Housing benefit and elderly parents - any advice please??

[Smiling2019]

Hello!
My parents are in their 70s and live in a different county to me. They receive state pension, attendance allowance, disability and all other benefits they’re entitled to (they have no other source of income). They live in a housing association home (rented) but as my dad’s health needs are becoming more complex, I would like to consider them moving nearer to us. We live 50 miles from them and because of jobs/schools etc, us moving closer to them really isn’t a practical option right now.

I checked with the local council here and they said they would only consider housing my parents if they have a family connection to the area we live in, for 5 years or more. We have only lived here 3 years! So from what I can gather, our only hope then would be trying to find them private rented accommodation? Can anyone advise if we have any rights in this? Will housing benefit pay for private rented housing? Would we still have to ‘transfer’ them from one county to another, in terms of benefits?

There are some really nice (affordable) sheltered apartments round here and I would love to get them into one of those!

Can anyone advise please?

HB advisor here. Do they get HB where they live now? Are you looking at another housing association property or a private landlord?

If it's a private landlord you would need to check what the LHA is for your area and this figure would be the maximum they could receive depending on their income. Your local council's website may have an online calculation you could do. Or ring your housing benefit department and ask them for advice. They would need to make a new claim if they move to another area.

positive thing they wont have a charge/reduction for extra room if over retirement age

Ah, thank you! Yes, they get housing benefit at the moment and they’re not currently looking to move, as they want to try and manage a bit longer. In 6-12 months, ideally I’d like them closer to me, but was told by my local council that they would not rehouse them in my county, unless I had been living here for 5 years. I believe my parents would only allowed be allowed to move to my county if they had a family member who’d lived here for 5 years (I’ve only been here for 3!). So if the council wouldn’t accept them into sheltered accommodation, I guess the only other option would be privately rented? And then like you say, they could get HB but it might not cover the full cost?

Have they registered on the homeswapper website? There may be someone looking for an exchange and wanting to move to the area they are in and then they move into that property. It is for housing associations and council tenants. Worth a try have a google