single mum and baby

[hannah40]

we have someone stay with us from a charity that houses single mums and babies.we have a mum and her baby stay with us but her rent allowance from the council is the same as a single person £65 we are alittle surprised as it costs us more to have them both here .do you think this sounds fair to you?would you expect more money for letting out a room to 2 people or would you charge the same as one.?

[joko]

im not sure you are grasping that rent is for the rental of property , for accomodation...nothing more...its is not supposed to cover all living expenses...she is supposed to be paying you a share towards bills etc...you really need to sort this aarrangement out as shes living off you for free in the meantime...

[hannah40]

thank you joko.

[themas]

I don't understand why the charity is telling you the amount of rent you can charge. Normally, you as landlady would decide the amount you wanted. Is the rent being paid by Housing Benefit or is the charity paying it in some other way? If it is Housing Benefit then the local Council decide the upper limit. As others have said, rent is just for accommodation & (unless there is some other arangement with the charity) you can ask for a separate payment for the utilities etc. You would not expect to get more rent for the same amount of accommodation (i.e. 1 room) just because there are more people living in it, so I find it strange that the charity says the payment would be higher if there was a 3 year old with the mother. This implies the payment is intended to cover something other than rent for accommodation. I suggest you talk to the charity to clarify & fully understand what the position is.