council housing and benefits

[marionette]

An acquaintance may divorce.
Once fully independent financially etc she then emigrated with foreign husband to live in his country she was then drug raped over a period of 3 years. Suffers emotionally due to this.
Has returned to UK. However now, she is not working and has had problems trying to get work. She has no assets and no money as has been dependent on husband for the past 6 months.
How would she stand in getting council accommodation and benefits once divorced?
any advice appreciated

[FlamingParrot]

Re: council housing and benefits

Council housing and benefits are two totally separate things. Once she is no longer living with a partner with an income, she should be able to claim income-based Jobseekers Allowance as well as housing benefit to pay her rent and council tax reduction. This is a good website to check entitlement: http://www.turn2us.org.uk/benefits_search.aspx

With regards to council housing, people with dependent children tend to be prioritised over those without kids. Each council has its own rules and housing stock availability. She may want to look here for some useful info with regards to council housing applications: http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_ad..._gets_priority

Even without council housing, she should be able to get housing benefit to pay her rent to a private landlord, however, the benefit may not cover the rent in full. A single person or couple would normally be entitled to a one bedroom allowance, but singles under 35 now only get the shared accommodation allowance, intended to cover the cost of a bedsit or room in a shared flat or house. The LHA (Local Housing Allowance) varies from area to area. This is a good place to find out more about how much she could expect to get in HB: http://www.voa.gov.uk/corporate/Rent...LHADirect.html :nerd: