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We are currently living in a 3 bed terrace house and there are 2 of us and are tenants of ABC lettings and our rent is £495. As we all know, benefits are beng cut massively and we are struggling to make up the outstanding amount that we get for 2 bed allowance which is £414 (i think). We have asked the landlord to drop the rent but he is unwilling to do this and we have only been on the local housing for 3 years and not getting anywhere on this property pool plus. My mum is disabled and unable to do stairs and I am unemployed, we need to move by march as thats when we get in trouble. Has anyone got any advice as we are hitting rock bottom and don't know what to do. Please someone must know something that we can do PLEASE!!!

There are a couple of things that you can do.

Have you spoken to your local Councillor? You wouldnt believe how helpful they can be. He/She will be able to give you the very best advice and what to do. http://democracy.wirral.gov.uk/mgMemberIndex.aspx?bcr=1

There is also a 'discretionary Housing Payment' that you can apply for through your local Housing benefit Office. They will send out a form to you to fill out. Listing what your income and expenditure are. If your Mum requires care at night you may be entitled to the extra room. I'm not sure to be honest but it's worth looking into.

I found this on the CAB website too...

Further help with housing costs

If your Housing Benefit does not cover all of your rent and you need more help, as long as you are entitled to some Housing Benefit (or Council Tax Benefit) you can ask the local authority for a discretionary housing payment. This is an extra payment (not Housing Benefit) which you can get if you need further financial assistance with your housing costs. It is up to the local authority whether to give you this help, so you should give them as much information as possible.

If you want more information about discretionary housing payments, you should consult an experienced adviser, for example, at a Citizens Advice Bureau. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by email, click on nearest CAB.

I hope this helps
x

bedroom tax for private tenants has been around for a good while in the form of local housing allowance giving the maximum amount of rent for a certain sized property, the up and coming bedroom tax in the welfare reform relates to social landlord tenants.

if you are going to apply for DHP(discretionary Housing Payment)I would apply for it now as come april it will be even harder to get this top up in addition to housing benefits.

here is more information on the bedroom tax check here http://www.housing.org.uk/policy/welfare_reform/bedroom_tax.aspx

What do the changes mean?

The size criteria in the social rented sector will restrict housing benefit to allow for one bedroom for each person or couple living as part of the household, with the following exceptions:
•Children under 16 of same gender expected to share
•Children under 10 expected to share regardless of gender
•Disabled tenant or partner who needs non resident overnight carer will be allowed an extra bedroom


Who will be affected?

All claimants who are deemed to have at least one spare bedroom will be affected. This includes:
•Separated parents who share the care of their children and who may have been allocated an extra bedroom to reflect this. Benefit rules mean that there must be a designated ‘main carer’ for children (who receives the extra benefit)
•Couples who use their ‘spare’ bedroom when recovering from an illness or operation
•Foster carers because foster children are not counted as part of the household for benefit purposes
•Parents whose children visit but are not part of the household
•Families with disabled children
•Disabled people including people living in adapted or specially designed properties.

Why will you be in trouble in March? The bedroom tax doesnt affect people who live in private rented housing.

I heard that as well its only social housing thats affected

Exactly nuddy.

Ever since we moved in i have been putting money in the rent account to make up the shortfall so we have always been +£150-200 above what we should have in there but on loosing my job in march this year i have only been able to top it up by £10 or however much i can afford and basically in march that's when we run out of money. Nothing to do with the bedroom tax thing, but me and my mum are good with our finances and in march we will struggle to make up this £75+ shortfall unless i get a job but at the moment it's hard and has been since april this year. Many thanks