Struggling working poor. Advice greatly needed.

[Buttonnosedsausage]

I'm normally a lurker and I don't post much.
This whole situation is a bit complicated. I'm feeling increasingly depressed and I feel like I'm a bad mother.

I moved into a bedsit with dp a few years ago. We were both made bankrupt but we are both working and we have a ds, of 1 years old.
We are on the housing register, our approximate waiting time for a property is 21 years. Our council are famously the worst in the country.
We desperately need to find appropriate accommodation.

We have been given notice to leave. Due to our circumstances the advice which we have been given is to wait for the courts to evict us.
The landlord has been putting pressure on us to leave so that they don't go through the court (it will be of great cost to them) and if we leave now we will make ourselves intentionally homeless.

Dp works 6 and a half days a week on a low wage. I have recently returned to work part-time after maternity leave, but I'm having childcare problems and am hanging on to stay in work. We are not entitled to housing benefit unless I leave (which I'm desperately trying to avoid)
The whole idea was that I would return to work to save up a deposit and I'm struggling with that.

I first spoke to a housing advisor when ds was 2 months old. His advice was for me to give up work and claim housing benefit. We were also told that ds wouldn't be counted until he reached a year old.
The council have recently come to inspect the property and have told our landlord that they are in breach of their contract and therefore we are in breach of tenancy.

Because of both of us being bankrupt, we are already facing difficulty in finding a landlord to rent to us. We simply don't have enough to put a deposit down. Time is not on our side. I have tried to contact shelter and the council really don't care - in fact no one wants to know.

It's just going to get worse for people like me isn't it? I just don't know what else to do - Is there anything else I can do?

go to see CAB, they may be able to help you. they may be able to put you in touch with a local housing association.

i would go to the council offices every day until they offer you a property. we did it before our ds was born. At the time we were living with my grandmother in a two bed house.

also get in touch with your local MP because he may be able to help

bumping for you - I can't offer any advice but hopefully someone else will pop by who will. Countydurhamlass's ideas sound sensible to me.

Did you try and phone shelter? They have a very good helpline and are definitely definitely worth speaking to, check with them the criteria for homelessness, it may be that if you have been given notice you could be classed as homeless (e.g when you home is repossessed you are technically classed as homeless when you are within 28 days of the repossession date).

Also note, it is the councils responsibility to help home you regardless of how you became homeless and it is for them to prove that you made yourself intentionally homeless not for you to prove that you did not IYSWIM.

CAB, another definite, be patient, the volunteer who you see in the first instance may not be able to help you much but they may well (and you can ask) refer you to a housing specialist who is employed by the CAB.

The housing person who you spoke to was speaking out of the bottom of their chair, you DC will be taken into account, and would have been so from birth. As a couple with 1 DC the basis upon which HB entitlement will be calculated will be for a 2 bed property.

Entitled to is a good place to start.

You will also need to know how much rent you area allows for a two bed property, this postcode area website will help. You do not need to look only in you council area, you may choose to live in any area and the council in that are will administer the HB needed. Councils offer a bond deposit scheme and a list of land lords who will take them.

Do you have any relatives who may be willing to act as guarantor for you? That may help too. As country says, go every day to see your council, don't let them fob you off, they should be helping you! I have been given duff information by them before. Don't give up, questions everything you are told and don?t stop until you get the answers you need!

Thank you. This information is very much appreciated.
I've been trying to call Shelter for the past week or so. I've had no luck in getting through so far.
The council have yet again fobbed me off - they just don't care.

I seem to remember calling, hearing the engaged tone, hanging up and pressing re-dial about 10 times before I got through to shelter. Sign of the times perhaps?!

Definitely speak to your MP. They are very good at cutting through this bueracratic crap.