Universal credit and protected Trust Deed Scotland.

Charliegeorge12

Dear all,
Owing to lockdown I have been receiving universal credit housing benefit since last July. I have got a p/t job now and will hopefully be f/t soon.
on the 28/05/2021 I received a message from universal credit stating that I had been receiving this benefit wrongly owing to me having a “non commercial tenancy” which consequently makes it not legally challengeable. They stopped my benefit (£650.00 per month) and informed me I had to repay all previous payments which is £7850.00. I have appealed but unsuccessfully This of course has thrown my son and I into poverty.
I am 2.5 years into a protected Trust Deed Scotland already.
My question is will this universal credit debt be added to my existing trust deed or is it a separate issue?
I have no means to repay this debt so would sequestration be the only step left to me?
I am at my wits end over this so any advice would be gratefully received.
Many thanks

George Harkess

poppy12345

You can't add additional debt onto a protected trust deed. See link. https://www.scottishtrustdeed.co.uk/knowledge-hub/can-i-add-more-debt-to-my-trust-deed/

The UC debt will be extra and can be repaid back from future UC payments. If you no longer receive UC then you will need to arrange to pay it back yourself in installments.

With regards to your rent are you renting from family members or maybe a former partner?

Charliegeorge12

Thanks Poppy,
No I don’t rent from anyone I previously knew, I’ve been house sharing with him for over a year so obviously know him well now. The implication from the correspondence is I know him though. I don’t have a conventional lease though as it’s based on trust. When I moved in though I’d never met him before. I don’t have the funds to make any meaningful repayments so can you take out an additional trust deed or is sequestration the inevitable next step? 
Many thanks for your advice.
Best
George.

poppy12345

I have no idea if you can have an additional trust deed for this sorry. I do know If you don't currently have a UC claim for DWP to take payments from your entitlement then the next step will be for you to make arrangements to repay it back. If you don't do this then DWP can request a direct earnings attachment from your employer. Sequestration is unlikely here.

With regards to your rent, i'm assuming you didn't have a lodgers agreement in place and a DWP decision maker decided that it wasn't a commercial tenancy because of that?