Parents separated, can one claim benefits independently?

benefitshelp

My parents have a significant amount of debt, they are currently in the process of selling their mortgaged house to clear their debts and they will then be moving into rented accommodation independently. They separated many (5?) years ago (different bedrooms) and 1 year ago my mother moved into rented accommodation that I am paying for. They have 1 under 18 child who lives with my mother. My father lives in the mortgaged property alone.

As of March my father will be unemployed due to redundancy. He is looking for a new job but it is unlikely that he will find work, or if he does find work it will not pay over minimum wage, this means that they will be unable to meet their financial commitments if the house does not sell in time.

I am trying to work out the benefits situation for the following scenarios:

1. My parents house is sold and their debts are cleared, my father moves alone into a one bedroom rented flat and is unemployed. If this happens does he have any eligibility for housing benefit or income support? Does his marriage have an impact?

2. My parents house does not sell and my father is unemployed, are there any benefits available to help cover his living costs? He and my mother and both jointly paying the mortgage and debts at present, however my mother does not live in the house at all.

I have tried the entitledto benefit calculator however it doesn't clarify what "single" means, it seems to tell me he is eligible for £12,000 per year income support but that far exceeds what I would expect so I think it may be wrong.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

wildwestfan

Is there equity in the house? This could make a difference to their eligibility for benefits.

Caz3121

benefitshelp wrote: »

My parents have a significant amount of debt, they are currently in the process of selling their mortgaged house to clear their debts and they will then be moving into rented accommodation independently. They separated many (5?) years ago (different bedrooms) and 1 year ago my mother moved into rented accommodation that I am paying for. They have 1 under 18 child who lives with my mother. My father lives in the mortgaged property alone.

As of March my father will be unemployed due to redundancy. He is looking for a new job but it is unlikely that he will find work, or if he does find work it will not pay over minimum wage, this means that they will be unable to meet their financial commitments if the house does not sell in time.

I am trying to work out the benefits situation for the following scenarios:

1. My parents house is sold and their debts are cleared, my father moves alone into a one bedroom rented flat and is unemployed. If this happens does he have any eligibility for housing benefit or income support? Does his marriage have an impact?

2. My parents house does not sell and my father is unemployed, are there any benefits available to help cover his living costs? He and my mother and both jointly paying the mortgage and debts at present, however my mother does not live in the house at all.

I have tried the entitledto benefit calculator however it doesn't clarify what "single" means, it seems to tell me he is eligible for £12,000 per year income support but that far exceeds what I would expect so I think it may be wrong.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

I doubt he will meet the criteria for Income support so the options are JSA if he is able to work and is looking for a job or ESA if he has health problems that would affect him working.
Both of these are currently £71 per week for a single person.

With option 1, this depends on the equity in the property and the profit made after the mortgage (not other debts) is repaid together with what other savings they have...your father's redundancy pay?

option 1 - assuming his share of the equity and his redundancy comes to £16k (before paying off any debts) then he should be able to qualify for JSA and housing benefit, if private rented this will be based on the 1 bedroom rate LHA rate for the area he lives.
The similar would be the case for your mother (If the child under 18 is still in non-advanced education and lives with the mother, then the mother can claim the 2 bedroom LHA rate with child benefit and child tax credits)
If the equity share/other savings are less than £6k then there would be no deductions, if between £6k-£16k means tested benefits are reduced. If over £16k there would be no means tested benefits paid but your father would likely still qualify for contribution based JSA for 26 weeks

option 2. Your father would claim JSA and if his redundancy/savings were low enough then he would have an underlying entitlement to income-based JSA and after 3 months could get some help with the mortgage interest

Re paying off the debts, they need to have a good read up about deprivation of capital. If they pay debts that are not critical (eg they are being taken to court/debt collectors etc) so decide to pay a £10k credit card bill instead of continuing to make the monthly payments then the decision maker may perceive that they have paid off the debt to enable them to claim benefits and could treat them as if they still have the £10k