Housing Costs
If you are responsible for paying the rent or mortgage for where you live
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If you are a tenant or home owner responsible for either the rent or the mortgage for where you live, you may be able to ask for help with these costs.
You may also wish to see our other pages entitled
‘Working Age’,
‘Pension Age,
‘Disability and Illness Related’,
‘Responsible for Children’, and
‘Social Fund Grants/Loans’.
Discretionary Housing Payments Fund
These payments are designed to help Housing and Council Tax Benefit claimants with financial help towards their housing costs. You need to have a current claim for Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit in order to be able to claim a DHP. If you are receiving partial Housing Benefit you may be able to make an application to the DHP fund for financial assistance. If you are receiving full Housing Benefit, but at one time you were only receiving partial HB payments, even if this was several years ago, you may also be able to make a claim to this fund if you are struggling financially. A DHP cannot be considered to cover shortfalls caused by the recovery of overpayments.
Housing Benefit
You may be able to get Housing Benefit if you pay rent and you have a low income. If your savings are £16,000 or over then you won’t normally be entitled to Housing Benefit, unless you are in receipt of Pension Credit (Guarantee Credit). For everyone else who has savings between £6000, and £16000 a tariff income will be calculated and deducted from your entitlement. You won’t get Housing Benefit if you are a full time student (unless you have children or are disabled). If your rent includes an amount for water, heating, lighting, or cooking then your Housing Benefit will not consider paying these elements when calculating your entitlement.
If you have non-dependant adults living with you then a deduction is usually applied to your HB depending in that adult’s income and circumstances. The standard rates for these ‘non-dependant deductions’ has been the same since 2001. From April 2011 these amounts will be increasing. The lowest amount at deducted at present is £7.40 per week, but will be increasing to £9.40. The highest amount deducted at present is £47.75 but will be increasing to £60.60.
Due to the many changes to Housing Benefit over the coming years, such as the increase to non-dependant deductions in April 2011, The DWP has increased the budget for the Discretionary Housing Payments fund as they envisage an increase in applications. If you are receiving partial Housing Benefit you may be able to make an application to the DHP fund for financial assistance. If you are receiving full Housing Benefit, but at one time you were only receiving partial HB payments, even if this was several years ago, you may also be able to make a claim to this fund if you are struggling financially. Please contact us if you would like assistance with this.
Council Tax Benefit
You may be able to get Council Tax Benefit if you are responsible for paying the Council Tax for where you live and you have a low income. If you have savings of £16000 or over then you won’t normally be entitled to this.
Mortgage Interest
If you or your partner are in receipt of certain benefits and have been for 13 weeks*, you may be able to get help towards your Mortgage Interest, this is called Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI). This is for mortgages that have been taken out to purchase a home, and for some home improvement loans. The maximum limit up to which mortgage interest can be considered is £200,000. This means that if you have a mortgage over this amount then they may not consider paying the interest on the remaining mortgage that is over the £200,000. The standard interest rate used to calculate SMI is currently 3.63 per cent. From 1 October 2010 the standard interest rate is set at a level equal to the Bank of England’s published monthly average mortgage interest rate. The starting rate that applies from 1 October 2010 is 3.63 per cent (the rate published by the Bank of England on 31 August 2010).
*These new rules came into effect from 5th January 2009 and is a temporary measure to help ease the current economic downturn. These measures will be reviewed when the housing market recovers.
Service Charges/Ground Rent
You may have to pay service charges and/or ground rent for where you live on leasehold properties. This means you may be a housing tenant that pays rent, or an owner occupier that must pay service charges as a condition of living in the property. Help towards your service charges and/or ground rent is usually considered with your housing benefit claim. However, if you do not rent then your service charges and/or ground rent may be considered when claiming other certain benefits.
Winter Fuel Payment
A person may qualify for this if they were born on or before 5th July 1950. It is paid every year during the winter months. To be entitled to this, you must have reached the qualifying age during the ‘qualifying week’; this always begins on the third Monday in September. For 2010 this means you need to be aged 60 during 20 September 2010 – 26 September 2010. It is paid to help you with your fuel costs but it does not matter how you use this money. You will not be entitled to this if you are in hospital during the qualifying week and have been there for over 12 months.
Couples who have both reached the qualifying age and who are receiving Pension Credit or Jobseeker's Allowance (income based), or Employment and Support Allowance (income related) will get one payment made to the person receiving that benefit. The other person is not entitled to the payment.
The Winter Fuel Payment is paid to you automatically at some point during a number of weeks from early November until Christmas. If you have not received your Winter Fuel Payment by Christmas, you will need to claim it by completing a form and returning it before 30th March.
In line with changes to State Pension age for women, the qualifying age for Winter Fuel Payments will rise gradually between 2010 and 2020, from 60 to 65. This means that from winter 2010/11 onwards, both men and women will need to have reached women’s State Pension age by the end of the September qualifying week.
Cold Weather Payment
This is a non-repayable payment to help towards extra heating costs during “very cold weather”. This is determined when the average temperature for your area is recorded as, or forecast to be, freezing point or below over seven consecutive days. You may be eligible to receive this if you are in receipt of; Pension Credit. You may also be eligible if you are in receipt of Income Support; or Jobseekers Allowance (income based); or Employment Support Allowance (income related); AND you must also receive a pensioner or disability premium, or have a child who is disabled or under the age of five. There is no need to claim the Cold Weather Payment as it is paid automatically.
Would you like to see if you could be entitled to any of these benefits? Our Welfare Benefits Advisor, Millie can give you advice on what benefits you may be able to claim, and help you to claim them if you would like her to. Millie may also be able to calculate how much you could receive with these benefits. You can contact her either via our Customer Services Team on 0300 123 1222 or via info@muir.org.uk
Remember, it is your responsibility to notify the relevant benefit department of any changes in your circumstance to ensure you are still receiving the correct amount of benefit, to prevent any overpayments, or underpayments from occurring.
