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Original poster

Housing Benefit (urgent)

3 replies

lifesteeth · 29/05/2007 22:39

I know it varies from person to person and council to council but I wondered if anyone knew roughly how this would work out...

At the moment I'm a single parent of TWO BOYS living in a 3 bedroomed council house. The rent is £53 a week and I get 100% of it paid for by housing benefit, I don't currently work.

New situation - I am about to start work, just 20 hours a week which I will earn around £100 a week for. I also want/need to move house...the house I am looking at is £475 a month, it is a 3 bedroomed house in a lovely area, hence the price (which is expensive for Hull).

My question is, would housing benefit help me out with the huge rent increase if I was working 20 hrs a week? if so how much would they be likely to give me towards the rent?

OP posts:

elsieanjoanne · 29/05/2007 23:41

if your on low income they can help but income support may be of better help as when we were earning similar amout we had £4 of rent £1.50 of c.tax ask at cab good luck

deembee · 30/05/2007 18:50

If you go on your local councils website they have a benefits calculator and you put in your details and it will work out for you how much you will be entitled to. But you have to take into account whether or not the rent officer restricts the rent. If its high he can say you can rent a property for a lower figure and then your entitlement will be based on the lower rental figure. ie: rent £475pcm. Rent officer values the rent at £400pcm the maximum you will get will be £400pcm. Then dependant on income there may be reductions in the amount of entitlement. You can get a pre-tenancy determination done prior to taking on the tenancy and this will tell you in advance how much the rent officer will set the rent at, then check the benefits calculator and you will roughly know how much you will need to contribute towards the rent.

amylou · 30/05/2007 19:02

you will also be entitled to working tax credit now and child tax credit if you need childcare. Go to entitledto.co.uk - its a really good website and it will work out what tax credit and housing benefit you will entitled to based on your hours and rent etc

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