Help not sure what to claim

helpformyfamily

Hi,

I am living on Scotland but come from England orginally. I have been living here for 8 years and have 2 young children.

We moved here because of my husbands job but now have settled and my children have started school and are happy.

My husband and I have now come to the conclusion that our marriage is over. We have tried marriage guidance and decided this is for the best. However neither of us have anyone we could go and stay with and neither of us can afford to move out. We have a mortgaged property and have negative equity.

Luckily things are fairly amicable and as he works away during the week we have managed okay. My friends children go to there Dads at the weekend so I sometimes go to stay at hers.

I am on ESA (CB) due to his salary. As we are living as 2 separate households I have no idea where to begin with benefits and the whole thing has had a major impact on my depression. I need to look into what I can claim to start planning for the future.

Any advice would be great. Should I change my ESA to IR?

I need to sort this for myself and more importantly my children.

Caz3121

Whilst you both have the same address you may find it difficult to convince the benefits people that you are actually separated. Not sure if it will help but you may have to go down the line of a legal separation through a lawyer. It may be better if your husband has another address where he can live at weekends rather that the matrimonial home it may be better.
Unfortunately, as the system tends to pay out more to single parents than families there are a lot of people that pretend to be single parents to financially benefit so they make it difficult for those with genuine claims that are stuck with negative equity etc and are unable to properly split

helpformyfamily

Thanks for the reply.

I wish we could just sell the house and start a fresh but that just isnt possible at the moment. The kids miss their Dad terribly and I am trying to keep things as 'normal' as possible for their sakes.

I was trying to avoid involving a lawyer etc due to the cost but think I may have to. Its all so messy.

Thanks
Jemma