Housing Benefit

[FuzzyBoots]

Hi all,

I'm a student nurse and lone parent and currently live with my parents. They want to sell their house and although there will be room in the new house I am not sure where they will be going is right for me and DD.

I want to privately rent somewhere but not sure where I stand with housing benefit. I rang my LA and was advised they do offer it to lone parents but she couldn't possibly advise me on what im eligible for as it's too complex. She said certain parts of the bursary aren't considered income and some are and she couldn't tell me which elements are considered, so I'd just need to get a property and then apply.

This isn't really an option for me as I cant just sign up for a property with no idea whether I can even afford to pay for it or not!

Does anyone know what parts of the bursary are considered/not considered as income so I can have a go at it with the calculator?

Your Uni should have student support and if you go there they should be able to help you

I couldn't find much info on how to work it out either. I wanted to know for budgeting reasons and not leave it until I applied but in the end I had to jsut do it as no help out there, not from student services either.
Anyway my (HA) rent is just over £340 a month and I get a grand total of £40 help a month towards it from HB. I'm a ft student, single parent, not working, one child.
HTH

Housing benefit take into consideration your maintenance loan and adult dependent grant if you get that - everything else is disregarded. As you're a lone parent, you do meet the criteria to receive HB but it does depend on your councils criteria as every county councils are different x

Oh and your income from employment if you're working