help! (tedious question about housing benefit in london)

Probably worth giving it a try, regardless...

It might also be worth checking if you are paying too much tax to begin with.

Anyway, who told you about the thresholds in Hackney? Legally they are supposed to turn around claims in a fortnight (although in practice they don't and people are afraid to call them on it because they fear personalised red tape as a result). You can help them do the claim more quickly by filing in person with a completed form, carefully noting the person you speak to and - this is crucial - getting them to show you how they calculate the benefit from your figures. Keep going back to that person through the claims process.

Any income over about £55 reduces the benefit you would receive by 65% of the income above that amount..

i.e. Say your rent is £100 pw, and you also earn £100 pw.

Your HB is reduced by 65% of £45, or £28.25. You would therefore receive (in theory) £71.75.

In practice there are other factors, and councils will ALWAYS try to pay you less than the amount they should, but then will usually raise it to the proper amount when you complain.

suzy, i get £220 a week gross for 29 office hours (about £7 an hour) plus whatever evening/weekend stuff there is to do. if it's a big thing i do get overtime, but it usually isn't. and filing in person is a great idea, if tedious, so cheers for that. k3lt4n house here i come.

eyeball, is that taken from gross or net income? net i guess... which is £180 - so does that mean if i earn £180 a week and my rent is £82 or £88 a week i get it reduced by 65% of £180 which is £117, which leaves £63, so would i get £63?

perhaps they will give me council tax benefit as well, though i think you have to be a full-time student single parent refugee with no limbs and asbestos poisoning before they do that.

Your income, £180, is £125 more than the amount the government says is the minimum a person needs to live (£55 - what a person on income-based jsa receives).

Therefore the benefit you should receive would be reduced by 65% of £125 = £81.25.

i.e. I am afraid that with your rent at £82 the most you could expect to receive would be 75p a week.

"sir, there are far more deserving cases than you *not* getting housing support"

Can you not get in another housemate if numbers have gone from 6/7 to 5?

porkpie, we don't have any spare rooms. we had 2 couples and one half of one moved out then all the other couple moved out and we got a single person instead of a couple. this was FUCKING STUPID and now we understand this. am wishing we'd got 2 ppl in there cos all would now be fine. perhaps we should just be horrible to him and hope he leaves.

Emsk, how much would your rent be if you figured it out by room rather than by person?

(No, not really. She worked at Shoreditch jobcentre and used to make such complaints on a regular basis.)

Emsk, if you put your details into a Housing Benefit calculator (such as the one at http://www.medway.gov.uk/index/community/benefits/webbencalc.htm) it says you should get £1.53 a week HB, which is about what I worked out.

HOWEVER, if you change the option for how many hours a week you work to "30 or more" instead of "16 to 29" the program assumes you pay more tax for some reason, guessing that your net income is £165. That would give you a tenner a week in HB, as you say you used to get. I'm assuming that some computer in the Tower Hamlets office decided you were slightly poorer than you really were.

Dunno why the number of hours you work makes a difference but probably worth applying after all. Just make sure you put your average working hours as more than 29 on the form.

suzy, that is worked out by room. we have 3 big ones and one ok sized one and one small one. mine is the middle sized one (moving into smaller room not really an option as too many cds, books etc, plus it has been 3/4 beautiful bright blue for the last 6 months and if it takes me this long to do one room i don't wanna have to do another soon). the whole house is £1820pcm.

i found a housing benefit calculator here: http://www.mungos.org/hbcalc/2005_06/default.htm and it told me i should get £8.40 a week which would be enough to stay - hurrah! - but i had to put in an allowance of £30 for food for some reason. £8.40 is fine though. but as it's on the st mungo's website perhaps it is only meant for homeless and i am not a homeless, yet.

saw that medway one too but it's different in different areas isn't it? wanted a hackney one, couldn't find one... lewisham council tells me i would get £8.35 (i think, end screen is a bit unclear) but i don't live in lewisham.

But I did warn you I was probably being thick and patronising. So just ignore me.

Nah, the laws are the same wherever you are.