Anyone know anything about housing benefit?? Help needed!

[GoredveryveryGored]

I was recently renting an apartment privately, was claiming housing benefit which covered all of my rent. We needed to move, apartment was tiny and dd is disabled needed more room for equipment etc etc
Anyways waiting lists for council house astronomical, searched for somewhere suitable privately for ages no landlords willing to take HB.
DD's dad is a landlord and he said that he'd buy another house for us to rent. So before we agreed to do this I went to housing benefit and asked them if I'd be able to claim HB in these circumstancs. They told me as long as we could prove it was a real commercial tenancy then I'd be eligible.
So we go ahead, find a house, buy it, now moved in claim HB and they've turned me down because 'I can't be responsible for paying rent when my dd is the daughter of my lanlord'
WTF!! We only did it because they said I could claim
Does anyone know if this is something I can appeal? Am planning on going to CAB on Monday but am really stressing about this now. I've been living on next to nothing to pay the rent myself until HB came through, I can't carry on like this for much longer

Bump - know its late but maybe someone knows

I'm sorry, I don't know the answer to your question but didn't want you to think you'd been ignored.

I would have thought that they would argue that your ex providing a house would be in lieu of maintenance. Did you get as far as filling in a pre-tenancy form with the full details the property before it was bought ? And if so did you get it in writing ?

Try googling "shelter" and ring them as I've heard that they are very good with housing related issues.

If you are not together it should be ok I'd think. When I was still with xp we rented a house from his mother and it was never a problem. Def get all the advice you can from Shelter/CAB as I think they are arsing you around.

Found this on the net re exclusions re housing benefit -

People who cannot get Housing Benefit [HB Reg 7]
Close relatives

You cannot claim HB if you live in the same dwelling as your landlord, and they are a close relative of you or your partner.

A close relative is a:

• parent
• or step-parent
• or father-in-law or mother-in-law
• or child
• or step-child
• or son-in-law or daughter-in-law
• or brother or sister
• or brother-in-law or sister-in-law
• or partner of any of the above.

Former non-dependants

If you have previously been living with someone as a non-dependant, you cannot get HB as long as that person still lives in the same dwelling.

If you can satisfy the local authority that the arrangement was not intended to exploit the HB system, you may be able to get benefit.
Member of and wholly maintained by a religious order
Renting a former joint home from your ex-partner

You cannot get HB if you pay rent to your ex-partner if you have separated and you have remained in the former joint home. This applies whether you were a married or unmarried couple.
Your landlord is the parent of a child you are responsible for

You cannot get HB if you or your partner are responsible for a child and your landlord is a parent of that child.

If your landlord is a company and:

• you
• your partner
• your ex-partner
• or a close relative who lives with you

Can you ex not waive the rent in lieu of maintenance?

I dont think CAB will be able to help unless you have anything in writing originally from the council saying they would pay.

It may be that the property is recently bought and they see it as being purchased with solely the intent to claim benefits. There is a rule on buying property to claim benefits I think.

I think the rule is in place otherwise all split couples could purchase another house, have the rent paid for and then both end up with a home at the end of the mortgage.

Thanks everyone. I didn't get anything in writing from them, it didn't occur to me to I don't know what I'm going to do now, if I really can't claim HB. The house can't be sold, not yet anyway, and I can't afford to keep paying the rent.