Housing benefit question

[TinyDiamond]

If you are entitled to the 2 bed rate but rent a one bed flat for yourself and child could you still claim the 2 bed rate money?

for example in my local authority

1 bed rate= £85 per week. Cheapest 1 bed flats are £450pcm.

2 bed rate = £106 per week but cheapest 2 beds are £600pcm.

Trying to figure out what the best thing to do would be. Clearly to get a 2 bed and be entitled to full hb there is still almost a 200 shortfall.

From what I was recently advised, you can only claim for what you're paying BUT if you're on a waiting list i.e renting privately whilst waiting for HA property, it's advantageous as you're classed as overcrowded and therefore higher priority.

Your LHA allowance is based on family size not actual rental value of the property you rent. So you can rent a 1 bed flat and so long as the rent is not more than the 2 bed allowance, it will be paid by LHA.

The rent is more than the 2 bed allowance but the shortfall would be smaller on a one bed than a two. Does that make sense? So in both cases it won't cover the payments...

Makes perfect sense :)

LHA will pay the rent in full up to the limit of your family's entitlement - if the rent is under the LHA rate then only the rent amount will be paid, if the rent is over the LHA rate then you will get full LHA and need to top up the rent somehow. So it is up to you to choose where you rent, within your LHA rate.

Obviously in reality it means you face shitty choices like you describe where even a too-small property comes in over the LHA rate deemed to be 'enough' for the area. Because LHA rates are determined by the bottom 30% of rents and so 70% of properties are always going to be unaffordable to those on LHA and the remaining 'affordable' 30% are usually eithe a) shitholes or b) not available as already rented by someone else or won't accept LHA/children/pets/whatever.

So you could in theory find a dilapidated 5 bed house in a very cheap area, or a 1 bed flat with all mod cons in a more expensive area - and so long as the rent is within your family's LHA rate then the rent will be covered in full :)

ThanÄ· you xxx shitty one bed for a shitty situation it is

In our local authority you used to be able to keep the cash if your rent was cheaper than the Lha allowance . They have stopped that now though.

You used to be able to keep up to 15 quid a week if your LHA was higher than your rent. Sadly no longer the case.