Unemployed? Advice to Help You Afford Your Rent
With the recession still in fearsome force, more and more companies are being forced to make some of their valued employees redundant. This leads to an increase in the number of unemployed; if you count yourself among them, you may well be finding it a struggle to keep up with the bills.
Arguably the most important bill to keep on top of is the rent – it keeps a roof over your head, after all. If you don’t want to find yourself evicted and out on the street, you’d best pay your rent on time; sadly, it tends to be the biggest monthly outgoing, so it’s usually the hardest one to keep paying.
There is a bit of help at hand, however: there are a few programmes open to families on low income, designed to help them afford decent, safe housing, or even to help them pay their rent.
Charlie Deidrich by Think Out Loud, on Flickr. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Housing Vouchers
The Department of Housing offers its Housing Choice Voucher Programme to help families on lower incomes (as well as those who are unemployed) to choose their very own homes and pay a reduced rate for rent.
Under the bounds of this programme, the family will put forward 30% of their income each month to their rent and utility bills; the Housing Department will pay the rest. You can apply for the programme at your local office.
Temporary Assistance
For those people who are temporarily unable to afford their current rental agreement, but don’t want to move to more affordable housing, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programme may be able to help. The TANF provides a monthly cash sum to assist low-income families in meeting their payments.
This programme works on a short-term basis, so don’t apply if you think you need more long-term assistance, but they can be of great use if you find yourself in a pinch. Visit your local Social Services office for more information.
Affordable Housing
There are a number of companies set up to help you find affordable, private housing, such as WPHomes, providing housing in the Wirral. This is where the company owns a number of apartment buildings and houses and offers discounted rates for their rental.
The companies will receive tax credits to make up for the shortfall, as they are providing a public service. Look at the government site for the Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) for more information – almost £5 billion is being invested into the programme over the next few years.
Public Housing
This is a much cheaper alternative to rental, but works in a similar way to your normal private rent agreement – you will sign a lease with the local authority and move into an apartment building designed to house people in your situation.
You’ll still pay a monthly sum for rent, but it’ll be much less than the average for the area. You might need to pass an interview to qualify, or even meet a few necessary qualifications, so approach your local Housing Authority to see if you can benefit from it.
