# Need help regarding housing benefits



## Katieeeee

Hey ladies, really need your help!

I've posted about my situation before but to cut a long story short I NEED to find somewhere to live before baby comes. I'm currently staying with a friend. So don't have a permanent home.

I am single and will be a single mum when baby comes along. (Father of baby is not involved and won't be involved). I'm currently on jobseeker's allowance.

Council won't help me at all, so that's not an option..and before anyone asks it's such a long story but they WILL not help me no matter what.

So I'm going to have to rent somewhere privately and get housing benefit.

What I need to know IS- how on earth does this work, I mean- can I apply before I move into a flat? Because I have NO money and NO savings, and no I don't have family or friends that can help me or let me stay at theirs or lend me money etc.

If I don't know where I'm going to be moving into (I can't exactly apply for a flat if I have no money to rent it with)...how can I actually claim housing benefits? Does this make any sense? I can't actually move into somewhere until I have the housing benefits can I? How does it work? And how long will I have to wait for? I'm coming up 21 weeks now...I'm so frightened and frustrated, if anyone could help I'd be so unbelievably grateful xxxxxxx


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## AppleBlossom

hey hun, as a single parent on income support/jobseeker you would be entitled to get most of your rent if not all paid for you. However you can't apply for it until you have the address of the house you are moving into unfortunately. You may be entitled to a crisis loan while your application for HB is processed to help put a deposit/rent down on a house or flat. I would go to the job centre and ask x


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## Katieeeee

Thankyou! xxxxxxxx


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## purpledahlia

katie ring the council housing benefit department, and ask in your area how much housing benefit a single parent is entitled too, I did that for stirling and found out it was maximum 500 once the baby is here, so basically im looking for a flat which rent is 500. no more than that or ill have to pay the excess. Once you know the limit you can look for a flat with that limit of rent, and then just ring the landlord and ask if he accepts housing benefit tenants say your going to be a single mother. and if they say yes- veiw the flat and choose. and then ASAP apply for housing benefit because you will know the adress and the moving in date. you will probably need to apply for the crisis loan aswell tho to get the deposit down you will need to give the landlord a deposit. does that make sense? 
did you get the repayments of debt lessened? you should do that too. give you a bit more to work with. x


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## DizzyMoo

Where i am they also give you an amount they will pay for a house for a single parent with 1 2 or 3 + kids etc , For 1 child its around £90 max a wk that housing benefit would pay where i am, & you can't apply until you have the house you want. 
most landlords in my area also require a safety deposit/bond which you get returned when you move out & they also require 2-4 wks rent upfront which you get back once they start getting paid. This is obviously not an option when you simply don't have say around £1000.00 floating about. When you move in if your baby isn't already here you MAY have to pay some towards your rent, as i wasn't entitled to the full housing benefit without children i had to pay £25 a wk towards my rent & it took 2 wks for the housing benefit to send their 1st payment.


With my 1st i found a house 2wks before he was due & i found it so hard as i just didn't have all that money spare , I had to use the ssmg to pay my bond/deposit & luckily the landlord was very sympathetic to my circumstances & only charged me £250 deposit & didn't charge me any rent upfront *phew* 

I'm now with a housing association & with these you don't pay a bond or deposit :)

Our local council don't even do houses but they now have a new scheme offering bond/deposit payments for people in need so they can secure a home.
Does your council do this? 

Failing that i would get a letter from the people you live with claiming you need to be out of the house 2-3wks BEFORE the baby is born, The council HAVE to find you somewhere to stay. Even if it comes to the day you leave you turn up at the council with yes your bags & even if they find you a BnB it will be temporary as they then have to move you once you have a baby, they can not refuse once they have suitable accommodation for you.


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## Katieeeee

Thankyou hun x

Yeah the council do a rent deposit guarentee scheme in case you can't pay the deposit yourself.Fingers crossed I can get that! xxxx


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## jay508

Hi there,
I'm pretty much in the same boat as you were,exept I'm not on JSA,I am on sick pay with pregnancy related illness,start my maternity leave on 4th december as planned still..
so I have a very low income as you can imagine,and really need to find a place,baby is due 4th January!
I am just confused as you were,as to weather you apply for housing benifit before or after getting a house? because I can't really get a house because I can't afford it,but I'm under the impression you have to be renting somewhere in order to make a claim?

Please let me know how you went on! :)


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## woadie

I hope you get things sorted out Jay.. sorry I cant be of any help for advice but I'm rooting for ya! 

I'm sure someone will be able to offer advice :)


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