Will UC housing element also pay hot water and heating costs?

[Question8383]

Posting for traffic as I posted on the Property/DIY board but didn’t receive any comments. I’d really appreciate advice as I need to make a decision soon!

I’ve put in an offer for a rental property that’s been accepted by the Landlord. The Estate Agents called me today saying that the Landlord has only now revealed that they will be charging £200 a month to cover hot water and heating costs which will be on top of the monthly £1900 PCM rent. This will also be written into the tenancy agreement.

I told the EA to withdraw the offer because £2100 is way above my LHA which is £1944. The EA suggested to put in an offer for £1800 PCM and with the £200 additional charge, that will take the monthly total up to £2000. Now, here’s my question.

As the £200 charge will be written in my tenancy, will this also be covered by the housing element? Will I receive £1944 a month by UC and have to top it up by £56. Or will UC pay £1800 which is the official rent price and I’ll have to cover the £200 by myself? I’m struggling to find an answer on this so I’d be helpful to hear from those in the same situation and are on UC

If you read my comments, then you’ll see my answer but I’m happy to provide a step by step plan for you.

Step 1. You’ll need to be a single parent.
Step 2. You’ll need to receive UC.
Step 3. You’ll need to have two children so that you have a 2 bedroom property allowance.
Step 4. You’ll need at least one of those children to be disabled and in receipt of DLA. Then you’ll be able to apply for an additional bedroom allowance.
Step 5. Now that you have a bedroom allowance of a 3 bed property, you’ll need to check what the LHA is for your area and bham, wham, slam, there you have it.

Good luck😉

PLEASE NOTE The LHA is dependent on where you are in the country. Following these steps may NOT guarantee a rent allowance of £1944.37 PCM

Ffs dunno why I bother going to work.

the fact that you would even consider allowing the taxpayer to cover your energy bills is shocking.

the country has gone mad

Theres always one.

You will have only get the £1800 if your LHA is more.

I'm surprised that the landlord isn't charging the full amount of LHA as rent. Hi

Erm, you both work ! If your husband was single working parent with 2 children then UC would cover his rent as well on that wage with those housing costs

When you say heating and hot water, does that mean you still pay an electricity bill on top for lights, power etc? If so that seems extortionate. Does that include water rates?
We pay £200 a month for gas and electricity and £75 for water, that's an old 3 bed house and I've decided I'm not being cold anymore. We also do approx 7-9 loads of washing a week, full a paddling pool and DH spends so much time in the (very deep) bath he's pretty much semi aquatic at this point.

£200 plus electricity, plus water rates in a flat is outrageous and I'm a Londoner.

Yeah, exactly, you’ve got it right. I’m just going to make up figures here but say I pay £50 a month to Thames Water for the water bill. I pay £110 to OVO Energy for any gas used (via a gas cooker etc) and the electricity used. I’d also pay £200 a month to the Landlord to cover the communal hot water and heating.

So £360 a month for a two bedroom property. Of course I’ve made those figures up but it does sound like quite a bit

Allowing? As if I’m the individual that wrote the policy on UC and LHA. How about you write to your local MP and tell them how unhappy you are about the benefits system and ask them what changes they consider making in Parliament? Or are you just giving your two pence which I didn’t ask for?

Quit your job if you don’t know why you bother with working. Unemployment must sound really attractive to you

The owner of the flat will be responsible in this set up. They will have to pay if tenant defaults so makes sense for it to be paid regularly to them. Some tenants could struggle with a 2.4k bill presented annually.

I have never heard of anything so complicated.

First your rent goes to the estate agent....not the landlord?
The landlord is the lease holder? So they only own the one flat? Not the whole lot?
The freeholder is the council??? Is it the council or a housing association or a company set up by the council?
The council/freeholder pay the hot water and heating? Does that include the actual water or just heating the water?
You also pay direct for actual water? Is that metered or rates? Cos I don't understand how that ties in with the hot water charge.
I do understand the gas and electric part.

But yes a fixed charge each month for something as variable and individual as heating and hot water doesn't seem too sensible or fair.

I assume you bother because you do actually know that living on benefits is shit and they don't actually cover your living expenses, you're just pretending you don't. Or maybe you genuinely are ignorant and prejudiced.

I actually do hope it's the second one as then there's a possibility of you learning, changing and growing.

@BarHumbugs I think it’s fair enough to be shocked someone is receiving £1944 a month in housing benefit. Most people (including in London) would struggle / need to be well paid to afford this.

For a single person on £50k this would be two thirds of their wage - they wouldn’t get any state help.

It’s a huge issue with our housing market / cost of renting & buying / lack of social housing, that the government has to subsidise people such large sums simply to ensure they have a roof over their head.

It does seem complicated the more I write it down tbh! I think I’m used to it because it’s the same in my current property.

From my understanding, I pay my rent to the EA’s, they take their cut and then they transfer the majority of the rent to the Landlord. The whole point of the EA’s is that they manage the property on behalf of the Landlord.

The building/estate is owned by the council and the Landlord only owns the one flat. I’d make an educated guess to say it was purchased under the rent to buy scheme and now they rent it out.

When the council give the Landlord the yearly bill for service charges, there’s a section that says ‘hot water + heating.’ There’s a breakdown for how much the hot water charge is and how much the heating charge is. As it’s a communal system, the charge doesn’t necessarily reflect on the tenant and how much they’ve personally used over 12 months. The council asks the Landlord to pay a percentage and would charge the exact same amount even if the property was empty! This amount doesn’t include the actual water, it just covers heating the water.

I’d still need to pay a monthly bill to Thames Water regardless of the hot water and heating charge. I don’t mind paying a fixed rate each month but I definitely think that once the yearly bill is given to the Landlord, it should also be sent to me and if I’ve overpaid, I get the money back

You’ve just compared a single person earning 50K to a single parent who’s a full time carer and has two disabled children. Do you really think we should receive the same level of help, genuinely?

£1944 will just about get you a two bedroom property in my area, it certainly won’t get you a three bedroom which is the whole reason why the amount is so much. Again, please write to your local MP about the fact that the taxpayers are covering high rental prices which go straight to the Landlord. Adding your two pence on a thread that didn’t ask for it, doesn’t change anything

What's the alternative, when rents are so high that there's no way people could afford them? Working people often qualify for UC because their earnings are insufficient for their needs once rent is taken into account.

Nearly 40% of people receiving UC are working. I'd advise anyone struggling to pay their rent to use one of the online benefit checkers to see if they might be entitled to UC, and to start a claim if they are. I did a benefit check for a single parent of 3 last week. They were entitled to a fair bit in UC despite being on £38k a year.

@Question8383 no I don’t think someone earning £50k should get £2k a month housing benefit - in that scenario most of the working population of Britain would be receiving more in housing benefit than they pay in tax.

You should have state supported housing, of course. It’s not your fault the state has opted to farm this out to the private sector at enormous expense.

But the basic facts of it are - it’s a massive amount of money and people not in receipt of government support probably couldn’t afford this kind of rent, so yes it’s going to be surprising to know you can claim these kinds of sums.

And anyone needing a three bed property could claim this much in your area.

It’s not a criticism of you, it’s a criticism of the government and their mishandling of the housing market.

You are merely claiming what you are entitled to.

Shock at the cost of the housing bill caused by short-sighted political policies and lack of investment are justified, blaming and misrepresenting the circumstances of the people that have been the most disadvantaged by this is not.

That sounds very high for a flat a month. Is 200 standard in the building?
These things never seem to be very clear.

Also my sister is on uc and the lha is 450 a month. Just for the people who read this and think all people who have to claim uc are getting the best part of 2 grand paid rent wise.
I think if anything it just highlights how mad the rent prices are .

For those saying what a ridiculously high sum - yes it is, but blame the situation in this country- I'm pretty sure OP would be quite happy to have a good 3 bed social housing flat at £940 a month etc - this is why the situation is bad and unsustainable- particularly in the southern half of the country- the state could own a huge amount of housing assets and be paying far less out every month to support those who need housing payments. Thing is it requires a lot of upfront investment- planning to change so Unis aren't constantly building blocks of luxury little studios for mainly overseas students etc - it requires a totally different mindset-

People in that situation are much better off IN London than in a cheaper property elsewhere, if their top up is only £56 a month. In my area (NW) rents are cheaper (typically 1K pcm for 3 beds) but the LHA rate is less than £600 a month, so someone on UC has to top up £400+ a month themselves from their remaining benefits.

See that sounds insane to me. I'm on prepayment meters and spend no more than £130 for gas and electric combined even in the middle of winter. £30 a month for normal water bill.

There's 6 of us in a terrace house. I work from home, and I have one home Ed child so he's around using gadgets and stuff all day!

OP gets the 3 bedroom rate but has to live in a 2 bedroom flat to pay such a small top up. I live in an expensive area just outside of London. Lha is £1320/month for a 3 bedroom place but the cheapest 3 bedrooms are around £1795/month.

Then there's the benefit cap. If a single mum with 3 children gets £1320/month towards their rent, then pays the £475/month top up she will have £40/month left over for bills, food, transport, etc. as her benefits will be capped at £1835/month.

@BarHumbugs Yes, I have a friend in a similar position. Some people are paying 90% of their income on rent. God only knows how they manage.

House is heated to 18 degrees and I have a very long very deep bath most days. Toddler also has a bath and DP a shower daily. (I also shower when I don’t have a bath. I realised that made me sound like I don’t wash every day!)
Use a heated towel rail for about half an hour most days in the winter to dry towels.

We have good insulation and are slowly replacing the old windows.

washing machine on a few times a week, usual gadgets and phones being charged. We are careful about turning lights off etc and don’t watch much telly though.

DP gets a little too obsessed with the smart meter in the winter I will say!

I’d look to see if you are wasting energy tbh or there’s something going wrong with your meter or something. Or change supplier!

OP ignore the benefits knobs. The problem is the housing policies in the country going back decades.

Claim UC then, if you genuinely think it’s the easy life. As someone who currently cannot work, it doesn’t matter which ‘element’ my bills come out of, most of my bills are paid from the whole UC anyway. ‘Elements’ are simply the different amounts you get for different aspects of the claim.