Help with your housing costs 

Getting Help With Your Housing Costs

Depending on your circumstances you may be able to get help to pay your housing costs. This may come from Housing Benefit, which is dealt with by your local authority (council) or Universal Credit which is claimed online.

Benefits calculators

Use an independent benefits calculator to find out:

https://www.gov.uk/benefits-calculators

To determine whether you should claim Housing Benefit or Universal Credit, please check on this website https://www.gov.uk/universal-credit

Universal Credit is a benefit that is being rolled out in East Anglia from October 2017 for people who are of a working age and receive any of the following benefits:

It applies to new Job Seeker claimants or people who need to make a new claim for any of the benefits listed above following a change of circumstances. Universal Credit is combining and replacing all of these benefits into a single monthly payment which is paid directly into the claimants account each month, like a salary.

The Universal Credit payment can include an allowance for housing costs and claimants are responsible for making sure their rent is paid in full to their landlord. We would recommend that tenants who receive Universal Credit pay their rent to Suffolk Housing as soon as they receive their benefit each month to make sure that they do not get into rent arrears and risk losing their home.

More information about Universal Credit can be found on our website http://www.suffolkhousing.org/2017/09/universal-credit

Housing Benefit is only paid from the date you move in, so you must make your claim as soon as possible. You can ask for the payment to be made directly to Suffolk Housing on your behalf. If there is a shortfall between the amount you are awarded and your rent, you will need to make up the difference.

If you are moving from one rented property to another, you may be able to get housing benefit on both properties for a short time and should contact your local council to ask for more details.

Spare Room Subsidy (Sometimes called the “Bedroom Tax”)  Under the Government’s Welfare Reform changes, if you are considered to be under occupying your property, you may receive a letter from your Local Council advising you that your Housing Benefit will be reduced. If this is the case you would need to make up the shortfall in your Housing Benefit yourself.

If you have any questions about getting help with your housing costs please feel free to:

 

 

 

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