Any reason for not paying Housing Benefit?

[Love Bunny]

Is there any one with experience of this? I'm absolutly paranoid our claim isn't going to go through as they've asked for bank statements going back 2 months and 2 months ago I had about £1000 saved to keep us going on top of Matts wages (since pretty much ALL his wages go on our rent & council tax and travel money to work leaving whats in my account to pay for our food/bills until december) until we get tax/child tax credits after our LO is here.

Thing is I'm scared they'll look at it and think oh they don't need it they have enough money :'( when we really don't! After matt pays for rent & council tax he's left with about £140-£200 just over £100 of this goes on bus fares a month <-- Will they think this is spare?! we're down to £400 now in my account to last us until tax credits come in - we haven't really even got the money to buy any baby stuff :\ I send off for HIP grant last week but its not cleared yet so thats another £190 at least to add to our funds i guess.

The question is, do you think what they see on my statement will affect our entitlement in the long run? Like if I had like 0p in my account instead of £400 do you think they'd give us more?

I'm not sure if its only savings over £6,000 that changes anything....

Sorry this post isnt worded very well I'm just nervous that they're going to decine us and we'll be in the shit til baby arrives

and BTW - we CAN'T apply for surestart grant until LO is here cause of some shitty rule that you have to be on benefits/tax credits - I CAN'T CLAIM BENEFITS CAUSE THEY ASSUME MATT CAN PAY FOR EVERYTHING AND WE CAN'T GO ON FUCKING TAX CREDITS CAUSE WE ARE UNDER 25!!! (EVEN THOUGH I'M UNEMPLOYED, POOR AND PREGNANT AND WE ARE LIVING OFF LESS THAN £900 WAGES A MONTH! STUPID DAMN GOVERNMENT!!!) God they need to sort out their system.

Sorry for the rant - slightly pee'd off being as if Matt was 25 we'd be laughing all the way to the bank! So much for helping young people out!!

LAST QUESTION

For me and Matt - (Matt working minimum wage 40 hrs a week) how much benefit do you recon they'd pay us? I'm expecting about £40-£50 a week being as they'll only see us as entitled to ONE BEDROOM (god we have 3 and its still not enough hahahaha How on earth they expect a couple to live in a 1 bed house/flat I'll never know) Any one know how abouts much they will pay us?

ALREADY BEEN ON ENTITLEDTO.COM - Looking for actual personal experiences/opinions as like they say on the website - its only an estimate

 

[kirst1805]

Try not to worry, its only savings over 6000 they really pay attention to.. here anyway.

Depending on how much you have in your account every month it might reduce the entitlement a tiny bit but shouldn't make much difference.

I normally have around 80-150 left each month after most bills and shopping and i receive 101 a week towards rent and 9 towards council tax. So i only have to pay around 18 a week rent and 7 a week council tax.

Probably no help but worth a try.



xx

 

[kayleigh&bump]

i dont think they will give you less housing benefit, just cos you have some money in the bank. I think they only ask for your bank statements to make sure you dont have any substantial savings (cant remember the exact cut off amount).

My hubby brings home around £900 a month, very rarely any more, and we are entitled to £70 a week housing benefit. We have just been allocated working tax credits though so this amount it gunna go down a bit, but not sure how much yet.

The rule about only being entitled to a 1 bed place sucks doesnt it, thats all we get too. But once LO is here, you will be entitled to quite a lot more. HTH x

BTW our monthly rent is £550 if this helps

 

[Tegans Mama]

Yeah they aren't allowed to look at your bank statements and think anything at all. There are criteria that must be met (savings under £6,000 - check your income is what you say it is, and thats it. If you have stated the correct income and you don't have more than £6000 savings, they are legally entitled to give you help with your rent and council tax unless you are earning over the threshold.

Does either of you get any benefits? I'm not sure how housing benefit works when you are working.

 

[Love Bunny]

Thanks ladies! Thats a slight relief! No neither on benefits cause the council/job centre seem to think that 2 people can obviously live off 1 persons wages - NO MATTER HOW LOW! - god they are dicks. As if you can't claim benefits for yourself JUST because you live with a partner?!

x

 

[kayleigh&bump]

Thanks ladies! Thats a slight relief! No neither on benefits cause the council/job centre seem to think that 2 people can obviously live off 1 persons wages - NO MATTER HOW LOW! - god they are dicks. As if you can't claim benefits for yourself JUST because you live with a partner?!

x

We are in excatly the same boat. As i said, hubby brings home £900 a month, and i was made redundant earlier in the year. I cant even claim JSA as I live with dh. Any benefits you cant claim though, should be reflected in the amount of housing benefit you can get. If you was claiming benefits, your housing benefit would be less. x

 

[kitty1987]

I'm in Derby and my bank statement showd I had £1000 saved 2 months ago but it had gone on a deposit. They kind of ignored it because it wasn't over £6,000.

I will warn you though it took them 2 and a half months to make a payment x

 

[Blah11]

I understand why they do household earnings and not individuals. Would you be happy if someone was claiming loads of benefits whilst their partner who they lived with was bringing home £100k a year? Course not.
I also understand why they only let a couple have a 1bed flat. They obviously don't want people to be content and comfortable on benefits else they'd stay ont hem and nobody would get a job!

Also, could your OH not get a sort of an unlimited bus ticket that he pays monthly? I do this because I get 4 buses a day when I'm at work and only pay £40 a month for it. Would give you a bit more cash even if it's just £50 a month it's better than nowt.

 

[ChloesMummy]

^^^ Totally agree

 

[lauraperrysan]

For me and Matt - (Matt working minimum wage 40 hrs a week) how much benefit do you recon they'd pay us? I'm expecting about £40-£50 a week being as they'll only see us as entitled to ONE BEDROOM (god we have 3 and its still not enough hahahaha How on earth they expect a couple to live in a 1 bed house/flat I'll never know) Any one know how abouts much they will pay us?

Just interested to know why you would need anything bigger than a one bed place for you and ur partner, then a 2 bed place when bubs is born? Surely it would be best to rent some where smalleer with less rent and have more spare money each month to buy baby bits? xxx

 

[kitty1987]

For me and Matt - (Matt working minimum wage 40 hrs a week) how much benefit do you recon they'd pay us? I'm expecting about £40-£50 a week being as they'll only see us as entitled to ONE BEDROOM (god we have 3 and its still not enough hahahaha How on earth they expect a couple to live in a 1 bed house/flat I'll never know) Any one know how abouts much they will pay us?

Just interested to know why you would need anything bigger than a one bed place for you and ur partner, then a 2 bed place when bubs is born? Surely it would be best to rent some where smalleer with less rent and have more spare money each month to buy baby bits? xxx

I was going to say you should be fine with a one bed place We have a 3 bed but it is purely because It was the student house I was living in and the landlady said that she would love for me and my OH to stay if we wanted to. For us this was just the easy option as we love it here. However, it does mean that we do have a bit less money than we should as we have to cover the rest of the rent because the house is too big for us.

We dont use 1 bedroom and Brandon is always in our room with us lol x

 

[ineedaseed]

you should get tax credits hun? look in to this. xx

 

[Love Bunny]

We can't get tax credits cause we're both under 25! Can't get them until baby arrives! which is stupid cause the grants supposed to help familys in need but whats the point if you can't even get help if your under 25??

And in reply to getting somewhere smaller - the idea we got somewhere bigger is cause we don't wanna have to move 3 times in the next 2 years! I moved out of an absolute shithole and I am NOT going back to a one bed box like my old place.

The place we live is gorgeous - and its an absolute bargain for the rent we pay if this house was anywhere else it'd be over 600 a month! but for some reason we get it super cheap. When people think 3 bedroom they think its gotta be massive. But its not :S all 3 rooms are small and only 1 can fit our double bed - JUST. so wardrobes are in the spare room along with our computer and turntables and baby has her own room for when she's a bit older and not in with us anymore. So its not really like we're throwing our money down the drain to be fair :S cause we get an amazing deal!

We wouldn't even be bothered about housing benefit if we could just get the grant to get the rest of our baby stuff but we can't! so claiming for housing is the only way we can make up for that money we can't get yet. And to be honest, why shouldn't we claim it if we're entitled? Its not like we can't afford our rent cause we cover it fine! cause that would be stupid and irresponsible to completly be relying on benefits to have a "nice house" We just can't get anything to prepare for baby til babys here!

We only moved in like a month ago so what would be the point in us instead moving to a 1 bed then come december moving AGAIN to a 2 bed? :S when we can pay £60 more than what we'd be paying for a half decent 1 or 2 bed for a lovely house with plenty of space for all our things without feeling like we're living in a box of posessions! Also we've planned a home birth from the start so we wanted to get settled and have somewhere to call home at least a few months before baby arrives so we're not faffing about sorting the house out when I'm 9 months gone!

As for the busfare thing aswell - we already do that. 100 is the lowest we can go - he gets a weekly unlimited ticket for £22 and thats the cheapest deal you can get

Believe me we aren't stupid! we do pretty much everything we can to save our money and get round any unessesary costs! We don't even have the boiler on to save electricity!

x

 

[lauraperrysan]

The reason you dont get tax credits is becuase you are under 25 without a child yet....during pregnancy does not count as you dont yet have a mouth to feet, baby to home etc..... You will be entilted when baby is born....we all went thro it, it's tough but you'll find a way to make it work....everyone does.
Buy bare essentials, look at 2nd hand stuff, ask family for a small loan.....
It'll work out in the end, try not to worry

 

[Dream.A.Dream]

No reason your old savings should affect it. The cut off point is a lot higher than £1000 and even then it's done as a tariff reduction from £6000 up to around £16000 so you should be fine based on bank statements. Not sure how much help you'll get though so can't help amounts wise. xx