Housing Benefit help Over 65

SJMoore

For instance if they said she should of sold it for more, but has no means of doing that now and refused HB for this reason, is there a time frame she would have to wait for before been able to be eligable for it and would there be any other help available to her? sorry for the questions just wanna make sure all basis are covered before applying and know what to do. cheers again

pmlindyloo

What you may have to prove is that your mum has not deprived herself of capital in order to claim benefits.

Now whether they would query her applying for housing benefit or not is difficult to say.

Presumably she took out an equity loan on the house. What was that spent on? Did she haveto pay back the debts with the money she got from the sale of the house?

If there are questions asked then the council will want to know these kind of things.

sh1981

SJMoore wrote: »

Hello,

I was wanting some help and advise really, i bought my mothers house off her last year due to her taking out and equity loan which was going up by at least £2000 a year so she would never have the option to pay it back i paid almost £10000 back from what she borrowed 4 and half years ago, she is over 65 been retired for 7 years now only has basic state pension cominng in and struggles with that, she sold it to me for less than the market value due to the house needing massive refurbishment, after equity loan was paid off she has next to nothing left, she is applying for a council house at the moment, i was just wondering would she be entitled to housing benefit due to her age/situation and also i am wanting to move my family into the home so she needs somewhere else to live now? Would she be penalised due to selling it for less to me but this was all due to condition of property. Also my 19 year old sister would be living with her also if this makes any difference. Any help would be great.

thank you

Look up: Notional Capital.
Look up: Deprivation of Capital.

sh1981

SJMoore wrote: »

No i would not kick her out, the house is far to big for her since her husband passed away and all she wants is just a 2 bedroom flat/house/bungalow something small she can manage but obvious doesnt have the finance to either pay full rent or buy anywere, she has no savings at all just trying to get some advise as wouldnt want her getting a council property and then not been able to get any help at all.

Why can't she stay with you? She's your mother.

lakes17

Why don't you sell the house and use the proceeds to buy a small flat for your mother. As things stand it seems to me that you made a tidy profit in buying your mothers house and is now expecting the State to keep your mother. Or am I missing something here?

SJMoore

Lakes17 - im not expecting this at all, if she had sold the house privately or to me she would be in the same boat, there is no profit to be made from the house as i said she owed most of it out that i paid for the house, so either way if she had sold to me or sold private she would be in exactelly the same situation, like i said i bought it for 15k under asking price due to work that was needed, so once sold you tell me where i can get a flat for 15k for her minus all other fees involved in selling a house, so what ever way she went she needed to sell the house to get her debt under control i bought it because its my old family home. So if you have no useful help please dont comment on this post. She has worked full time all her life paid all NI and tax so i was asking what possible help was out there for her so dont need your stupid comments...

Morglin

If she has a low income, limited savings etc., and assuming the council don't take the view she has deprived herself of assets to claim benefits, then she would be entitled to HB, CTB, and Pension Credit.

How long she will have to wait for a council place, nowadays is another story, of course.

She might be best seeing if there are any sheltered schemes left in her area (many are ending because of funding cuts) and applying for one of those.

This site might give some guidance:

http://www.turn2us.org.uk/benefits_search.aspx

Lin

lakes17

Firstly these were not stupid comments as I gave a suggestion which seemed perfectly reasonable. I know that you originally bought the house from your mother and are now the owner of the property your mother is still living in. You also say that you have done improvements so the value of the house will now be more than it was when you bought your mother out. My suggestion was to now put it on the open market and when it is sold use the proceeds from this sale to buy a small flat for your mother (minus surveyancing solicitors fees etc.)


Like your mother I have also paid into the system all my life (I am in my late 50's) I am currently out of work but still have a large mortgage. I get a small work pension which doesn't even cover the cost of the mortgage and am Illegible for any state help because my son still lives with me (in spite of contributing for over 40yrs). However this is my problem and not the state's and with the help of my son's wage the mortgage and bills are being paid.

lakes17

like i said i bought it for 15k under asking price due to work that was needed, so once sold you tell me where i can get a flat for 15k for her minus all other fees involved in selling a house

SJ Moore - so you bought the house for 15k under the asking price and now have 15k left, how much did you pay for it as based on this information you paid very little.

borkid

lakes17 wrote: »

My suggestion was to now put it on the open market and when it is sold use the proceeds from this sale to buy a small flat for your mother (minus surveyancing solicitors fees etc.)

If the house was bought on a mortgage by the original poster then there still would be very little equity in the house and both mum and OP would need to find a place to live. That's how I read the situation but please correct me if I'm wrong.