Universal Credit and mortgage

Aej11

Hello,
I have recently split with my husband, we have 3 young children.
We have a mortgage of about 180k.
My ex works full time and earns a good wage, I work part time while the kids are at school, and pick up the childcare side of things.

I cant afford to take on the mortgage, and I find the whole thing really confusing.
I am currently staying with family along with my children.

Ideally I'd like to rent, because I'm sure I couldn't get a mortgage in my own right at this point, and I'd like my husband to stay in the house weve bought because the kids will be spending weekends with him.
I think we would lose money if the house was sold at this stage.

Would this mean I wouldn't be able to get any help from Universal credit?
Would the house be classed as savings?
I know when we took the mortgage it had a 2 year period where we couldn't remortgage, so having tried to research options, I dont think my ex would be able to take over the mortgage in full.

As I said, I'm so confused by the whole situation. Any help appreciated.

pmlindyloo

Putting aside the house issue for the moment you can claim Universal Credit and the capital will be disregarded for 6 months.

Premises ceased to be occupied
H2114 Where a person has ceased to occupy premises as their home following estrangement from their former partner, those premises can be disregarded from the calculation of that person’s capital where
1. the person has ceased to occupy those premises within the past 6 months or
2. the person’s former partner is a lone parent and occupies the premises as their home1.
1 UC Regs, Sch 10, para 5

So you can start a claim for Universal Credit.

You need some advice as regards the break up and the dividing of assets plus child support/visiting rights etc

Please do some research on the internet about your options and then get some advice. Citizens Advice may be a good place to start.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/ending-a-relationship/how-to-separate/deciding-what-to-do-when-you-separate/

calcotti

If you jointly own the house then half the equity less sale costs belongs to you and could affect your benefit entitlement. However it can be disregarded for six months (or longer if DWP consider it reasonable to do so) while you are trying to sell it.
See https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/832009/admh2.pdf
Paragraphs H2115 and H2116

If your partner is the primary carer for your children then your share of the property would be ignored indefinitely. See paragraph H2114. However from what you have said I infer that this does not apply.

[Cross posted with pmlindyloo]