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I'm on Universal Credit, my mum is gifting me a house

I'm on Universal Credit, the house in which I live, which I currently rent, is in the process of being sold to my mum, no mortgage, and she plans to gift it to me. The house costs 35K. The Universal credit agent didn't know how this would affect my claim. Any thoughts?
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Comments

  • Ames
    Ames Posts: 18,459 Forumite
    If you're going to be living in the house then it won't affect your claim - the home you live in isn't classed as capital.
    Unless I say otherwise 'you' means the general you not you specifically.
  • calcotti
    calcotti Posts: 15,696 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Assuming your UC includes help with your rent the only change will be that you will no longer get this part of the award because you will no longer be paying rent. The house is ignored as capital as long as you are living in it.

    Appalling that the UC agent could not explain this to you, do the DWP staff get any training?
    Information I post is for England unless otherwise stated. Some rules may be different in other parts of UK.
  • Ames
    Ames Posts: 18,459 Forumite
    calcotti wrote: »
    Assuming your UC includes help with your rent the only change will be that you will no longer get this part of the award because you will no longer be paying rent. The house is ignored as capital as long as you are living in it.

    Appalling that the UC agent could not explain this to you, do the DWP staff get any training?

    Not too long ago the ESA advice line told me that support group descriptors don't exist it depends on how many points you get which group you're in.

    So whatever training they do get is extremely minimal!
    Unless I say otherwise 'you' means the general you not you specifically.
  • NeilCr
    NeilCr Posts: 4,430 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Ames wrote: »

    So whatever training they do get is extremely minimal!

    Yep.

    Full UC was introduced into our area in the last few months. We have a DWP liaison officer and I am aware, through him, just how short and late the training was for the local JC+ staff.

    I see posts here criticising DWP staff. I have spoken to quite a few and they have always been helpful and polite. But they are undertrained and undersupported.
  • calcotti
    calcotti Posts: 15,696 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    NeilCr wrote: »
    I see posts here criticising DWP staff. I have spoken to quite a few and they have always been helpful and polite. But they are undertrained and undersupported.

    Agreed that that is generally true. It is an institutional problem.
    Information I post is for England unless otherwise stated. Some rules may be different in other parts of UK.
  • huckster
    huckster Posts: 5,501 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    monkey74 wrote: »
    I'm on Universal Credit, the house in which I live, which I currently rent, is in the process of being sold to my mum, no mortgage, and she plans to gift it to me. The house costs 35K. The Universal credit agent didn't know how this would affect my claim. Any thoughts?

    Where in the UK can you buy a house for £35k ?

    Assuming there will be a period, where your Mum owns the house legally, before there is a process to transfer ownership to yourself.

    Please be aware that when the landlord changes from current owner to your Mum, that you will need to report this to Universal Credit as a change of circumstances. Failure to report the change could lead to serious consequences.

    Ideally your Mum should have a tenancy agreement drawn up to show a commercial tenancy agreement exists, if you are going to continue paying her rent. Or if your Mum does not charge you rent, you need to update Universal Credit to advise that you no longer pay rent.

    When the ownership transfers to yourself, you then update Universal Credit to note you own the house and any housing rent still payable is stopped.
    The comments I post are personal opinion. Always refer to official information sources before relying on internet forums. If you have a problem with any organisation, enter into their official complaints process at the earliest opportunity, as sometimes complaints have to be started within a certain time frame.
  • w06
    w06 Posts: 917 Forumite
    some parts of liverpool you could for that much
  • monkey74
    monkey74 Posts: 42 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10 Posts Combo Breaker
    huckster wrote: »
    Where in the UK can you buy a house for £35k ?

    Chilton in Durham :)
  • Mojisola
    Mojisola Posts: 35,572 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    monkey74 wrote: »
    I'm on Universal Credit, the house in which I live, which I currently rent, is in the process of being sold to my mum, no mortgage, and she plans to gift it to me.
    huckster wrote: »
    Ideally your Mum should have a tenancy agreement drawn up to show a commercial tenancy agreement exists, if you are going to continue paying her rent.

    It would be very hard to claim this wasn't a contrived tenancy - even though monkey has been renting the house previously, Mum has bought it for monkey - she won't be able to honestly say that she would evict monkey if monkey failed to pay the rent.
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