paying your rent with housing benefit

[refmum]

Hi,

I am due to make my first rent payment on 21st April.i am getting housing benefit and today i got a letter to confirm this,only problem is i will not be getting my benefit untill 28th April and then i will get it 4 weekly from then on,so i will have to pay the rent myself or my rent will be late and i will be in trouble with my landlord.

I rang the housing benefit people today about this and there is nothing they can do. How do people manage? my rent will be due before my payment arrives in my bank until July,by then i will get it just before it's due.

Worried

I borrowed the money off my parents and then paid them back. But I didn't tell the housing association this because I don't think you're supposed to do that as technically it probably means you don't need the benefit.

Talk about catch 22!!!!

Don't know what I would have done without their help.

Weird that you have to have a signed contract in place before you can get it too, that means you have to have paid 2 months rent (ie deposit plus first month). And they take 6 weeks to kick in with housing benefit (if they get the paperwork sorted on time) you have to have altogether 3 months rent ready before you receive any help.

The only solution is to borrow the money from somewhere or sweet talk your landlord.

This is why landlords don't accept 'DSS payments'. My landlord has no idea I am on housing ben. They never asked so I never told them!!

You should get in contact with your landlord and explain to them your situation. I have had to do it twice and not had a problem with them. They don't usually care if it is going to be a few days late as long as they are going to get it. Especially if it's just a temporary thing. Housing benefit usually pay in arrears. Are you also on income support/jobseekers allowance because you could try to get a social loan to tide you over, perhaps.
That's all the help I can give, I'm afraid, but definitely talk to the landlord.

Thanks.

My mum has said i can borrow from her then pay her back when hb goes into my account.

Talk about making it hard for us,i had to borrow the security deposit from my mum and i was gifted the first months rent from a charity,i am so grateful for their help,i will be paying my mum back bit by bit for the security deposit.