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minnie123

removed due to personal reasons

TWEETYPIE_3

Hi,

You should contact your sisters local housing office for info on their homeless persons unit, initialy contact the unit to see if they will still help her as a homeowner (normally only homeowners that are being repoed & then only if you have kids), as walking from your home, arreas are considered as making yourself intentionaly homeless, if they suggest on the phone they will help her as a H/owner, you will go to the office with Id Passport, bank statements, birth cert. for her & kids (they will arrange H. benifit at the same time to pay for the hostel, you also give them your life history they will do a full background check on you, then your housed in a hostel that day, while they investigate you further, until temporary accomadation is found for you, normally 13weeks - Also contact refuge 0808 2000 247 they offer free legal advise (posibly do this before H.P.U. as I do belive they have their own hostels
Does your sister claim benifits in her name?
If not when she leaves, she will need to apply for Income support £60 Pw paid e.2wks, Child benifit £20, Child tax credits £50 p/w H.Benifit ? paid directly to hostal/landlard.
I would not suggest her moving in with you as at some point if she is unable to release funds from the house for whatever reason, she'll need her own place unless she wants to rent privately.
In relation to CSA, my ex is self employed, the system has been changed to allow men & women of a certain ilk to play the system, if he is spiteful this could be a long slog, but still worth trying but i'd wait until she moves out before official contact with them

sammyjammy

She needs to get into contact with a womens refuge, she would be entitled to Income support, housing benefit, council tax benefit, child benefit and child tax credits if she has less than £16,000 savings which sounds likely. The trouble is all of this will take time to sort out and she may have to spend a period of time in a B&B before she is assigned any social housing (depending on where she is). That's where the refuge people will help, they'll offer her shelter if they can and help her sort the benefits out.

http://www.womensaid.org.uk/?gclid=COmOk6Pj4aUCFVlp4wodBw9s2Q

Caz3121

what a horrible situation she is in (been there with emotional abuse and it is every bit as bad, if not worse, than physical)
she should contact Womans Aid for support
For benefits she would be able to claim Income Support, CB and child tax credits if not working or CB, child tax credits and working tax credits on top of wages if working.
As far as housing goes she should be able to claim housing benefit/LHA however they will question what stake she has in her current home, if their is any equity etc
she should be able to get a free half hour with a lawyer and possibly legal aid to help her through this
wishing her all the best

welshmoneylover

She needs to make sure the claim for child benefit is in her name ideally before she does anything else.

This will be her access point for any child tax credits or income support claim.

Good luck to her.

Jowo_2

She can contact Womens Aid who can help her with advice on benefits and her housing options. The Shelter website has a section on relationship breakdowns which explains a joint owners housing rights and responsibilities (for example, if he gets into mortgage arrears, she is liable, too), plus a section on homelessness which deals with a local council's obligation towards vulnerable and high priority groups. She should see a solicitor, too.

welshmoneylover

minnie123 wrote: »

Jut to add her plan was to move with me apply for benefits - ideally rent privately hopefully using housing benefit and then start looking for a job. Is this not going to be possible?

I don't think she can claim housing benefit while living with you, but yes, she can eventually rent privately then claim and eventually return to work. All in good time though.

Loopy_Girl

She can't apply for HB until she is in the property so she is going to have to somehow get the first month rent and deposit and then she can be in the place and apply.

Being in a hostel for a couple of months of course would enable her to get a job and save up.

Loopy_Girl

minnie123 wrote: »

I am confused with the Housing Benefit - she can't rent privately with no money or job but she can't claim for housing benefit prior to renting privately - how does this work then?

There are some landlords that will take HB tenants...it's a case of finding one.

Usually a letting agent can tell you which of their landlords take HB.

Loopy_Girl

I really don't know....unfortunately tenants on benefits have a bad name with landlords so it is really up to them whether they take HB.

She is not going to be able to walk out of one house and straight into another.

Surely being in a hostel for a short time would be better than staying where she is? Does her daughter really deserve to live in that environment? Plus she will gets lots of moral support and if she is a lone parent living in a hostel then she is more likely to be placed in appropriate housing.

Caz3121

she can move in with you and claim the single parent benefits - IS, change child tax credits etc to single claim but she won't get housing benefit. Some councils will have a loan scheme for rent deposits but she is still likely to need some funding herself to cover the rent whilst they sort out benefits