Universal credit and house.

emergencytea

Evening everyone. Rejoined anonymously to ask a question. Forgive me any mistakes due to being incredibly anxious and upset at the moment. My husband and I own a house together (value £120,000; mortgage £87,000). We have recently decided to separate. He currently claims carers allowance for our disabled son and will continue to do so. However, I only work part time and couldn’t immediately afford to buy him out of his half of our house. He obviously can’t get a mortgage due to not working (a job wouldn’t fit with our son’s care anyway) So would need to rent somewhere. We can currently amicably live together and will do until we can figure all this out. 

The obvious option would be for him to rent somewhere close by. However if he claims universal credit (obv £67 a week carers isn’t enough to pay bills) then will the fact that he owns half of this house count as capital and nil his claim? I cannot possibly sell the house. I can borrow money from friends and family to buy out his half of the equity but I don’t understand if that will be better or worse for his UC claim and honestly, I’m so stressed I can’t see the wood for the trees. Please can someone help me understand?

calcotti

Because he previously occupied the house with you as his partner and you will still be living in it as a lone parent it can be disregarded as a capital asset if he claims UC

the Universal Credit Regulations 2013, schedule 10, paragraph 5(b) 
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/376/schedule/10/made

SCHEDULE 10
Capital to be disregarded
5. Premises that a person has ceased to occupy as their home following an estrangement from their former partner where—
(a) the person has ceased to occupy the premises within the past 6 months; or
(b) the person’s former partner is a lone parent and occupies the premises as their home.

calcotti

Will he still be providing 35 hours of care to your son each week after he moves out? That is a qualifying requirement of Carer’s Allowance.

emergencytea

calcotti said:

Will he still be providing 35 hours of care to your son each week after he moves out? That is a qualifying requirement of Carer’s Allowance.

Yes, he definitely will. My working hours aren’t very flexible so he’ll do a lot of wraparound care around school to enable me to work-on top of having our son and his sister a couple of nights a week as well.

emergencytea

Thank you SO much for replying. I honestly might get a wink of sleep tonight! I am so, so grateful.

calcotti

emergencytea said:

calcotti said:

Will he still be providing 35 hours of care to your son each week after he moves out? That is a qualifying requirement of Carer’s Allowance.

Yes, he definitely will. My working hours aren’t very flexible so he’ll do a lot of wraparound care around school to enable me to work-on top of having our son and his sister a couple of nights a week as well.

He will get the carer element in his UC award but his Carer’s Allowance will be deducted in full from the amount of UC payable.

calcotti

Have just realised that I made an assumption in my earlier reply that your disabled son is still a child rather than a disabled adult.
if your son is an adult you will not count as a single parent in which case the property disregard would be limited to six months (as in paragraph 5a quoted earlier).

emergencytea

Yes he’s just five