advice for my mum

julie03

my mum is having terrible marriage problems at the moment and wants to leave her husband. she has been married 4 years and is 66 years old. the house is bought and paid for by her husband but she thinks the house is in joint names. we know when she tells him she is leaving he is going to turn nasty and probably just chuck her out.

i know you cant get hb when you own a house but there is no way she could private rent without help. she gets her pension and she has a part time job but she would need some help.

she wants to keep her job so wants to stay in the area , (not near me so cant help) i think i have read somewhere she can get help for some time while everything is sorted out , can anyone confirm the rules on this.

thanks in advance
julie

DX2

If she is still working this may go against any claim for LHA. I'm pretty sure I have read something here on MSE about being able to get LHA if you are fleeing domestic violence...just got to remember where!

julie03

its not really donestic violence , he can get nasty verbally and will dig his heels in and make things really hard for her, she is not very good at standing up for herself, if he shouts at her she just stands there and cries,

mazza111

Mental abuse is still abuse. Fortunately many councils see it like this these days.

Oldernotwiser

mazza111 wrote: »

Mental abuse is still abuse. Fortunately many councils see it like this these days.

I think this being shouted at is stretching the definition of mental abuse a bit too far.

OP, if she has few savings and the house isn't in her name she'd be able to claim Pension Credit (affected by her earnings) which would cover her for her rent (1 bedroom accommodation) and her council tax.

suelees1

If the property's in joint names he can't force her out but she would probably want to move anyway.

The amount the law says she needs to live on is £130 pw. If her wages (less a £5 disregard) plus state pension is less than this they'll top it up with pension credit as long as she doesn't have excess capital.

Help towards her rent (HB or LHA) and Council Tax Benefit will depend on her income - DV is irrelevant.

Life's too short to live with a bully