Housing Benefit Question

[turtle23]

DH and I are splitting and I am going mad living with him. If I wait around until he finally lets us buy somewhere small I will lose it. I have a 17 month old DS and am 6+months pg.
If I go to a rented place with HB I am under the assumption that we will only beallowed a 2 bed place. Is this right? If I wanted somewhere with three bedrooms is it possible to put HB towards it?
Will get myself to CAB next week, just cant do it at the moment.
Please advise!

At my council they have a certain allowance for the property size, not the inhabitants iyswim. So you may get £x but have to put £x towards it yourself as well.

This website will tell you the number of rooms and the maximum amount paid in your area.

You can put it towards a larger property if you can afford to pay the deficit, which isn't very easy if you're on benefits.

Scorps is right.

Basically if you got (fat chance usually) a council house then yes you'd get 2 bedrooms, but otherwise the cash is a sum towards and you would be able to allocate that where you wished.

Remembering of course that there won't be laods left over from benefits to allocate, and that they dry up the HB quickly if you earn.

Entitled to is the website to get figures

have a look here you can do the bedroom calculator and check what the rate is for your entitlement in your area.

As Scorps says - you can rent whatever size place you like - but the housing benefit (or LHA as it's now known) will only pay what you are entitled too so you'd have to top up the rest out of your other benefits).

Thanks all...have realised that I could get a 3 bedroom house within allowance if I'm careful. Now just have to decide whether I uproot myself, bump and boy to somewhere before or after baby comes.
This is just so very shit.

Hi turtle
was in a similar situation to yourself few months ago and moved at 35 weeks to new house. Had enough time to unpack and for the new place to feel like home before DD was born. Very pleased did it before she arrived as nice to have the move over and done with and not still to be tackled with newborn and 2 toddlers in tow. Hope that helps. DD now 4 months and we are all surviving, you will too

speak to your local CAB or women's aid advice service. they should be able to help. good luck

i did this. get a private rental that will accept housing.

if your lucky you will get a 3 bed for under your allowance.

in my authority as i was quite a bit under... i also got £15 extra to keep above my rent which pays my water rates.

'until he finally lets us buy somewhere '.

If you and your partner both own the property you currently live in, you won't be entitled to any Housing Benefit (HB) at all as you own property.

If HE owns the property solely you currently live in, you still won't be entitled to HB if he is declared as your official partner because HE owns property and is connected to you.

If you do declare yourself as ex-partners, you STILL won't be entitled to HB immediately because you will be forced to declare how much he intends to pay you for maintenance and that will be deducted from your HB.

This is my council. your's may have different terms.