long term hospital stay and housing benefit

[ilovecakes]

I have a good friend who has been suffering with mental health problems and has been in and out of hospital for the past couple of years and is currently under section.

As she is obviously unable to work she has been having her rent paid by housing benefit. However her current hospital stay has been a very long one and as she has not stayed in her house for 52 weeks now she has been informed that her housing benefit will stop and she will therefore lose her house as she will be unable to pay the rent.

She was told that if she just went and spent one night at the house then her benefit would continue but unfortunately she has not been well enough to do this.

I wondered if anyone knows if there is anything else she could do. I realise that there has to be a time limit on benefits etc it just seems so unfair as this really is beyond her control, and I know that losing her house will come as a big blow to her and may seiously affect her mental health even further.

I am a mental health nurse but haven't worked in a hospital for a long time. However I would suggest initially that your friend (or someone on her behalf) asks her named nurse/keyworker for further advice. If the ward nurse doesn't know much about it then they should be able to find out.

If she has not been well enough to go on leave for a night, could there be a way round this? (possibly not depending on her mental state and how safe/appropriate this would be?) Perhaps if a friend/close relative was able to stay with her overnight? Does it have to be overnight or just a few hours?

This sounds very hard for your friend. Hope she is better soon.