No help from Universal Credit for 6 months +

RagingAgainstTheMachine

calcotti said:

RagingAgainstTheMachine said:

Those rules are nil and void in a pandemic with the economy crashing, especially at the time they told us to sell. I've just got off the phone with a mortgage adviser who said not to sell and wait for this to all blow over, as well as saying they couldn't offer me a mortgage now due to my business being so adversely affected. If a mortgage adviser is saying that now as we're heading into lockdown tomorrow, then he would have said it mid-lockdown too. I've been given 6 months notice to move out of my private rented property. I spoke to an office within the independent company I'm taking Universal Credit to court through yesterday and they said that Universal Credit are basically avoiding me, as did this mortgage adviser. Citizen's advise are also on the case for me to try and get answers from anyone.

DWP were accepting nil value for properties for part of the lockdown. Currently they take the view that the market is open.
You have the option of putting the property on the market. you then benefit from the disregard. If after six months there has been no interest you may get an extension to the disregard. 
Sometimes you just have to try and navigate a way through the machine (you can rage against as well if you like).

Where did you find this information? I was just saying it as obvious fact but anyone I've spoken to hasn't mentioned that. I've seen they're not closing the housing market again this time. I see, again this wasn't mentioned, they simply worded it like they were trying to bully us into selling the house to use the money to support myself but it'll run out as things stand, then I'd be back at square one and they'd have to support me, which is counterintuitive. Indeed, knowledge is power. Navigate against the machine...maybe i should change my name. Thanks   

calcotti

RagingAgainstTheMachine said:

calcotti said: DWP were accepting nil value for properties for part of the lockdown. Currently they take the view that the market is open.

Where did you find this information? 

Much as I like to support what I say with references I haven't got one for this. It was discussed on various forums during the first lockdown and some people had experience of DWP accepting a temporary nil valuation but I'd have to do a lot of searching to find relevant threads and I haven't got the patience to do that.

RagingAgainstTheMachine

poppy12345 said:

RagingAgainstTheMachine said:

The problem being is that this rental income forms part of our monthly income as we split it, so if we sell it all that will happen is that the money we get from the sale will decrease until we're in a worse position with an infant. 

My income has severely decreased and my partner's work stopped both due to the pandemic so money has slowly dwindled down while waiting on the DWP, we privately rent.

If there's equity in the house then yes this will affect the amount of UC you're entitled to. Earnings received during your assessment period also affect the amount of UC you're entitled to. Just because your earnings have decreased, it doesn't mean you're still entitled to any UC, even if you didn't have the house.

Not sure why you're taking this to a Tribunal but i wish you luck with that one.

Irrelevant during a close down of the housing market. The rental income we get is from the property so if it's sold that causes us to be less an income but have an amount of money, that money will decrease by the income we are down each month. From my journal statement my earnings were around -£900 during the assessment period. I thought the whole point of UC was to help out people with decreased earnings.

I'm taking this to a tribunal because my second application started 7th April, the housing market closed 23rd March and reopened 13th May, my claim was closed 19th May. During this time I'm told the DWP were accepting nil value for properties, and if not, my evidence shows that it was impossible to begin selling the property. No viewings allowed, estate agents near impossible to contact, etc.

RagingAgainstTheMachine

macman said:

Does your infant child have underlying conditions that make them vulnerable to infection? If not, their risk from COVID-19 is minute, or less.

Unless you're a virologist I'll need more than that to risk my infant's respiratory system. My sister, within my bubble, tested positive for COVID two weeks ago today. On that day we'd visited her as she's tested weekly. Luckily I've had no symptoms and neither has my infant, it's not something I'm willing to roll the dice with again.

RagingAgainstTheMachine

calcotti said:

RagingAgainstTheMachine said:

calcotti said: DWP were accepting nil value for properties for part of the lockdown. Currently they take the view that the market is open.

Where did you find this information? 

Much as I like to support what I say with references I haven't got one for this. It was discussed on various forums during the first lockdown and some people had experience of DWP accepting a temporary nil valuation but I'd have to do a lot of searching to find relevant threads and I haven't got the patience to do that.

Well thank you anyway, I'll get on the search.

macman

RagingAgainstTheMachine said:

macman said:

Does your infant child have underlying conditions that make them vulnerable to infection? If not, their risk from COVID-19 is minute, or less.

Unless you're a virologist I'll need more than that to risk my infant's respiratory system. My sister, within my bubble, tested positive for COVID two weeks ago today. On that day we'd visited her as she's tested weekly. Luckily I've had no symptoms and neither has my infant, it's not something I'm willing to roll the dice with again.

Or a statistician maybe? Almost 48,000 UK deaths from COVID, and 6 of them were children. All 6 had serious underlying health conditions, 3 were newborns, 3 were aged 15-18. 
You are at far higher risk than your child is.

poppy12345

RagingAgainstTheMachine said:

sammyjammy said:

Universal credit are not ignoring you, they cannot help you, they have denied your claim following the current law, if you want that changed then you need to follow due process which is nothing to do with any staff working on Universal Credit.  You're on a hiding to nothing you would be better putting your efforts into increasing your earnings.

  I'm not willing to interactive with people outside of my family bubble and risk the health of my infant child.

The risk to children/babies is very small unless they have an underlying health condition that puts them into the extremely vulnerable list.

k12479

"Irrelevant during a close down of the housing market..."

"...the housing market closed 23rd March and reopened 13th May..."

Property auctions have continued throughout. One of the main auction houses had auctions on 26th March, 12th May, June, July, August, September and November.

calcotti

There are a couple of relevant discussions here
https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/15925
and here
https://www.rightsnet.org.uk/forums/viewthread/16033

ripplyuk

macman said:

Does your infant child have underlying conditions that make them vulnerable to infection? If not, their risk from COVID-19 is minute, or less.

You don’t know that. No one knows the long-term effects of this virus. We’re only beginning to see some of the consequences. I think the OP is absolutely right to be careful.