To beg you to help me make this decision? Renting & council & SKY HI ANXIETY

[Crapatdecisions]

I'm a lodger at the moment, it's very physically safe and clean and I was very happy but the landlord I think is playing some mind games with me. Says I'm not clean and tidy enough, that if I don't scrub shower tiles with bleach every week rats and mice will come in to eat my skin flakes and that I should have told her all my health issues before I moved in. I feel very insecure and like she could ask me to leave at any minute.

I have physical disabilities (I disclosed some of these before moving in, but not all) and anxiety which she does not know about. My anxiety is really hard to control when I feel I'm going to be asked to leave my home. I have no family I can stay with.

The council have offered me a flat with a private landlord they work with. It's very expensive though. About half as much again as what I pay now, then bills on top.

I work part time and get PIP so can comfortably pay my rent BUT my PIP is being re assessed at the moment and if they discontinue it I won't get any housing benefit to help. My wages do not even cover my rent, leaving out bills, food, travel to work, and anything else.

So what risk do I take? Do i take the risk of staying here with no contract knowing I could be asked to leave, but with less money to pay? Or take the council offer for help with a landlord who is fine with housing benefit tenants but risk a situation if I lose PIP entitlement?

The council are pushing for a decision by tomorrow morning. I feel so stressed and like I can't evaluate things properly. I'm terrified of making the wrong decison.

If you've read all that, thank you. WWYD?

It's not a council property though is it, it's a private let through the council, am I right about that'll? So the council will be guaranteeing to pay the rent to the landlord for a certain period but certainly not forever.

The housing officer is getting quite aggressive this morning. Says he can't answer my question about what to do if PIP stops. Says discretionary housing payment might refuse as I would be signing a tenancy knowing my PIP is being re assessed.

He's just emailed saying so do you not want it then? I'm stressed again. He seems to think I'm being annoying on purpose! I'm just concerned I won't be able to pay my rent!

If this is the way the system works, surely it's no wonder people get into debt? Even apart from homelessness?

Yes it's not social housing. It's a private rental arranged by the council with landlords who they team up with, to accept people on housing benefits.

Honestly, I'd be ok with landlord's nasty moods now and then if I felt like she wouldn't ask me to leave in a fit of temper.

All I can say is DD hAs multiple spinal problems Which pip tried to stop

Lucky she’s a Leo so they stood no chanse

Anc yes take as many as u can!!

Take as many what? Sorry, I don't understand? I'm glad your dd was able to keep her PIP though.

Landlord now saying to me that beyond January she doesn't know what might happen and I might need to leave Honestly I am so sick of this shit. We all have to live somewhere, it's not optional, I just don't know how to manage it.

I'm so so crap and anxious when I feel I have a shaky or sketchy living situation. I can't think properly or focus on anything else. It's like a bit of my head can't switch off, and is constantly alert, in case I have to pack up straight away or something. Not that I know where to fucking go!

I need to get away from everyone and everything, I just want quietness and peace and room to breathe. Not to live with drunk strangers or abusive men or people telling me I'm dirty and wrong in everything.

I work part time and get PIP so can comfortably pay my rent BUT my PIP is being re assessed at the moment and if they discontinue it I won't get any housing benefit to help

I'm not sure how the possibility of not having PIP will mean you will not be entitled to any housing benefit. PIP/DLA income is disregarded.

Do you get ESA at all?
And if you're turned down by PIP, just appeal to get it reinstated.

And breathe.
Getting yourself worked up isn't doing you any favours right now. Have a cup of tea and then start again.
Have you done an excel sheet or whatever method you use? I always find that actually doing something (and not just thinking) calms me down as I know I'm doing something to sort the situation.

If the OP loses PIP then they won't be allowed housing benefit for the flat they're being offered, they'll only get shared room rate - that's why there's an issue with continuing to get PIP. If you're under 35 you don't get benefit for a flat unless recieving PIP (not sure which rates link with that). It also effects ability with some councils to get discretionary payments because the assumption is you are no longer disabled as no PIP so need to find more work - they won't just give discretionary payments - this can be different if appealing, but again it varies from council to council.

Also, appeal times vary massively from area to area. There's no guarantee it will be heard within three months if it stopping, the DWP can take that long to do a mandetory reconsideration never mind the appeal.

If the OP loses PIP then they won't be allowed housing benefit for the flat they're being offered, they'll only get shared room rate - that's why there's an issue with continuing to get PIP.

Housing benefit is income related. There are plenty of people in work having to claim HB to top their rent up.

Do you already get HB OP?

Is she saying this to make you do all the cleaning as she is aware that you are a bit germ phobic so you will do it?
Many years ago when I had lodgers I did all the cleaning for them in communal parts of the house.

Shared house rate is often much lower than the amount you would get for a single person flat.
The council are saying that, as she gets PIP, she has a medical need for a single occupancy property. So therefore the higher rate HB.
If she doesn't get PIP, they've decided she doesn't have the medical need therefore she should be living in a HMO and therefore get the lower rate of HB.

It's to do with the "bedroom tax" AFAIK

Ok so now the housing officer has rung. He spoke to the discretionary housing payment people and they recommend I do not commit to a rent that far exceeds my income, because they probably will not pay discretionary housing payment to me at all as I would be going into this knowing full well my PIP is not guaranteed.

It's different if for example you lose your job unexpectedly, then you have more chance of getting dhp. It can't be something you know about and then assum dhp to pay. Which is fair enough.

Anyway, so it's all off and I have no flat now.

No I don't get ESA as I work. PIP is an in work benefit. I just don't work full time, but that does not mean I am entitled to ESA.

We don't live in an ideal world, people who desperately need ESA and can't work at all are being turned down. So I imagine I'd be laughed out of it if I applied!

I clean my area, I don't think she wants me to do general cleaning as cleaners come to the house. I think it is a control thing. She is retired and seems over invested in my life in general.

jonsonow yes I know.

The op is under 35 so the maximum they can get in local housing allowance is shared room rate. However, with PIP that age rule no longer applies so they can claim the one bedroom rate. Without PIP they won't get one bedroom rate.

Hopefully that's more clear.

PIP appeals are taking over a year in some cases, it's not a quick turnaround.

Becca yes that's spot on, thank you for explaining as my garbled posts probably are a bit incoherent!

Babyorsanta yes that's right, thank you too.

Thank you all for the support here! It saves my sanity to be able to actually discuss it with other people, helps me think better.

X-post with OP. My council take the same view, discretionary payments are here very hard to get though the housing department would have you believe they're automatic I learnt the hard way best to ask finance rather than housing about them.

I hope you can find a way forward with the person you're living with. Could you perhaps start looking for somewhere else? I know it's a lot easier said than done, but at least then you might feel like you're doing something and that'll help your anxiety?

I got there in the end! it's not an easy rule to explain.

Ok so now you look around for other lodgings with a normal landlady. Presumably you haven't had problems like this in the past?

Take the control away from her.

He spoke to the discretionary housing payment people and they recommend I do not commit to a rent that far exceeds my income, because they probably will not pay discretionary housing payment to me at all as I would be going into this knowing full well my PIP is not guaranteed.

It's not that they probably won't pay. It's that they can't guarantee it. There's only been so much money put in the pot for DHPs and sadly it doesn't spread to cover all those who's greatly benefit from it.