Council house advise

[lockdownbabyx]

Sorry posting here for traffic

Me and my partner currently rent privately and have done for the last 4 years.
We have been told that come January our rent will increase by 25%. We are not going to be able to afford this. We have already been looking for somewhere else to rent, however earlier this year my partner entered into an IVA. Because of this we are now struggling to get anyone to accept us for private rent. (Even though we are financially better off because of the IVA).

I've never even looked into council houses before, would that even be an option for us? We have 2 children under 3. Would it require us to be put into emergency housing?

Depends on your income, if you can afford rent you are likely to be low priority but you can still ask to go on the waiting list. Some housing associations have different criteria (eg priority for certain occupations) so it's worth checking around. You would need to be evicted for rent arrears and prove you did everything you could to avoid them (so not just stopping paying) then the council could help you as you are homeless but it's a very risky strategy. Far better to try the first way!

You can try going on the waiting list but you might not get very far as you are currently housed and most areas have long waiting lists. Are you entitled to UC to help with rent? Could you up your hours at work to pay?

You would be better off asking this question of the local authority where you live. Each L/A has it's own allocations policy , although the government issues instructions there is still some leeway on what each can do. { I was a housing officer before retirement, and you do need to ask the L/A where you live}