PLEASE How Much rent allowance would I pay?

itisreeno

Hi,
I am currently living at home and sharing a room with my five year old son. I am on the council housing list, but when I rang them recently they said I will more than likely never get a council property as there is a new system called the RAS scheme and no council houses left. But before I can go on this scheme I have to be in receipt of rent allowance for at least 18months. I live in the Fingal area and they have recently brought the max limit from 930 to 775, I have been looking for ages and it looks like I'l have to make up the difference myself as no properties for that price. So I am just wondering what would I have to pay altogether if the property was 890? I receive 200pw opf, 50 maintanence and 80 pw basic working part time but sometimes I work extra hours. Does anyone know How much I'd pay because i really cant work it out from citizens information website. Also what happens when I do work extra hours?

gustafo

with you living at home you will struggle to get rent allowance by just moving out of home, you will need to be renting privately for 6 months before you may be entitled to ra

wmpdd3

If you ar on the council housing you can get ra. But you cant makw up the difference, you must find a place under the guidelines, could you do a house share

itisreeno

HI, Thanks for the replies. I am on the council list so I am entitled to rent allowance. Also when I rang the council the last time it was them that told me I would just have to make up the difference. I know its not meant to happen but they did suggest it. Can I pay difference to the landlord privately? Honestly not sure if I could afford it though? Does anyone know how much I'd have to pay though? I dont think I could house share as my son would need his own room and I dont think id feel comfortable staying wit a stranger.

Yawns

Even if you shared a house, you wouldn't be entitled to the full Rent Allowance then. You can't make up the difference in the rent yourself. Your rent must meet or be below the limit for your area or you will not receive rent allowance. Some people have the landlord fill in that the rent is x amount when really it is y and they make the difference themselves. It's not uncommon but it's not what gets advised by the deciding officers etc.

As someone pointed out you must have been renting privately for at least 6 months out of the last 12. But this can be ignored by a deciding officer if the conditions you are living in are unsuitable. It gets decided on a case by case basis. So if you can prove to the deciding officer that the house is overcrowded for example and you need your own place with a room for your son, then it will be reviewed as such and a decision can be made.

Is fingal covered by the central rents unit or is the local community welfare officer the person who decides if you get RA or not. It can be easier to convince the CWO rather than someone in the rents unit who will deal with paperwork and an odd phonecall.

itisreeno

Well I share a room with my son at the moment and no other spare room in the house so I dont think id have trouble getting the RA. I think you send the form off now to get decided, there use to be a CWO but I think he is gone. Its hard because you cant see whether your accepted or how much you'd get until you find a place accept it and send off the forms. Wish you could find out before hand

Yawns

Ok bear with me I am going from some info on citizen's information website. The central rents unit pays by the month so my calculations will be based on a monthly payment rather than weekly.

Max rent for area for OPF with 1 child is 775. Your total rent must be this or less to qualify. I'll work off a rent that is 775 for now in my rough guess.

you must contribute a minimum of 30 per week. So 120 a month comes from your OPF payment income means.

If that was all you had then the max rent allowance you could get is 655. I say max because they may require more money per week contributed from your income. Now as you say you have 50 in maintenance and 80 per week working.

If you are on a One-Parent Family Payment, up to €95.23 of maintenance payments is deemed to be for rent.

So the 50 is regarded as for rent and will be deducted from rent allowance I imagine. 200 per month. Also your part time job €80 comes into play. The first €60 is not taken into account. You will be deducted 10 per week from your 80. So a total of 40 per month.

I can imagine the most rent allowance you would receive could be €415 per month after all deductions have been made. Now I could very well be wrong about a fair number of things so please please bear with me.

I am not in receipt of OPF payment or maintenance. So for all I know they may count the €50 maintenance and the €10 earnings as the full amount contributed by you and not take the OPF into account. But I dont think this is the case. If it was you would get a max of €535. However as these are other sources of income I imagine that all source of income will be means tested and my original guesswork of €415 would be closer.

I hope someone let's me know if I am way off in any way as I'll be glad to know it for future use if needed. I used any source of information from the citizen's information website at http://www.welfare.ie/en/schemes/supplementarywelfareallowance/pages/rentsupplement.aspx