HomeSwapper, council house exchange, Homeswap, house exchange - Will housing benefit cuts affect me?

Will housing benefit cuts affect me?

From the 1st April 2013 the Welfare Reform Act comes into force, as part of the Act the Government will reduce the level of Housing Benefit you receive if you are of working age and are under occupying your home. This means if you live in a home that is too big for you your Housing Benefit will be reduced by up to 14% of the weekly rent for that property if you have one extra bedroom that isn't needed, and up to 25% if you have two extra bedrooms. These reductions, depending in your circumstances, could mean you lose a large amount of housing benefit.

Click here to find out how much money you could lose - Directgov Benefits adviser

If you think you will be affected by the Housing Benefit cut you can downsize to a smaller home. Moving house to a new property with the right number of bedrooms for you means you won't be affected by the cut and HomeSwapper can help you find a swap with someone who needs somewhere bigger to live.

HomeSwapper is the UK's largest and most successful home swap service and is part of the HomeSwap Direct scheme. If your landlord is a partner of HomeSwapper you can use the service for free, HomeSwapper is free to 97% tenants in the UK and is an easy to use and exciting new way to move home. Each week thousands of people living in social housing register online and advertise their homes, looking for another tenant who would like to swap.

You can use HomeSwapper straight away and avoid any potential Housing Benefit cuts by logging on to www.HomeSwapper.co.uk and registering to use the service.

For more information on the Welfare Reform Act you can visit:

DCLG - http://www.communities.gov.uk/corporate/

Shelter - Changes to housing benefit and local housing allowance (LHA)

Direct Gov - Directgov Benefits adviser



HomeSwapper is a direct home swap service for social housing tenants who want a house swap, flat swap or to exchange their council house. If you live in a council house or housing association property you can do a house exchange and swap your home with HomeSwapper, the national home swap service. As members of HomeSwap Direct we will also support tenants to search for swap partners across all members' sites on their websites to show that they are searching data about potential mutual exchange matches with one another for the benefit of tenants.

© Housing Partners Ltd 2013 −  "making a difference in people's lives by blending commercial and social strategies". HomeSwapper helps social housing tenants find mutual exchanges, home swaps and council house exchanges easily.