Housing Benefit

[DressingGownFrown]

Does anyone here have experience of privately renting and paying full rent, to then claiming housing benefit?
I know lots of landlords don't accept HB, but what if you've already lived in the house for 2+ years?
My partner and I are full time students, so pay full rent, however, in a years time he will be a postgrad and I will be going into a NMW job as part of a training scheme. So I, at least, should be able to claim.
I really don't want to move, I luffs my house

It gets paid to you so your landlord doesn't need to know you're claiming it.

Oh really? I thought it was paid in arrears to the LL. Is housing benefit not what they refer to when they say "NO DSS" ?

It used to be paid direct to the LL, so many were more accepting of it as they knew they'd get the income regularly.

Now it goes to the claimant directly, so some LL's are reluctant to accept it if it is the only means of meeting the rent.

However if you claim it as a sitting tenant, as long as the rent is paid regularly as before, the LL wouldn't need to know, unless you need his consent to claim?

Cool, I'm not as worried anymore. I'm not sure what the ins and outs will be as it'll all happen around a year from now, but I was interested in a general consensus. Hopefully it will be ok, after all, she accepted us as students, we have always paid on time and she accepted a scholarship that my DP got from uni, so she was happy to accept a 'different form' of payment as a partial payment of rent.

You def don't need landlord permission to claim HB, you need to contact your local authority, make a claim - they will need to see proof of id for you and your PT, proof of your NINO, proof of all your income including grants loans and bursaries and your tenancy agreement. You can put the claim in first then you get a month to provide the documents. It will be better for you to claim than your partner if he is a student

Excellent, thank you