social housing will she qualify?

[mattysmum09]

Posting on behalf of a friend she is a single mother two young children, lives in private rented accomodation, when the new housing benefit cap comes in she will have to top up her rent each month by an ammount which just isn;t affordable so she will lose her home... this comes in for her in 9 months, i don;t think she can find anything cheaper and so is applying for council housing but is she likely to be offered anything in time? I feel bad for her children as they dont have anyone else who can realisticly take them in...

It depends a lot on the approach of her local Housing Authority. I think she should see them now about the implications of the housing benefit cap, explain her circumstances and see what help is available or what alternatives they suggest. FWIW they should be contacting people who are likely to be affected by the cap. The more proactive your friend is, the better the likely outcome.

It may be worth her contacting her local authority to find out whether she may be entitled to Discretionary Housing Benefit to top up her rent when teh change cme in. They don't usually award it for more than 6 months - a year but it may give her some breathing space. IIRC correctly the government will be topping up the discretionary fund which as its name implies is awarded on a discretionary basis by local authorities usually in order to stop people losing their homes

Cognito's right. I think that she should try to get herself on the waiting list straightaway, and bidding for properties if that is the way that her local authority works. If she is in London, a whole lot of new-build homes are about to be completed by housing associations (being on the council's list will make her eligible for most HA properties too).

Depending on her relationship with her landlord it may be discussing the situation with her LL, as depending on the top-up gap and if she has been a dependable tenant, her LL might agree to renegotiate the rent - there are going to be an awful lot of people in your friend's situation.

Definitely go on the list ASAP. Here though there are so many people already on the housing list, and so few houses becoming available that the wait for a 3 bedroom house, unless you actually homeless and living in a hostel, in estimated at 4 years. If you are in a hostel it is estimated at between 6 & 12 months. A friend of mine has just been allocated a house after 8 months in a hostel with 4 children, 2 of whom have ASD. It's been a nightmare.

However long your local wait is (and I hope it's shorter), getting her name down ASAP should be a priority.

you are not you. is not in.

Bloomin auto-corrupt.

If she gets evicted for rent arrears she could potentially be judged to be "intentionally homeless" by her local council - which means they may (or may not) help her find another private rented place, but there will be no guarantee of temporary accommodation until they do, nor any certainty that they'll find her somewhere.

If she's sure she really can't afford to make up the shortfall (or persuade the landlord to lower the rent), she'd be better off asking her landlord to evict her in advance which would enable her to be considered priority need homeless (and not intentionally so) which would mean she'd be guaranteed to be found somewhere to stay as a last resort.

But before she does any of that, she should contact her local council to see about bidding for social housing, and also to see if they can help her access cheaper private rented housing - they may well have schemes that will lend her the deposit, or lists of approved landlords who will take people on rents below with the housing benefit will pay.