Housing benefit - any experts?

[flightattendant]

I'm just about to go for a bigger house as DS2 is due in June...we won't be moving till November and are renting, both here and the new place.
I'm worried about the application, as I rang the HB dept. at the council a week ago and was told I'd be entitled to more benefit once I had another child. However since looking on the web, I've seen it said that two kids under 10 are expected to share a room...fair enough!
The dilemma is that the new place is more expensive than where we are now, and is described as having 3 bedrooms (we currently have two) although one of them is actually a ground floor dining room - or that's what we'd use it for, anyway. There's a living room, the dining room and two beds upstairs.
My question is, do I put that there are two beds or three? I don't want to reduce the max they'll pay on basis of it being too big, but would they atually pay more for a 3 bedrrom house, or not? (I'll have to top up whatever we get with part of my IS anyway)
The guy who told me we'd be entitled to more benefit has confused me!

(One more point - there's a little 'sunroom' bit with a plastic roof - do I mention this as well? Oh dear!!)

Btw I'm a single mum...long story. I've daftly paid the agent fee already, 8 months preggo my brain doesn't work! But not the deposit as yet...

You wont mention anything, the person you rent it from will have you fill in a form to give to the council and it will have the details of the house on it as it is advertised at the estate/letting agents.

If it's listed as having 2 beds, but you will use another room as a bedroom, you may be ok. If it's listed as having 3 they will probably not pay it all, but it depends how expensive it is.
As a single mum you need a kitchen, bathroom, 1 room to live in and 2 beds.
They also wont tell you what they will pay until you apply for it, so there can be complications if it turns out you don't want to take it cos they wont pay it all, esp if you've given notice on the one you're already in.

Thankyou...it's actually me that has to apply, the landlady won't be doing anything and the agents are leaving it up to me. All they want from me is the money! So I will have to fill in the form myself.
Useful to know about what we're entitled to in terms of rooms, I thought that might be pretty much it - also useful to be reminded that I won't know till I apply! I'm doing a Pre tenancy determination at the moment, just for an idea of the max they'll pay - though I realise I might well not get that amount.
It's about £150 more than what we pay now...750 rather than 600...but our rent is very low for the area, we'd probably be paying more like 675 if we didn't have a laid back landlord right now! So who knows...

OMG, where do you live. If I could get 650 from my council I could get a 4 bed house with a 2 bathrooms>

IME you usually get what they say you'll get.

But your rent is in a different league to mine.

If you phone your local council or the one your applying to when you move they should be able to tell you the amount of rent they pay upto for a 2 bedroom & a 3 bedroom house this will be the maximum they will pay & anything over that you will have to pay yourself.

As the house has only got 2 bedrooms upstairs i would just fill the form in with 2 bedrooms, dining room, lounge etc as it is up to you what you use the rooms for.

I would not put 3 bedrooms because they will then ask you why you left your last property & have moved into a bigger one, they wont see it as you having another baby means you need 3 bedrooms because like you said they expect the baby to be in with you first then they will expect your children to share, saying that it all depends on what age your first child is to be honest?

Is the sun room bit of the lounge? if so i would just put it in with this.

The only other thing you can do is if they ask why you moved just say the landlord wanted the house back so the new one is the only one you could find which would accept your housing benefit.

YOu can get a pre tenacy prediction of what you would get from the council. But you must do this before you sign the rental agreement.

Swiper, how many times a day do I hear your name?? MANY

My council wouldn't tell me that until I sent in the form, luckily my letting agent said not to worry as they would let me retract my notice if needs be.

Brilliant - I'm glad I posted here as I've been up for nights worrying about it all!
Live in Canterbury, Kent - yup, very expensive round here, it always has been but especially now with the huge proportion of students that have taken over the city.
Most properties are not buy-to-let and won't allow anyone who isn't a student, let alone on HB - so I was dead lucky to get offered this one.
It is actually very big, the rooms are huge, which is lovely - 17th century - I think the agent was desperate as it's got no parking anywhere near, but we don't have a car, it'd been up for let for ages at 825 and she got us a reduction (gulp).
Swiper - great advice about saying why you left, fwiw my current landlord does want to sell when I move, and it IS almost impossible to get anywhere if on HB so that should work if they get funny with me!
We 'could' stay here. It isn't tiny - but I'm struggling to make space for all the baby clothes and cot etc. perhaps we just have lots of clutter...
Anyway one of the main walls has huge cracks in it and after the earthquake yesterday I'm convinced it's about to fall down!!!

Should say, 'most properties are NOW buy to let' God why do I never read it before hitting 'post'!