• Replies 18 replies
  • Subscribers 79 subscribers
  • Views 3157 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Please Help Me... (Housing - benefits)

Luke

My anxiety is skyrocketing at the moment due to housing issues.

I have lived with my mum and step-dad for the past 8 years or so.

My mother is a Methodist Minister, and housing is provided integrally to this job.

She has been assigned a new manse along with a change of location.

The new location will not be appropriate for me to live in - it is too small.

I also do not want to move away from this area, which has been a base for nearly 20 years.

For a long time a local organisation have been promising that autism appropriate accommodation would be available imminently.

They knew that the start of August 2014 was my deadline for moving out, ever since my initial application, which must be at least 18 months ago now, maybe 2 years or even longer.

Only now, at short notice have they confirmed that they in fact do not have any autism appropriate vacancies available, nor will they at any time in the forseeable future.

Up until this point they had always presented a rosey outlook on the availability of their services.

As such I am suddenly left in the lurch, struggling to source a local autism appropriate property, together with dealing with all benefits related issues and so-on, then move out, all within a time frame of weeks.

It is going ok I guess, I have a social worker assigned to me, and I also have the involvement of a local autism specialist charity.

My big problem at the moment revolves around housing benefits.

A disability advice organisation has told me that I can get housing benefits up to the amount of the average price of the average comparable property rate.

When I pheond the council helpline the council say I can only get the shared rate - around £58 per week.

I've only found one property that I could afford with that, and it seemed entirely inappropriate - I am quite scared by the idea of living there at the moment.

I have viewed at least 2 properties at about £80-90 mark that seem ok - there seem to be quite a lot locally, it is just the money that is the issue.

I am on ESA, I also claim low rate moblity DLA, but I am studying and still paying for that.

I think I might be able to top up my rent about £10 a week but I would struggle with much more than that.

I thought my social worker might help with all of this but at the moment he seems to have left it to me - with the help of my charity support workers.

I discovered Discretionary Housing Payments with an application form on the council website.

Do you think that this is what the Disability Advice organisation was referring to?

Please - what are other peoples experiences and knowledge around this area?

I would greatly appreciate it if somebody could share. The thought of being homeless, or in horrible housing is terrifying me - it is so frustrating that nobody seems to be able to help me or give me a straight answer.

I am just going round in circles and I can feel it making me quite ill.

Parents

  • I live with my mum and step-dad in a large semi-detached. I guess you'd say it was a 5-bedroom house?

    I've been being treated for debilitating acute stress, anxiety, depression and chronic insomnia for 8 years now.

    I can't imagine what moving into a much smaller property shared with random strangers - as opposed to family members who also provide appropriate care - might do to my health.

    My brother did try to take his own life when put in a comparable situation.

    The option of moving in with friends seems a vague possibility, although I hardly have any, and like I mentioned, I need to find a place within weeks.

    I'm not sure what more I could be doing in terms of my freedom as an adult, I've researched properties, arranged vieweings, worked with the social worker and charity to put together a transition plan and a care plan for when I am in my new property.

    My work on this area has been intensive for the past few weeks - ever since finally being informed that the housing agency mentioned will not have appropriate accommodation available.

    This has been hampered by the fact of not knowing how much benefits I will receive.

    I'm too ill to work, and like I say, the ONLY place that I have found which I can afford on generic housing benefits - which don't take autism into consideration whatsoever was a one-room studio apartment directly above a fast-food outlet directly on the main road between two major cities.

    That seems far from ideal given the issue of noise, but what really put me off was that the landlord turned up to the viewing, called me to his car over the street and spoke to me for about 5 or 10 minutes through the wound-down window.

    While I was standing in the street, prompted by the fact of my mentioning I have a support worker, he made open enquiries about my mental health and if I might be a problem for the other tenants in the property.

    He did all this in spite of having neglected to bring the key so that we could actually view the property in the first place, for some reason.

    I don't mean to sound as though perhaps I have some picky autistic tendencies but to my mind his intrusive lack of professionalism was disconcerting, considering I might be moving in to a property he owns for a substantial number of years.

    I have found dozens of places that are in the £80+ rental range - it's quite striking to see actually, how it would appear that only properties with a distinct reason for doing so drop beneath that: hardly places that are likely to be autism appropriate.

    Perhaps I haven't made my specific concern clear enough - my issue is benefits, specifically how to receive these, and how much can be expected.

    My parents aren't doing anything on my behalf in particular, and my social worker has provided information about council related disability accomodation schemes but left everything else up to me.

    Do you have any experience with the housing benefits system you can share?

    If you have any specific ideas for how to exercise my freedoms as an adult in a more appropriate fashion, please just suggest them, and I'll try and take them on-board.

    Just to clarify, I have lived away from the parental home for 6 years previously, while studying and for a couple of years afterwards - although I have never actually lived alone.

Reply

  • I live with my mum and step-dad in a large semi-detached. I guess you'd say it was a 5-bedroom house?

    I've been being treated for debilitating acute stress, anxiety, depression and chronic insomnia for 8 years now.

    I can't imagine what moving into a much smaller property shared with random strangers - as opposed to family members who also provide appropriate care - might do to my health.

    My brother did try to take his own life when put in a comparable situation.

    The option of moving in with friends seems a vague possibility, although I hardly have any, and like I mentioned, I need to find a place within weeks.

    I'm not sure what more I could be doing in terms of my freedom as an adult, I've researched properties, arranged vieweings, worked with the social worker and charity to put together a transition plan and a care plan for when I am in my new property.

    My work on this area has been intensive for the past few weeks - ever since finally being informed that the housing agency mentioned will not have appropriate accommodation available.

    This has been hampered by the fact of not knowing how much benefits I will receive.

    I'm too ill to work, and like I say, the ONLY place that I have found which I can afford on generic housing benefits - which don't take autism into consideration whatsoever was a one-room studio apartment directly above a fast-food outlet directly on the main road between two major cities.

    That seems far from ideal given the issue of noise, but what really put me off was that the landlord turned up to the viewing, called me to his car over the street and spoke to me for about 5 or 10 minutes through the wound-down window.

    While I was standing in the street, prompted by the fact of my mentioning I have a support worker, he made open enquiries about my mental health and if I might be a problem for the other tenants in the property.

    He did all this in spite of having neglected to bring the key so that we could actually view the property in the first place, for some reason.

    I don't mean to sound as though perhaps I have some picky autistic tendencies but to my mind his intrusive lack of professionalism was disconcerting, considering I might be moving in to a property he owns for a substantial number of years.

    I have found dozens of places that are in the £80+ rental range - it's quite striking to see actually, how it would appear that only properties with a distinct reason for doing so drop beneath that: hardly places that are likely to be autism appropriate.

    Perhaps I haven't made my specific concern clear enough - my issue is benefits, specifically how to receive these, and how much can be expected.

    My parents aren't doing anything on my behalf in particular, and my social worker has provided information about council related disability accomodation schemes but left everything else up to me.

    Do you have any experience with the housing benefits system you can share?

    If you have any specific ideas for how to exercise my freedoms as an adult in a more appropriate fashion, please just suggest them, and I'll try and take them on-board.

    Just to clarify, I have lived away from the parental home for 6 years previously, while studying and for a couple of years afterwards - although I have never actually lived alone.

Children
No Data