Greater Manchester Help with Rent team facilitates benefits

The Help with Rent team provides enhanced advice services for nine regions of Greater Manchester for the benefit of local citizens. Also known as the Local Housing Allowance Transition Team (LHATT), this service has been instrumental in helping previously denied applicants secure housing benefit and other aid necessary to cover basic living costs.

Tenants who have been unable to make their rent payments may be able to obtain the aid needed to make up for the shortage. A team adviser may be able to make the difference, even if they have been denied basic benefits before.

The Help with Rent team is funded by these authorities for use by their citizens:

• Bolton
• Manchester
• Rochdale
• Salford
• Stockport
• Tameside
• Trafford
• Warrington
• Wigan

The service is also funded by the Greater Manchester Single Homelessness Prevention Fund, which shares much of the costs with these nine participating local authorities.

Success stories are many, and the service has been able to rescue hundreds of clients from financial despair and prevent removal from their rented properties. Here are some situations where clients who faced a rental emergency were able to get help.

• Clients whose housing benefit had initially decreased to the shared rate were found to be eligible for the 1 bedroom rate.
• Clients were able to receive the higher 2 bedroom rate for housing benefit.
• Advisers found that Disability Living Allowance had not been properly recorded.
• Clients actually qualified for extra housing benefit because of changes to their situation. Advisers were able to help them increase their payments.
• Advisers were able to restructure budgets so that clients could pay all bills and still afford debt payments.
• Tenants who were in arrears were able to finally afford their rent. Advisers frequently negotiate workout arrangements with landlords so that tenants have flexibility in catching up on payments.

Mobile Advice Centre

While the team is based in Stockport, there is no need for clients to make the hike. These advisers are on the road to meet clients wherever they are in Greater Manchester. This means that a client may need to wait only a few days for the service to make the next visit to their town.

To serve these locales, the team makes frequent visits with its Mobile Advice Centre so that clients do not need to travel far. In fact, it is on the road at a different location almost every weekday. To find out when advisers will be visiting, the upcoming schedule can be found by calling 0845 120 2093.