Housing Benefit suspended:pay rent or do Christmas - can't do both!

[NoMoneyMona]

I had to put in a claim for top up housing benefit as my job contract ended in October. DH works full time but rent is very high (£1200 for a 3 bed) and we have 3 DC.

I have been unable to find another job despite applying for at least 2/3 most days, as many want weekend workers/evenings, and DH works weekends/eves anyway so we would have no childcare.

HB started paying about 3 weeks later and shortly after that they sent a letter asking for more evidence and gave me a month to supply it. Part of the evidence requested was a new child tax credit award showing the new award since I stopped working as amount would increase. I still did not have a new award by the time the month was up (and I forgot to chase them) so I contacted HB the day after the month was up to explain.

They stated, quite correctly I agree, that I should have contacted them within the month they gave so they could give me more time and as I did not contact them, they had suspended my HB and it would 3/4 weeks to reinstate it. The next day, I got the award notice and took it in to them but they insisted that I would be at the back of the 'queue' and they may not get to my claim before Christmas so I may have to wait until January as they close from the 24th Dec to 4th Jan.

That was 3 weeks ago. We have not had any payments since 23rd November. DH got paid today and if we use that for rent next week (and direct debits, normal food), we will not have a penny left. I will have £50 in tax credits to come as well which will not cover many extras. I have not bought anything for DC as I kept putting if off hoping for the claim to be reinstated. When I rang today, they said I would be unlikely to get any money before the 11th January! We have no access to credit.

WWYD? Would I be unreasonable to keep back about half of the rent and pay the rest when the HB restarts which will cover the shortfall?

And to be fair is my advice to not pay ct and have a modest Christmas worse than her idea of keeping half the rent to spoil the children?

I think its clear that OP has no intentions of paying the rent in full or even politely asking LL. Her pride is whats stopping her from getting cheaper toys food etc. My DH was out of work for a year and i had been on maternity leave at the time. We never missed one bill or rent payment and everything was paid on time. The water company are very flexiable and we were allowed to make larger payments once we were more comfortable. This could be done with tv licensing aswell.

olive whilst this thread is full of anecdotal evidence, I reckon it's pretty useless without corresponding data from people who don't claim hb. And as it's just the circumstances of one potential benefit claimant, it really would be a shame to make.this decision based on it.
I totally get that your not a charity, but no one was suggesting you should be. Simply that you base your choice of who to let to on other factors, factors which seem less, well, unfair
I really doubt you are any safer with non hb tenants.

No offence intended Ava but the 'experts' rarely know what it's like being in the actual situation.

The benefits system generally is a nightmare to navigate, inconsistent not only across different regions but even depending who you speak to in a particular office on a particular day.

Add that to as pp have said non or late payment of ct can and does quickly lead to bailiffs and jail.

Frankly the op can't even be certain it will be backdated - they don't have to as it was her mistake, or that it will be paid 11 jan. January is really busy in council offices.

And I agree also with pp's stating it really is NOT that easy to get ha property. I got one once when I was on verge of homelessness with a toddler, but only with the support of pm and shelter.

I'm renting privately right now, been on waiting list for local ha for 5 years and that's even with a lot of points! Someone evicted for rent arrears will be at bottom of a long list.

Argh flaming auto correct changing stuff well after typed - support of MP!

I heard all sorts of shit from the HB department themselves and if i'd listened to any of it the DC's and I would have been on the streets.

reading this im wondering whether the LL is actually paying the mortgage on the property ...if its more than the actual rent shes at loss....maybe shes just pocketing the money and is gonna let the house be repossessed.....i think the OP has more to worry about than whether she can only part pay her rent this month!

OP, you have received at least one payment of housing benefit and have only been without it for 3 weeks. You need to pay the rent.

Pay your bloody rent OP. Budget better in future and build the buffer you expect everyone else to have to bail you out.

Baconyum no offence taken. She is in the field, not a policy maker, anyway I wish the op would come back with the dc ages so we could help more than just saying pay your bloody rent. I am right about ct by the way. It's the same people administering.

I'd personally never rent privately again, it's either council or mortgage for me, that way the only time I'm getting chucked out is when it's my own fault for not paying the money. Plus adaptions can't be refused, which happened to me in all my private rentals.

A debt spiral is very easy to start, and hard to stop, even harder to get back into the black, so I'd always say pay your bills first, although negotiating to see if it's possible to split payments isn't out of the question, you have to be prepared for the answer to be no.

Not saying that is easy. When I run out of money because of bills and it means I can't afford the travel fare to and from Birmingham, if I can't get a family member to help me out, I go without seeing my daughter. I've gone without a Christmas before when we couldn't afford it, it was actually kind of fun the stuff mum scraped together for the day, lots of baking and playing board games and eating un-Christmassy food. Then we got to have Christmas in January when everyone else was all done with it, which made it even cooler.

Food bank and Salvation Army (and Mumsnet) made my year when I was struggling with losing the private rent I had, so they can always help, there were some fantastic gifts for both my kids, I think I spent half the holidays crying because there were so many nice people in the world.

i gave up reading after page 2.

just to put my 10p worth in....your rent and bills come first. then food. THEN the luxuries like xmas presents/xmas food. There are lots of other people going without this xmas - esp children - so you just need to suck it up.

i started my new job 9th november - bastards didn't tell us their timesheet cutoff date policy and led us to believe we would be getting 3 weeks wage at end of november.......in actual fact we got paid 5 days wages to last til 31st december - a grand total of £245.00. I consider myself lucky that as it's my first wage i'm not being charged tax on it yet to it would have been even lower.

i used all my meagre savings and £150 from my wage to pay my rent. That has left me with £20 per week to get to work and feed myself and my two cats. Employer refused to advance me any of my wages for transport and i had to rely on the kindness of a stranger - my new manager - to lend me bus fare so i can get to work. I can't afford to pay my council tax or any bills.

I'm raiding the reduced shelf in my local supermarket for cheap food and freezing what i can. i'm currently eating one meal a day which consists of either a cold sandwich made with cheap processed meat-and salad if i'm lucky, or it's home made chips with a portion of frozen veg.

This means NO presents, xmas food, going anywhere/doing anything, i'm even going to have to choose between eating and buying deodrant and washing up powder - and i've been shopping at poundland for those as well!

i'm not entitled to foodbank vouchers because i'm classed as 'working full time on a minimum wage' and therefore not eligible despite the circumstances.

am i seriously pissed off and fucked off and feeling like this isn't fair? YES.
Am i going to behave like an entitled brat and refuse to pay my landlord his rent when i DO have the OPTION of paying him - NO. I have no idea what his personal financial circumstances are but i know i'm not going to pass the xmas 'scrooge shit' onto him.

You have to accept responsibility for not dealing with the Award/HB thing in a timely manner.

I've got the basics - a roof above my head and some food on the table. i'll survive...just like those who have even less than me survive. You also have these basics and will also survive. You're not the only one in this situation.

Sometimes life is like this. You just got to roll with it and make do. At least you and i will have more money to 'play' with next month.......for others in this country and round the world this kind of 'unfairness' is an everyday and all year round thing......

DontMindMe1

Something I often find very filling and cheap to buy in Lidl, is rice/noodles/pasta. I use condiments to flavour them, and that bulks up a bit on what I am eating. Stock cubes for noodles and rice, olive oil/pepper/jif lemon for pasta. I always have those condiments to some degree, and the cheap brand stuff costs under 50p mostly.

Pay the rent, it's not worth not doing so. Then - Co op are doing a Christmas dinner for £10 this weekend (turkey crown, veg, yorkshires etc plus an ice cream pudding), and then pound shop, £10 per child - use your tax credit payment. It's shit, but at least no debt, and once you get back on a level you can get them something else. We had a card cloning incident a couple of years ago and our account was cleared 10 days before Christmas, it took the bank until the New Year to sort it out and put the money back. The above was pretty much our christmas.

You have several choices....

Speak to your landlord and see if they'll agree to the HB portion of rent being late (I'm in that situation with my tenant atm and I get that they can't magic the money from nowhere)

Go down to the council on Monday, explain the delay in the Tax Credit award and cry/beg/plead with someone to deal with your HB

Phone your local Councillor or MP, explain the situation and cry/beg/plead with them to get involved

Massively scale back Christmas - buy little things and if you want to spend more then give your children vouchers for X amount to be spent in the sales on your special day out on X date that you've planned in January.

Not paying your rent and not warning the landlord about the shortfall is the single quickest way to ruin your relationship with your LL. I have buffers in place, but I hate it when a tenant just doesn't bother telling me they are "only" going to be a few days late or whatever. I have bills too.

Also just to balance up some previous comments about HB tenants - I actually prefer HB tenants now, and possibly bizarrely to some I chose my last tenants because they were long-term disabled and on long-term benefits. People in their situation don't get made redundant, their wages dept doesn't fuck up, they don't change jobs and have gaps, and they don't get sacked/redundant and have to wait weeks and weeks for JSA/HB etc to kick in. They have a reliable income source and they are no less honest and reliable at paying their rent than anyone else. The two worst tenants I've ever had both worked. One had a very respectable profession, but partying and buying flashy cars to keep up with his colleagues took precedent over his rent. The other was made redundant, was too "proud" to claim benefits and got so offended that I didn't accept happily that he needed a job that stimulated him rather than just any shitty job (his words) that he trashed the place the day before he was evicted. My current tenants have had a nightmare with the HB benefit department, but have kept me in the loop so I'm happy to work with them just now because I know they are trying to resolve it.

Also if the LL is making a loss on the property every month be aware that the mortgage provider can use section 8 to evict even if you have a a valid tenancy.

Even if the rent is less than the mortgage the LL can use other sources of income to top up the rent. You're unlikely to be evicted because the LL is not paying the mortgage.

Pay your rent OP.

Hammaconda, you don't know the LL's situation, how can you possibly guarantee that?

Everyone is giving the OP the same message, yet she isn't listening.

I think she has spent the money and wanted to justify it to herself. She is now shocked at the response from the people.

I think so too Penelope. Like it would somehow reflect badly on the OP if xmas wasn't a £600 affair. OP, if you're still listening - it really wouldn't.

if the LL isnt paying the mortgage the house could be repossessed, then you would be evicted !

Don'tmindme, I work on our local foodbank and you would be eligible, try your local CAB or something for a referral.

Penelope, that would explain OP completely ignoring all other suggestions.

You definitely can and will be evicted if the landlord doesn't pay the mortgage and the house gets repossessed.

we don't know if this is the situation here.