HOUSING BENEFIT QUESTION -lone parent & private tenant please help

[LovesCake1980]

Ok so i'll try to keep this as short and simple as possible. I'm a single mum to one little boy and have a baby on the way in December. When my ex left us we lost the house.I moved into a private rent 4 months ago and am getting housing benefit that is suppose to cover the full amount . My rent is £525 a month but I'm only getting paid £484.60 a month from housing. Things are getting really tight what with needing to buy all that bay needs even second hand and just day to day living I'm struggling to work out where I'll find the money to fill the gap this month. I contacted housing benefit and they said they would get someone to call me back and explain how the payments work and to see if I can get a discretionary payment although it's very unlikely. I have been told the same thing 5 days in a row.Could anyone explain to me how the payments work. I was told I would get two payments/double payments in October that will make up the difference but thats not happened. any advice ? Thanks in advance x

Housing benefit is paid 4 weekly rather than by calendar month, so the figure you are getting would be for a 4 week period.
If you have had one payment in the first few days of October (the 1st,2nd or 3rd) then another would be due on the 29th,30th or 31st.

Thanks onadifferentplanet Ok so does that mean that I'm safe to take the last few months of payments I have had to pay out of my own pocket out of that or will that mean I'm then short one month?

484.60 per 4 weeks is 525 per calendar month so you will get it all over the year. Taking your portion back is complicated though. Because it's 4 weekly your payment date will change each month so you need to be sure you'll have the right amount when you need it. My approach was to pay it each month making up the difference myself (although it was tight) then once a year I would, effectively, get a payment that wasn't needed for rent, i saw it as a saving scheme! It meant I had a lump once a year for school uniform, birthday/Christmas gifts etc.

Basically you need to get a strict budget in place, sit down with a calendar and calculator

Can you possibly ask your landlord to accept payment four weekly? Often homeowners get a company to let out their property and they should understand the issue. However, if it is direct to an owner than unfortunately they may not understand the situation (& they have a mortgage to pay every month).
It might be worth asking the question