evening all

bit of a long story cut not that short but:

the missus is disabled, i am her full time carer, i gave up wrk 3 years ago to look after her, and as such we live on benefits.

one of these is housing benefit, we are a married childless couple, we have been assesed as having a two bedroom requirement (because of my wfes noisy breathin equipment) I have a letter from the council stating that we have been assesesed and eligible as such.

HOWEVER

we previously lived in privately rented accomodation, (a two bed terraced house)

my local council (northampton) restricted the rent to an allowance for a 1 bedroom dwelling £450 even though my rent was £500.

they advised that this was because under government legislation (they have never been able to give me details of this) they could fund a council 2 bed property, but not a privately rented 2 bed place.

because the old house was full of damp and mould and adaptation was going to be costly the council using their new website "the homechoice" website offered us a new place which was ideal in every way, a bungalow with 2 bedrooms in the perfect area for lauras care network.

however as this was still privately rented (we were unaware it was private till after we had given notice) we remain ineligible for a 2 bedroom private rental place with a rent at £550, we still only receive £450.

can anyone direct me to the legislation that the council refer to as they are unable to?

can anyone explain this to me?

they would pay the entirety of my rent if i had children, or if the place was council owned, what i cannot understand is why they refuse just because it is privately rented?

btw the rent £550 falls within the acceptable amount for 2 bed homes in northampton, so its not that the rent is excessive.

mods pls remove duplicate post

A lot of this double posting tonight!

I don't know the full picture, as I come at it from the perspective of being a private landlord. These days there is something called the Local Housing Allowance, essentially setting benchmark rates to pay housing benefit to couples, singles, families etc. The website is here:

LHA home

Looking on the page, there is an FAQ, from there:

If you are severely disabled, or live with a severely disabled partner, and have no dependent
children, your benefit will be based on the one bedroom Local Housing Allowance rate.

Which is the bummer I guess. Assuming local authority is Northampton, it shows rates payable for a 1 bed self contained place as £103.85pw (=£450 pcm), 2 beds £126.92pw (=£550 pcm)

So if the rules are rigidly applied, you are not getting very far. The big thing is that the above rules don't apply to Council and other social housing, so if you can find a housing association with a place, that might be your best bet. Here there is a pretty good disability advice service who could help, but again if the rules are applied rigidly and you can't find the right house or flat, advice isn't much good. Good Luck.

Re-reading your original post, who's the new landlord? It doesn't have to be council to be exempt. All sorts of housing associations and groups that are registered social landlords would count too.