Housing RANT

[MummyMana]

Have you thought of private renting a bedsit with your partner then going on the housing list when the baby arrived, you'll be in higher need because of overcrowding but at the same time be together in your own space. It'll be a bit squished but it depends how important it is to you really... you earn a fair bit between you, plus even if you lose your job you can still get maternity allowance, just not smp

 

[fashionqueen]

Sorry meant to put 1 bed flat is all we're looking for, don't want a house until i can afford one! But the problem is we can't afford 600 my OH is only earning 500 a month and me £1000, but once I'm on maternity leave I don't get nearly half as much I don't think, plus I'm only on yearly contract as working with a child as an LSA and he might be leaving the school so I may not have that position anyway. I have a backup job but that again is only £500 a month. I really don't know what to do.

So how much is a flat if a house is 600?

If you loose your job youll be entitled to maternity allowance which is practically the same as stat maternity pay.

Then add on child benefit and your partners job plus tax credits you should be able to rent somewhere.

 

[alouisebx]

Sorry meant to put 1 bed flat is all we're looking for, don't want a house until i can afford one! But the problem is we can't afford 600 my OH is only earning 500 a month and me £1000, but once I'm on maternity leave I don't get nearly half as much I don't think, plus I'm only on yearly contract as working with a child as an LSA and he might be leaving the school so I may not have that position anyway. I have a backup job but that again is only £500 a month. I really don't know what to do.

So how much is a flat if a house is 600?

If you loose your job youll be entitled to maternity allowance which is practically the same as stat maternity pay.

Then add on child benefit and your partners job plus tax credits you should be able to rent somewhere.

It's around 450-550, which I don't think will be affordable until I know if I'm losing my job. I guess its just a waiting game.

 

[fashionqueen]

Sorry meant to put 1 bed flat is all we're looking for, don't want a house until i can afford one! But the problem is we can't afford 600 my OH is only earning 500 a month and me £1000, but once I'm on maternity leave I don't get nearly half as much I don't think, plus I'm only on yearly contract as working with a child as an LSA and he might be leaving the school so I may not have that position anyway. I have a backup job but that again is only £500 a month. I really don't know what to do.

So how much is a flat if a house is 600?

If you loose your job youll be entitled to maternity allowance which is practically the same as stat maternity pay.

Then add on child benefit and your partners job plus tax credits you should be able to rent somewhere.

It's around 450-550, which I don't think will be affordable until I know if I'm losing my job. I guess its just a waiting game.

Ok so lets say you loose your job.

Youll get around 550 in MA. Then your partners 500. Then child benefit around 90.

Then if your partner works enough hours youd get the tax credits etc right? I think you could do it if you budgeted well and went for a 450-500 place as opposed to a 550.

Id go to the Citizens advice bureau and get them to work out what tax credits youll get and then go from there.

 

[alouisebx]

Sorry meant to put 1 bed flat is all we're looking for, don't want a house until i can afford one! But the problem is we can't afford 600 my OH is only earning 500 a month and me £1000, but once I'm on maternity leave I don't get nearly half as much I don't think, plus I'm only on yearly contract as working with a child as an LSA and he might be leaving the school so I may not have that position anyway. I have a backup job but that again is only £500 a month. I really don't know what to do.

So how much is a flat if a house is 600?

If you loose your job youll be entitled to maternity allowance which is practically the same as stat maternity pay.

Then add on child benefit and your partners job plus tax credits you should be able to rent somewhere.

It's around 450-550, which I don't think will be affordable until I know if I'm losing my job. I guess its just a waiting game.

Ok so lets say you loose your job.

Youll get around 550 in MA. Then your partners 500. Then child benefit around 90.

Then if your partner works enough hours youd get the tax credits etc right? I think you could do it if you budgeted well and went for a 450-500 place as opposed to a 550.

Id go to the Citizens advice bureau and get them to work out what tax credits youll get and then go from there.

Cheers

 

[stephx]

Hey, I'm from North Somerset I was on the council waiting list for nearly 3 years. We eventually got a beautiful council house in bristol. The North Somerset system is totally shite

Anyway, the best way to get housed is to declare yourself homeless and move into temp accomadation (they do this within days) it will be a 1 bedroom flat in Weston or clevedon (from experience the clevedon ones are actually ok!) you get put in band B from there and the wait for a 2 bedroom. Shouldn't take longer than a couple of months.

Pm me if you want anymore info, I've been through the system so I can shed some light x

 

[lauraairving]

We were private renting and needed to move out as the lady sold the flat. I'd just found out I was pregnant. Although we each could've moved separately into our parents houses it meant we wouldn't be together as a family so we lied and said our parents both hadn't take the pregnancy well and we had nowhere to go.. About 3 weeks later we were offered an amazing and affordable property. I don't know if we just got lucky?

We're moving to private rent at the end of this month as I'm farrrr too depressed as the apartment is literally surrounded by sheep and I don't drive. I think that might be why we got one so quickly as it's soooo out of the way.

 

[lexie1994]

I totally know what your going through, and it feels as if there isn't anyway your going to get out of it, me and my boyfriend both work however I'm still on maternity we are in a one bed upstairs flat which didn't have enough room for 2 of us never mind a baby! And then once we had her the council told us we wouldn't be classed as over crowded until my LG is 18 months! As toddlers legally aren't allowed in council upstairs flats, we have spent ages trying to figure out what to do since they weren't willing to help whatsoever so we've saved up and put the deposit down on a house, we had to find a private landlord that wasn't going to charge is £300 for credit checks as we didn't want to throw that sort of money away if we couldn't get it, but now finally there's a light at the end of the tunnel hope you can sort something soon xx

 

[mayb_baby]

Hey, I'm from Northern Ireland we were on the council waiting list for nearly 2 years, we fought for our home and got the local political parties and council members to help us. (They didn't want to give us the house as we only have one child and it's a four bedroom, but there was a young single mum to one who got the house and destroyed it with drugs and parties but got the house because she was in the care system)
Oh and all homes here are 3-4 bedrooms, as it's a small town with no flat or apartments except pensioner bungalows, I know most of the UK has less rooms and smaller homes.

Anyway, our private renting landlady agreed if we paid an extra months rent she would declare us homeless and here they put us in band A and we got our home.

The systems are unfair and accommodate those who don't seem to want to better themselves, those who are trying to have to fight and scrape through the system.

 

[MissR]

Haven't really read through all the posts but I just totally agree. It's appalling the way the council leave people. I got housed by the council 4 years ago into a tiny bedsit as I was homeless. And it was great for just me. When I had my LO, my Oh moved in and we were all living in one tiny room for over a year. I was at the bottom of the list and nothing I could do would change that. We were told time and time again it would take us at least 4 years to get moved. Thankfully we finally found a landlord that would accept housing benefit and we now live in a 3 bed house with a garden in a much nicer area.

If it is at all possible for you to private rent, Definitely think about it. There usually is an online calculator which tells you how much local housing allowance you would be entitled too for your area. It's a scary thing to do but I'm so glad I took the leap, because our family is so much happier for it. I was personally worried about private renting (because of money issues) but if you budget it isn't so bad.

I wish you luck and hope you find somewhere to live soon. Fingers crossed xx