Housing Benefit

Hi,
Could someone please clarify this for me. My husband gets housing benefit due to getting carer's allowance for his mother. Will this cause trouble in the future when I apply for FLR(M)? It's listed in examples of meeting adequate maintenance but I'm a little paranoid about the public funds thing.
Thanks.

It’s fine as long as you aren’t claiming it yourself and as long as he isn’t claiming extra because of you living there (I.e. he needs to claim as if he is single and not married).


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As you are his partner living with him, he must tell Housing Benefit about you but he must not take extra benefit money for you as you must not  take public funds. e.g. his claim will be for the single room rate and not a married couple room rate; if he is age under 35 his claim will be for the shared room rate and not a married couple rate .

Any capital/earnings etc that you have, are used in his benefit calculation to work out how much HB he will be paid.

Back in March you were applying for a visa as living in his parents house. As he can't get Housing Benefit for living with his parents, I assume he has only just claimed for help with rent with the rental you have just got? Housing Benefit ended for new claims in December 2019 for those of working age. Do you mean he is claiming the replacement benefit Universal Credit?

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-and-couples-an-introduction/universal-credit-further-information-for-couples

Hi Sirius. MIL has impending surgery and will need separate room with hospital bed so staying with parents no longer works. Hubby has only mentioned housing benefit, I'm not familiar if it's replacement for universal credit or not. I will have to ask for more details.

Thank you everyone for letting me know about ensuring he only claims as single. He was thinking he could increase it to married, but I wasn't sure. When he asked the lady at the office they said he could since he's married. It's not done yet, so I will ensure it's not done to make sure I'm not getting any benefit.

Thanks.

Hi Sirius. MIL has impending surgery and will need separate room with hospital bed so staying with parents no longer works. Hubby has only mentioned housing benefit, I'm not familiar if it's replacement for universal credit or not. I will have to ask for more details.

Thank you everyone for letting me know about ensuring he only claims as single. He was thinking he could increase it to married, but I wasn't sure. When he asked the lady at the office they said he could since he's married. It's not done yet, so I will ensure it's not done to make sure I'm not getting any benefit.

Thanks.

They often want to help by giving you the maximum. It’s really important for you to double check everything they say, as sadly it’s caught people out before. They mean well.  But can actually do more harm than good!

Hubby has only mentioned housing benefit, I'm not familiar if it's replacement for universal credit or not. I will have to ask for more details.

Universal Credit has replaced six low income, benefits: Housing Benefit, Child Tax Credits,  Working Tax Credits, Jobseeker's Allowance, Income Support and ESA. It's an online benefit and is based on monthly income. with different elements; one of which is housing (money towards the rent).

Thank you everyone for letting me know about ensuring he only claims as single. He was thinking he could increase it to married, but I wasn't sure. When he asked the lady at the office they said he could since he's married. It's not done yet, so I will ensure it's not done to make sure I'm not getting any benefit.

He can't claim as a single. It is benefit fraud to claim as a single when they are not. He can only take money for a single as he cannot take extra money for you, but your earnings, capiatl etc will reduce his claim.

The link in my previous post above, shows how the benefits office defines who is a couple. The link also gives instructions on how to claim Univesal Credit if you are a couple and what happens when one of that couple cannot have public funds.

1. Definition of a couple

The Department for Work and Pensions counts 2 people as being in a couple if they live in the same household and are:

    married to each other
    civil partners of each other
    living together as if they were married



The benefits people are not immigration experts. It is up to you to ensure you don't take Public Funds/your partner does not take extra benefits for you, as that would be a breach of your visa.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/public-funds--2/public-funds



The amount of rent they will pay is based on a bedroom allowance and a single will either be the "1 Bedroom" rate, or the if he is under age 35 it will be the  lower  "Shared Accommodation"  rate.  It is up to the applicants to ensure the information is correct on the award letter, so check to see he isn't taking extra money for you and that all the other information is correct.

Now that I have just looked at the government site, there isn't a married rate and by playing around with the calculators,  the one bedroom rate appears to be the couple rate? Which is what he will get if he is single and age 35 plus, but the award letter should still show that he is not taking extra money for you otherwise that will get picked up by UKVI.

The LHA (Local Housing Allowance) amount is only set at the 30th percentile of rents in your area for his bedroom allowance. This is the maximum housing element and they will then make  dedcutions based on both your earnings (I'm not sure how they treat Carer's Allowance) , savings/property etc. If you have over 16k in capital - savings/a house you don't live inin  any country or land in any country etc you cannot have Universal Credit because they will be worth more than 16k. 

Because of the pandemic, UC is giving extra money for some of the elements, as a temporary measure which will end next year, so be prepared for the drop.  I don't think? they gave this extra money to those on the old benefit Housing Benefit or income based JSA.