Housing Benifit/Income support Query...Please help

[Juliehafrancis]

Hi girls..

Just wanted some information on housing benifit.
My partner and I have just put in our application for housing benifit. We are privately renting and have about £12,000 and we were just wondering if anyone knows how much we would get?

Also how does it change as my partner can't work (waiting for op) so our balance is changing daily. Also when it gets to a point when our savings have gone down and we hardly have any money left how much will the housing benifit be, will they pay towards the rent or just move us to a council house? and also what about income support?

Sorry lot's of questions but would really appreciate any advice.

Thanx in advance,

Jules x

when I went onto IS, I went to CAB and they worked out what I would get. as your circumstances are going to change, have you explained this to your council? I cant remember off the top of my head what the maximum savings amount is before this affects your HB, but I think £12,000 will lower it a little. Sorry Im not of much help, but I am going to go through problems with my HB as I am going to start work Sept. Hopefully someones got better answers than me xxx

julie,
I was under the impression that if you had more than £2000 in savings you were expected to use them to pay for your rent. You will not be moved to a council house when your savings run out. The council will assess your privately rented accommodation and decide a fair rent (often lower than acual rent). They then apply a formula to decide how much they will pay towards this rent. so, if there are 3 of you living in a 3 bed house you will get less money because the council will think that you do not really need such a big place.

I think you will not get income support if you have £12,000 savings, you would be expected to use it to support yourselves. When the money gets low you will get income support. However if your DH is ill it may be worth investigating invalidity/incapacity benefits.

Someone on here will know more about all this than me though!

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Any savings over 3000 are taken into consideration. The amoount you get depends on any income, any savings and for privately rented houses the rental given by the Rent Officer. It also will take into account how many children you have or other adults over 18 in the household. If your husband can;t work due to ill health try applying for incapacity benefit throught the DWP. If not intitled for that then they may consider you for income support.
If you need further help or advice I would suggest you talk to your local councils Housing Benefit department or welfare benefits unit, failing that talk to the CAB. I would suggest you apply straight away as a claim can only be considered from the monday after it is received.

I hope this helps, good luck.

Jules, the cut off point for income support is £8000 for you - entitles you to no IS at all.

Up to £3,000 in savings, makes no difference to benefits. Between £3,000 and £8,000, your benefit is reduced.

Your children are allowed to have £2,500 savings each before benefit is affected.

So if you had 2 children and £8,000, you would still get benefitif £2,500 each was in the children's accounts and £3,000 was in yours (or rather, £2,499 and £2,999 respectively).

But if your partner is not working because of a physical cause, then IS may not be the appropriate benefit for him anyway - is he entitled to incapacity benefit, or whatever it is called nowadays? In your situation, I would seek other help, like the CAB.

HTH.