DSS Tenant

[grumpy80]

If you are on JSA and you are wanting to rent somewhere but cannot raise a deposit, what options do you have?

[sara3]

get a job or don't have a deposit.

[grumpy80]

My partner used to work in a betting shop which the company shut down after 6 days notice, with no redundancy money! Illegal we know but at the moment we are sharing a house with someone we do not want to be associated with. We have spoken with local council about the situation but they have not responded. I have a chronic illness and my partner is starting to receive JSA. So before people suggest get a job, try living in Sussex with only betting shop job history!

[grumpy80]

Plus, we cannot scrape together a deposit and we do not know anybody that would accept DSS without one.

[bednobs]

what about sainsburys? or shops that need christmas staff? get the person you are living with to chuck you out and then approach the council

[dot.hawkes]

You should go to your local housing authority and fill in an application for housing, then explain your situation in person with medical evidence and they will nominate you probably for one of their housing partners, you shouldn't need a deposit either

[cazzz1975]

you could probably apply for a grant that you would have to repay.

[B00]

You can apply for a crisis loan, but I'd be very careful if you do- the repayments are really expensive.

[sara3]

there is no interest to pay on a Crisis Loan

[dot.hawkes]

B00 when I was at Uni about 10 years ago i applied for one of those and they set the repayments too high and so i appealed and they halved them!!

[grumpy80]

We have been homeless before but someone helped us, plus my health was loads better than it is now. We cannot be on the streets again as I take morphine daily!!!!! Plus Xmas jobs are temporary and the other half has to find a perm job but is not trained in ordinary retail management.

DWP have refused to give us a crisis loan as they feel we should be living in a grotty room somewhere. I have Crohns Disease and therefore have to (medical reasons) have own facilities.

Without going into too much detail we cannot wait to get away from the bleeping weirdo, however him chucking us out is not an option due to my ill health.

[grumpy80]

dot.hawkes - we have spoken to the local council and unless you have family in this area or have lived in the area for more than 6 months then you aint gettin any help! We have approached the council where we used to live (we were there for some time!), but they are yet to reply.

[grumpy80]

Update on our situation!

We have finally got our local council to admit duty of care but as they do not have housing stock we have to find a private landlord willing to accept DSS tenants. We have been awarded a month in advance as well as a deposit guarantee, we have also found a landlord and should (fingers crossed) be moving in within 2 weeks.

So, all those who are having probs with getting housing sorted please keep hounding the council. It worked for us, it will work for you.