Advice Please AnswerBankers

[rosiew]

Hi All
This is a long saga but will cut it as short as possible. My goddaughter who lives with her grandparents is pregnant. Unfortunately because the grandparents are in their 80's, it is not possible for her to live with them after the birth of the baby so she needs to find somewhere to live. She has been to the social services and they have put her as a catagory 3 which is low priority, they say that they can do nothing about it until after the birth because she has at the moment got a roof over her head. She works part time but although she wants to keep working would she be better on benefits. The father of the baby who lives in London does not want anything to do with the baby. She is due in september but that does not leave much time to find a place and get it ready for the birth. Has anyone any suggestions on how to go about this please

[grasscarp]

Where do her parents not look after her?

[B00]

Doesn't really help you I know, but why is it not possible for her and the baby to continue living where she is?

[Celticv11]

TerMination? Losing your job and being homeless is irresponsible too

[factor-fiction]

Oh dear. Have you asked her what ideas she had in mind when she allowed herself to become pregnant. She should seek to get financial help from the father. She may be able to get maternity benefits from work while she's on maternity leave. Thereafter it may be difficult to afford child care and she may indeed be better off on benefits.

[tonyav]

Might help if Goddaughter tells s.s. that the Grandparents have kicked her out, thus making her homeless. She should then go to the top of the housing list.

[Maydup]

Its drastic but true - the grandparents need to write to her and explain that they have no room for her and that once the baby comes along they will be over crowded.

This will increase her priority level and help her toward a place in a mother and baby hostel/B&B. This isn't a great prospect either but from here she will be housed in a small flat or house of her own.

All being well, by this time next year she should be settled.

[Prudie]

Also wonder why she can't stay where she is? Maybe I'm wrong but with grandparents of that age I'm guessing this is an adult woman who must have thought this pregnancy through?

[pastafreak]

Celtic-the OP has stated that the girl wants to continue working,and she is not deliberately homeless either.

[rosiew]

It's not possible to continue living at the grandparents because it's a 2 bed house and also her granddad has the onset of Alziemers so grandma is having to constantly watch him, a baby would tip her over the edge. Factor 30 believe me i have asked that question so many times, im completely against this pregnancy but i have to support her what ever she does. It's not possible to live with her mother as she HATES her stepfather so that is a no no. We are putting together a letter to say that she is getting evicted from her grandparents so hopefully it may push her further up the priority list

[Smowball]

How old is she??

[ummmm]

Can she not rent privately? If she works part time she should be eligible for housing benefit.

It must be different rules across the country. My mate was in similar circumstances, although she worked full time, and she got a two bed flat before the baby was born.

[EDDIE51]

If the grandparents throw her out she will be an emergency case and the council HAVE BY LAW to home her within 48 hours.
But the grandparents MUST write a letter saying that they are not prepared to have the baby in the house and they are making her & baby homeless.
Unless the council get the letter saying she is going to be made homeless she will wait years on the housing list as she is 'adequately housed' .
It sounds hard but I had to do this for my son and daughter in law , I wrote a letter saying I could not house them and was about to throw them out on the street. Within an hour they were put in a 'Bed and breakfast' hostel and got a 3 bed council house 6 weeks later.
I know a lot of ABers will object to this but social housing is now ONLY available to emergency cases, others will wait 10 years or more.
The council even payed for a Taxi to take them to the B&B What ever she does do not let her rent privately, again as soon as she has a private rental available she is no longer an emergency case and goes back to the bottom of the queue as she will be ''adequately housed''
I know this sounds drastic but it is the ONLY way to get instant council/housing accociation accomadation.
I was told to do this by my youngest son who is a senior housing / finance manager with a very large London council , he really does know how to get things done. He even wrote the letter for me !

[EDDIE51]

Just to reinforce the point .
The grandparents MUST state that they are throwing her out. Otherwise she will wait for ever.
As soon as she has the letter get on to he councils 'homeless unit' all councils must have one, then they MUST rehouse her within 48 hours.
DO NOT let her get private rented accomadation , she needs to force the council to rehouse her and the baby.
She can apply to several councils, the one where she is living at the moment plus the one where she lived when with her parents. If the parents have split up she can apply to both the council where her mum lives and the one where her dad lives if they are diffrent. So potentially she can apply to 3 councils and they all have to offer accomadation,then she can choose which she wants.
Obviously she must not mention to any council that she has otherl applications or each will try to pass her off to the others.
In my son and daughters case they applied to 2 councils and accepted the best offer.

[B00]

Hang on, why does she have to do all that?

Shes got from now uptil she takes her Mat leave (August?) to save up to pay for a deposit for her own place. Why does she have to rely on the state to bail her out of a situation for which frankly is her doing?

Surely she can privately rent?

[EDDIE51]

Ummmm, the rules regarding homelessness are the same all over the UK .
It is government law not council policy. The councils have no choice , if a 'vulnerable person'( which includes pregnant women) is home less they MUST rehouse them within 48 hours !
An aside but the lawyers working for immigrants know this and use it to full advantage. This is why immigrants seem to get housed ahead of the resident population , their lawyers know the law inside out and backwards and make sure their applications are successful .
It is not discrimination either posative or negative it is just a case of knowing the law and making certain that once a case is presented to a council it is presented in such a way that the council have on option but to house the applicant immediately.

[rosiew]

Thanks to all who replied, especially to EDDIE51.Smoball, she is 27yrs old

[ummmm]

Eddie, I meant when my friend got pregnant she was living in a shared house, so wasn't homeless. She put her name on the council list and got a two bed flat before the baby was born. She didn't declare herself homeless to get this flat.

[Smowball]

Is there no other family whatsoever?

[Kassee]

Now why didn't I think of that - I foolishly saved up for donkeys years for a deposit, and managed to get somewhere to live and then got married before I had my baby.