants don't tell their landlord BUT she will struggle still. Most want proof of income/bank statements etc and agencies expect a minimum annual income before they will rent. I've been homeless for 5 months, I understand and don't judge what somebody does out of desperation. It isn't easy though.

'legally its not the landlords business to know if you're on housing benefit, nor where you get your money from as long as you can pay.'

But she's on income support. No employment. It will be fairly obvious to any LL that she needs HB to pay rent.

And LL's can not only refuse to take HB claimaints but they can also refuse to let to anyone with children.

The OP clearly states, in the OP, that she is living in her mother' flat.

Very very few council homes in London have gardens, let alone big enough to put an insulated shed in.

To be fair, there are insulated shed sand insulated sheds, and many of us have grandparents who raised families after the war in pre-fabs - many of which were exactly like insulated sheds.

There is so much wrong advice on here at the moment, if you have a private landlord, whose mortgage/insurance states that they cannot accept HB claimants because it voids there mortgage/insurance and clearly states this under their tenancy agreement, then they can give notice and tenancy agreement will be void, they can/will be evicted from the property, as the landlord is not covered by insurances by law.

Most HA/Council will only accept claimants now if in receipt of HB, that they agree HB will be directly be paid to them.

MsJ is right. The lenders to landlords don't allow the landlord to take on a HB funded tenant.

By the way those suggesting there is no work for the pregnant I got my last job when 5 months pregnant. It's not impossible, particularly if you can show the the previous child you used 2 weeks of your annual leave to have your baby in. I only mention all this to give an example of what some of us do in terms of work and why some of us can support ourselves and others can't. It does work. I am sure no one in state supported housing really wants that and they would love not to have any housing support from the state and a good job.

Yes, Grazia, I didn't actually stop working at all and was even writing research grant applications while in labour, but that was easy for me as I hadn't been thrown out my house, abandoned by a feckless partner, bunking in an overcrowded flat with extended family and, get this, I ALREADY HAD A JOB.

My field is unusually tolerant of pregnant women but I honestly can't see a situation where someone could suddenly pop up and be hired potentially days before a baby is due for an immediate start on a meaningful job that would pay enough to rent a flat in London (i.e. in the £50k-£75k bracket, so top 5-10% of the population). You couldn't even get a proper interview set up in that sort of timescale.

We are talking about a nano-percentage of the population that would be able to pull something like this off, and only those people with rock solid home arrangements and extensive business networks in a niche field where they were a key player.

You really have got some odd ideas about the world if you think this is possible for the majority of the population in the way that you are suggesting, even for the most motivated of people.

I don't have the energy right now to reply to everyone. But just to point out, I am not a "scrounger" or a leech as some posters have implied. I've worked hard and I enjoy the benefits of working hard. I started this thread as I feel at a loss right now, I feel helpless. I don't know what my options are wrt housing and no income. I applied for council housing as a last resort, because I felt/feel desperate. Tbh, I'd rather not live in social housing, because chances are, I would be stuck in a very undesirable area.

Also another point about working. I would love to work, I really would. It beats being stuck at home with little/no social life. But realistically would anyone be willing to take me on right now? When I give birth in 8 weeks, is it really a logical choice for me, as a single mother, to go out to work whilst my baby is a newborn with no childcare or help from friends and family? I would have expected my now ex-partner to help me financially until I felt ready to work again. Perhaps when baby is 4/5 months old. But that is far from possible right now.