Benefits

Fire Fly · 10-04-2013, 03:27 PM

Hey,
I'm hoping to move into a two bedroom flat with my boyfriend in outer London come June. Im a bit confused regarding housing benefits now that the bedroom tax has come into practice. How much does a couple usually get? We're either renting a flat of my uncle or a flat of my dad... I know this alot harder to claim benefits from but if we have a proper tenancy agreement and a short haul contract and they are not living in the flat would that be okay? (as they will not be there and we will be paying rent).

Another question is that currently my boyfriend gets high care and low mobility for DLA and is on ESA and currently receives housing benefits even though hes a student. I currently get ESA and low for both DLA however in the progress of resubmitting a new claim for DLA to hopefully it getting bumped to medium or high DLA. Will this all change once we move in together, into a shared benefit? How does carer allowance work?

Any advice on how to sort DLA out? My cpn thought i would have been awarded medium to high care but even after the appeal they kept it as low but im seen as a 'danger to myself' and need quite alot of care especially to keep me functioning and also with food - Any advice what to write on the form would help as im not very good with this. It was my CPN who wrote the form last time but he didnt mention much... Thus why im trying again.

I went to the CAB and they weren't really sure what we would get properly as they were confused how my boyfriend is classed as a student and still receiving housing benefit but he has told them that he is a student and isn't doing anything dodgey.

He will be a student come September however I may or may not be thus might be working and reapplying to universities again for the following year so how would council tax work?

Sorry for all these questions; Im not really sure and didn't get much advice from CAB...

Thank you for your help and advice.

frenchhorn · 10-04-2013, 04:21 PM

for the DLA form write it all as if it is your worse day. I did that and I get the same as your bf, higher care and lower mobility, although I had to appeal because they first off gave me medium care because apparently I didn't need support throughout the night, which I do. But don't down play your illness/disability, really think what your worse day is like and do that.
With housing benefit, I am currently getting housing benefit even though I am a student and like your bf I went into the council and told them I am a student, so I'm unsure on that one.
You can get council tax benefit which takes off a percentage of your council tax bill depending on how much you earn, when I was out of uni and just on benefits I paid no council tax and now I am a student I am exempt, but if you have a low salary job you should be able to get a percentage taken off it.

Pomegranate · 10-04-2013, 04:22 PM

I'm not really sure what to suggest about the DLA because my CC also did my form. There are some good sites on the Internet that can help though. Re housing benefit, my friend was told she and her partner could not cla housing benefit if they were living in a flat her parents owned even though the parents werent living there. If you are living in privately rented accommodation you don't need to worry about the 'bedroom tax' because that only applies to people in housing association/council housing. I would be surprised though if two people on DLA/ESA would be able to claim carers allowance for the other person. That should be something the CAB should be able to answer quote easily for you though.

frenchhorn · 10-04-2013, 04:25 PM

yeah you can't claim housing benefit if you are in a house a family member owns and you are paying them rent, as my new flat I should be moving into soon my parents are buying and I will be paying them rent, but can't get housing beneift for it.

Becca · 10-04-2013, 04:47 PM

Your boyfriend gets housing benefit because he gets high rate care DLA. You would get nothing at all renting from a family member.

If you rented from someone else you would only be allowed one bedroom rate as you are a couple and expected to share, and it would very likely not pay the rent - look on the local council site or go here https://lha-direct.voa.gov.uk/search.aspx and put in one bedroom and a local postcode it will tell you.

Don't forget DLA is changing to PIP this year. You *really* need to contact someone about doing that as the criteria is much much stricter than DLA and you may lose your low rate you now have - please contact CAB before reapplying.

With the carers allowance, how do either of you expect to be able to claim that and get mid/high care yourself, or have I missed something? I don't mean to sound rude or anything, but you have mentioned some fairly serious issues you have so how do you expect to function as a carer for someone else? It may be seen as fraud and a reason to remove a DLA award altogether.

Council tax where one person is a student and the other works is 25% reduction on the bill, council tax benefit will not pay the remainder.

There is a benefits calculator which may help you calculate how much you can get which is here http://www.turn2us.org.uk/benefits_search.aspx though your boyfriend being a student makes things a bit complicated.

Final thing, you can try another CAB!

I hope this helps and isn't too confusing!!!

Fire Fly · 10-04-2013, 04:59 PM

Thank you all for your replies and advice. I will get onto filling the DLA form with the help of CAB this time ASAP so I'm not affected by PIP.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Becca

With the carers allowance, how do either of you expect to be able to claim that and get mid/high care yourself, or have I missed something? I don't mean to sound rude or anything, but you have mentioned some fairly serious issues you have so how do you expect to function as a carer for someone else? It may be seen as fraud and a reason to remove a DLA award altogether.

It wasn't our idea. It was something the CAB suggested as my bf would lose his severely disable allowance when he moves in with me. I don't know. I think I will have to visit another cab. I think I can claim carers for him if I'm on low but not higher but not sure so wanted some clarity.

With regards to renting of relatives- that's where we're very confused as some people have said as long as we have a proper tenancy agreement and pay proper rent then it would be okay (according to my CPN) but still something I wanted clarity with. Has anyone experienced this?

snailonvalium · 10-04-2013, 05:14 PM

Where i live,you can't rent a property of someone related to you and receive benefit to pay the rent,can't speak for all councils but would assume they all have similar rules. The local council website for the area should tell you if this applies for that area.

Becca · 10-04-2013, 05:31 PM

PIP will effect everyone as DLA has been abolished. They are doing a transfer thing. I know someone who asked for a reassessment and got an award until october 2013 only (which is when on reassessment people are assessed for PIP not DLA) which was why I mentioned it.

I hope you didn't think I was being awful saying what I did about carers allowance, I just didn't want you to be in a bad position is all. I think it also depends on what your needs are as well. For example, if you put on your form you couldn't feed yourself and he needed a carer to feed him then the two things contradict each other and could be seen as fraud.

You definitely cannot claim LHA (local housing allowance - new housing benefit) for a property owned by a relative. To do so is definitely fraud. It is the same everywhere in the UK. It doesn't matter if you have a proper agreement or not, it isn't allowed. Your CPN is wrong. Please, please do not risk this. I am not speaking from personal experience but I know someone was charged for doing this.

random.swirls · 10-04-2013, 10:59 PM

You can claim Lha if owned by a relative so long as its not considered to be a contrived tenancy and that is where the difficulty lies as each council will have different remits. You will only be eligible for the one bedroom rate of Lha and to ensure that your tenancy isn't considered to be contrived the rent will need to be market rate.

I can have a look at your Dla form if you want but please don't fill it in on your worst day as that is now considered to be fraud you need to fill it in as per your average day. With PIP existing claimants won't be transferred till February 2014 at the earliest new claimants in the north east and west will now claim pip and in other parts its June.

I think that's most of your questions but running courses on benefits and having been on pip training I'm pretty good with benefits so let me know

Oh and you can both claim high rate Dla and carers so long as the care you provide doesn't conflict with your reasons for claiming ie if you were claiming saying you had physical issues and couldn't mobilise and were then providing lots of very physical personal care there would be an issue but you could both provide supervision for example

frenchhorn · 10-04-2013, 11:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by random.swirls

I can have a look at your Dla form if you want but please don't fill it in on your worst day as that is now considered to be fraud you need to fill it in as per your average day.

did not know that was now considered fraud. That is what I was told to do about 3 years ago, by a lot of people and the CAB. Things have changed.

random.swirls · 11-04-2013, 12:11 AM

Yeah I think someone filled it in as though it was there worst day but they had them so rarely that there claim was a load of bollocks anyway when fraud investigated it wasn't considered to be a sufficient defence. So when filling in your form you should say on my worst days I can do this on an average day I can do this and so on.

Fire Fly · 11-04-2013, 08:17 AM

Thank you for your replies.

I think I will take you up on that offer Cam. Ill show you what I've got so far and maybe you could help?

Oh okay. That's a relief we can do it then as both the flats are sooooo nice.