Housing Benefit, to claim it do you have to...

[Linnet]

To claim housing benefit does the properties tenancy have to be in your name?

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No, as long as you have proof that you are living at the address & can give landlords details.

really? my brother has been told that he can't claim as the flat isn't in his name.

It's kind of complicated though, his girlfriend walked out leaving him and the baby and the council won't sign the tenancy over to my brother because the rent is now in arrears. He can't afford to pay the rent at the moment as he's off work looking after the baby and surviving on income support. The council have told him that he can't apply for housing benefit because the flat isn't in his name. But if he had the housing benefit he could pay the rent then it wouldn't be in arrears.

It's all so frustrating, going round and round in circles and nobody is getting anywhere. they are threatning him with eviction now which is so stupid as they will then have to rehouse him somewhere else if they evict him and he has a prefectly suitable flat which he is willing to pay rent on if they'd only help him. aarrgghh!!!

he needs to apply for income support, if he gets that he will be entitled to HB anyway

How long has he been living there?

Why wont they sign the tennancy over?

i think he needs CAB

He should go to CAB & get as much info as he can, then go back to council.

how much is the arrears? Could he not get a budgetting loan from the DWP, pay off the arrears, get the flat signed over, and then claim HB?

He has income support but has been told that he can't claim housing benefit because the tenancy isn't in his name.

They won't sign the tenancy over because there are arrears in the rent, the tenancy is in his girlfriends name and since she moved out in January she hasn't been paying the rent. Until she pays off the arrears they won't give him the tenancy. They told her to pay off the arrears which were X amount which she has done but now more arrears have accrued during that time because the rent isn't being paid so it's not solving the problem.

he's been to the CAB, he went last week, I actually made him go to check up on the eviction situation. He was told that the council can evict him if they want to but it just seems so pointless seeing as they'd just have to rehouse him and the baby.

so on average rent of £60, he owes about £800???? He can apply for a budgetting loan of upto £750 would that help?

they've been in the flat for over a year, about 15 months now I think.

will she not put his name on the tenancy??

If they re house him, then he is not liable for the arrears as it's not in his name.

No they arrears aren't that much. It's only about 4-5 weeks behind. The rent was actually over paid by the time she left so it's not been going into arrears for that long thank god.

the council keep telling them different things. She was told to fill in the form then the flat would be signed over to him which she did but the council took so long to act on it that the rent went into arrears. And the council keep saying one thing then another.

He needs to get this sorted as Housing Benefit can't be back dated. Have you thought he might be better off getting re housed as the arrears will be left behind in his girlfriend's name?

we know that he's not legally responsible for the arrears or the rent for that matter since it's in her name. But my brother would pay the rent if he could afford to do it just so he could get the tenance changed but he can't afford to do it at the moment. And then the council tax starts again in a couple of weeks which he will have to pay as his name is on the council tax bill.

She told him that she had put his name on the tenancy. Then left him and he discovered that he wasn't on it after all.

And they are threatening to evict him for one months rent!!!! I know someone who had grands of arrears and she was never evicted... I would get a loan from the DWP (no interest, and paid back out of your IS at about £12 week) and get the arrears paid off and get the flat put into his name asap.

It just seems so stupid though to have him rehoused. The flat is suitable for his needs. If they rehouse him he will have to move out all his furniture and he'll be put in a hostel until they find him somehwere to stay. It's just all so annoying as he's already in a flat all they need to do is change the tennacy and chase her for the arrears but they won't do it that way.
If he is evicted and has to go to a hostel what will he do with all his furniture? He won't be able to take it with him to a hostel and I have no room to store anything for him.

But if she filled in the form to put the tenancy into his name at the time when the rent account was cleared, then surely its down to the council to do it asap so he can claim HB??? If they didn't then its not his fault

how do you get one of these loans?

I think technically it's the girlfriend that the council want to evict as the flat is in her name but she's not there and hasn't been there for over 3 months. It's just my brother and the baby. So by default they will be evicted since they are living there.

SparklyGothKat - it's crap, I know, but he won't get a penny of HB backdated.

budgeting loans

Linnet - it's not as simple as that. Courts are very reluctant to evict children. Also the Council may allow him to remain there as a 'Tolerated Trespasser' until the matter is resolved.

thanks sparkly, sadly to claim that you have to have been claiming income support for 26 weeks, he's only been receiving it for about 4 weeks. that also took ages to go through as he had to wait a couple of months for the child benefit to come through in his name.

It's all just such a nightmare everything is taking so long to sort out we thought it would all be done by now.