Housing Benefit question

[CanadaDry]

I went to the CAB today and have been told that you can no longer get a pre determination of HB and now you must have signed a tenancy agreement before even being able to apply for HB.

Does anyone know if this is definitely the case?

I cannot take the risk of moving out of my home (am separating so H would stay in house) unless I know I will definitely get HB and how much. I certainly couldn;t sign a tenancy without knowing.

I know how much the local rates are for the size property I need but in the area I need to live (proximity to school/work) private rents are much higher, so I know there would be a shortfall, but I couldn;t afford to pay 100%.

Does anyone have any recent experience of this kind of situation?

Are you working or will you be claiming full HB (ie on IS or similar)?

If you are on benefits you will get the full rate that you apply for and can look it up on your local council website. But if you are working its complicated and you'd need the formula they use to calculate it.

I would make an appointment with benefits dept at your local council and just appeal to their better nature - they can do it if they want, they cannot make it cast-iron but they could give you an idea so at least you could know where yuo are with this. Just be nice and I bet you will get what you want.

And realy sorry you are going through all this, it makes leaving and getting on with your life terribly difficult - perhaps the H should move out and you should stay? It might be easier.

wishing the very best

Yes I am working p/t, which means it is means tested and not cut and dried. The woman on the desk at CAB office which is also our local council "gateway" information centre, rang the "manager" (not quite sure of what - Housing Dept maybe) while I was there and the answer I got was definitively I can;t apply unless I have a tenancy agreement.

They don;t even make appointments with Housing - it's all drop in and I have to take time off work and wait.

All they could do was tell me to do the council HB calculator online, which tells me I am not eligible - but 'Entitled To' says I am. Added to which I need to find out for sure if I qualify for the 26 weeks disallowance for having a share in the marital home.

THH It would be far easier if H agreed to move out, but he won;t, since it was me who initiated the split and he is (naturally I suppose) adamant about his entitlement to stay put.

Al l a bit hairy, as no you cannot actually apply until you have a tenancy agreement, and even at that point you still need to wait for confirmation of what you are entitled to.

It?s worth phoning you local councils housing department (this is a different department to the housing benefit department) and asking for an appointment with a homeless prevention office (scary title, but don?t be put off) they can look at your situation and liaise with the benefits section so that you will be able to find out before you make the move what you are definitely entitled to, they should be able to give you a few options too. If you have children and they are moving with you then they will have even more reason to help.

The whole system is really quite complicated so knowing who to ask for and perhaps being a little pushy and saying that if your husband decided to kick you out you would have nowhere should get you what you need.

Shelter are also very good, again, seems a bit scary calling them but are good.

it's called "Housing Options Team" in our council not Homeless preventioin one - I think they use different titles depending on what the weather was like when they created the post in their local council

also another thing - i@ve noticed that entitledto recently (not sure exactly when) updated their system to use "LHA" and not housing benefit as it prevoiusly did - I'm pretty sure there's a glitch in the system as I put something silly in like 26k the other week and it told me I'd be entitled to full LHA

Yeah it's Housing Options here too - not that they have any 'options' as such beyond 'suck it up and be grateful we know a private landlord who'd love to rent you his overpriced damp one bed flat above a kebab shop miles from where you are currently living' [bitter]

I think they try to avoid the use of the word 'homeless'.

the council can give you a form which is called a "pre-tenancy determination". you take this form when you view a house, get the landlord/agent to fill it in, submit to the council with your income details etc and they will write back telling you what amount of hb you are likely to receive. its not set in stone, but it gives you a good starting point

The rates for your LHA are based on a 'broad market rental area', so you should find that the rate covering the more expensive area is higher.

You can work out your HB manually. Here is a list of 'allowances'.

1.Add up all that apply.

2.Add up your weekly income (including Child tax credits/working tax credit, but not child benefit)

3.Take your total allowances away from total income.

4.Multiply the remaining figure by 0.65 (so working out 65% of it).

5.Find the LHA for the rough area/postcode you will be moving to (try and find the postcode of the street you like the look of, because different streets can fall into different areas, so have very different figures for the LHA), and take the figure you got in step 4. away from it.

This is the amount of benefit you will get each week.

lou are you sure that different streets can fall into different areas?

Or is that only in bigger places like London for example? I mean - the LHA rate here covers a large swathe of the entire county!

Well, like all things there has to be a 'line' where one zone ends and another begins. As I don't know where the OP is thinking of, I thought better to say that.

I live 2.7 miles away from a school I had considered in quite a rural location. The LHA for that area is £180, and mine, 2.7 miles away is £219, a difference of £39 per week! And 4 miles away (in the other direction), the LHA is £173, making the difference £46 per week!!

I think because we are rural, it makes a bit more of a difference, perhaps. But I think the OP needs to be careful in looking at the boundaries on the map, if nothing else

Forgot to add, that our greengrocers is in one BMRA, whereas the pub on the same road is in the other.