Security Deposit

If your household falls into a ‘priority need’ category it may be possible for the Council to provide a returnable security deposit on your behalf, under strict conditions. These conditions are:

1. the property must not be too large or too small for the size of your family
2. that you apply to the Rent Officer Service for a Pre-tenancy Determination – in other words what the official fair rent is  considered to be, as Housing Benefit will not pay any more than this
3. that you can show you can make up the difference between any Housing Benefit payment, and the rent payable to the landlord from your wages or other benefits, without leaving yourself so short of money that you will not be able to keep the tenancy going. (You can do this be completing an income and expenditure form. NB: it is in nobody interest to work with anything but realistic numbers. There is no point in you being homeless again in six months time. Homelessness law obliges the Council to consider deliberate falsehoods when reaching decisions.)
4. you agree to a welfare benefits check to ensure you are claiming all entitlements to ensure private renting  really is affordable

If these conditions are met in full the Council might advance the landlord the equivalent of one month’s rent as a security deposit and will ‘fast-track’ any Housing Benefit application to cut out any delay.