Wow that’s crazy about your rent. How stressful. Have you approached your local council to see if they could step in with discretionary housing payments to help you top up rather than you having to use all your UC while you wait to get housed?
Here if you get into housing association because there’s not enough council then the UC still covers the rent even if it is near the private cost… so affordable rent here with housing associations is like 80 or 90% of the cost of the private rent. They will cover the housing cost under UC because it’s still deemed social housing, whereas they will not cover the difference between the LHA level and the private cost.
Council round here is about the same… 400ish. It’s crazy how cheap it is. Definitely worth it if you’re working as much more affordable. Also people can buy them so everyone’s bidding on them.
That’s another reason I’m desperately trying to get a housing association flat as less people bid on them as they are more expensive but obviously I don’t really care as I’m not paying for it (sounds bad but in my situation I’ve given up feeling guilty). I can try to get a council one later if I want to… tbh eventually I’d like to try and get housed in a bungalow instead of a house as my mobility is worsening when using the stairs.