Benefits available with shared ownership home

thorsoak

This is a query on behalf of a friend (age 55) - she was made redundant just over a year ago. She's been unsuccessful so far in obtaining work in London and is beginning to despair of being able to work ever again. Up to now her mortgage (and 2nd mortgage from when she bought ex-husband out of house) has been paid by redundance insurance but this is about to run out and she will be dependent upon benefits who will pay interest on mortgage (but not 2nd mortgage). She is contemplating moving away from outer London where she now lives - her house is on the market and it looks as if she will have in the region of £70k with which to to buy another property - so she'll have to move from London area.

Query is this - if she puts her £70k into a shared ownership property but still doesn't find work and she is still dependent upon benefits, would any benefits be available to pay rental part of property? Should add that she is on her own (apart from her cat!)

At the moment she gets just basic JSA.

cattie

She should qualify for hb on the rental part, but would need to check out if any service charges are payable as the whole service charge amount might not be able to be claimed via benefit. I think it depends on what is included in the service charge.

Hopefully somebody who lives in SO & claims hb will be able to verify whether they are able to claim for the full service charge amount.