Local Housing Allowance advice

[WhoInvitedHer]

I live with my soon to be ex partner in his house, amicable split, with my Ds aged 17 in education and Dd aged 26 in employment. I am looking for somewhere to rent for me and the children so need a 3 bed. I work a minimum wage job for 25 hours a week and have never claimed benefits before. I have been on some benefit calculator sites but a still confused about support with rent. My Local Housing Allowance works out at £635 a month and I know I will have to make up any short fall above that figure but I am unsure if that means I will get the full £635 a month as part of my UC claim. My Dd doesn't earn much and I have only ever had a contribution towards food and utilities as I haven't had housing costs so far and my soon to be ex was happy with that too. Will my rent support be reduced as I have an adult child living with me who works and if so can anyone give guidance about how much less I would get? Rents are about £1000 a month here so this is stressful

Under UC you'd get the 3 bed rate, less a flat deduction of £91.47 per month (known as the "Housing Costs Contribution") in respect of your Daughter.

So if the 3 bed rate is £635, you'd get a maximum of £543.53.

I suspect most Letting Agents will want your adult daughter to be on the tenancy too as a joint tenant. If that happens you'd get a max of 2/3 of the rent or 2 bed LHA rate, whichever is lower.

Ok so a maximum of £543ish. So it's not automatic that I would get that amount even? It could be lower depending on my earnings or as I meet the threshold for claiming UC would I get that amount? £1000 a month is low for a 3 bed in this area, not a very upmarket prosperous area in the Midlands, and a small cheaper end 2 bed would be £850 minimum. I know I need to increase my hours to full time but on minimum wage it will still be tight. I thought LHA was worked on average local rents but it seems low. Any advice is welcome

There is a site called entitled to and you can put all the figures in there and it will work it all out for you. I use it at work and it's very accurate.

www.entitledto.co.uk/

@WhoInvitedHer the LHA is based on the lowest 30% of rents in the Broad Rental Market Area, which is the area that you could reasonably be expected to live in.

https://lha-direct.voa.gov.uk/

If your adult daughter doesn't earn very much, then you might be better off having a joint tenancy and have her claim Universal Credit in her own right, too. You'd have to play with the entitledto calculator.

As a fag packet calculation, based on only you on the tenancy agreement - yes I think it would be in the £543 region.

That would be the amount of Housing Element awarded, but it forms part of your overall UC Award that is then reduced as a whole due to Wages etc.

In my experience we find more and more Landlords insist that any 18 year olds who are going to be residing in the Property are on the tenancy agreement. I presume this is to spread the jointly & severally liability and mean they have more people to chase (and higher chance of getting something) in the event of the Rent being paid.

UC will treat any dependent Child's rental liability as yours whilst they are a dependent child / qualifying young person - but your adult daughter wouldn't fall into this category - hence the caveat that if it's joint with your daughter with you being liable for 2/3 and her the other 1/3 then I would only anticipate UC awarding either 2/3 of Rent or 2 Bed LHA rate (whichever is lower).

LHA rates are shite, I don't think there's many (any!) areas where they're reflective of the actual market rents.

Does anyone know the answer I currently receive LHA for a 3 bed property but my landlord is selling as he's retiring every thing is unaffordable I've seen a couple of 2 bed properties but can I still get the 3 bed rate ( I'm recieving pip for arthritis and I'm entitled to my own room because of my medical needs there is 3 of us me my partner and my son who is doing an IT apprenticeship my partner is my carer thank you in advance if anyone can let me know about this

In theory yes, but if you can manage with a 2-bed property, DWP may look again at your entitlement to the extra room.