Can I claim Housing Benefit once my house is sold?

neverdespairgirl

rdpro wrote: »

I believe the savings ceiling for means-tested benefits is 16,000 - however, it's easy (if not necessarily moral) to avoid this by putting the money into, say, a child's account (tax free interest too!).

It's not easy - the council will ask for proof of where any equity went, and giving it to the children may well count as intentional deprivation of capital.

terryw

real1314 wrote: »

rdpro, you really should not give out advice on something that you have no real experience of. It could have serious consequences for the recipient.
In any sale of property that leads to a HB claim, the Local Authority will check Land Reg records and establish the surplus capital, which they will themn expect to see declared by the HB applicant. Any discrepancy would have to be fully explained and could result in the applicant being treated as if they still have the full amount. There are very few ways to hide/move/dispose of capital that would be accepted.

However, OP if you have any significant debts apart from the mortgage (credit cards etc?), you may find that you can pay those off without penalty.

Thanks for the reply, and also to dmg24. Good advice about paying off debts even disregarding claiming .

Sometimes I wonder if perhaps some of the billions spent on education is wasted!

terryw

(trying hard not to bash his head against a brick wall in exasperation! )

tsstss7

op are you sure you would come out of this better off - private rentals are very insecure and although you are in effect "renting" from the bank at present you do at least have the security of knowing you can stay so long as you keep paying. I was working 22 hrs a week a few years ago and dispite being told by entitled to that I was due a small amount of housing benefit on top of wtc and ctc I subsequently found out my income was too much (I also was receiving child support that put me just outside the income bracket).

Are you sure you cannot claim hb now? My understanding is that you can claim from 39 weeks after a job loss so maybe they would also pay towards your if you have now been paying for that amount of time... have you looked into this?

terryw

tsstss7 wrote: »

op are you sure you would come out of this better off - private rentals are very insecure and although you are in effect "renting" from the bank at present you do at least have the security of knowing you can stay so long as you keep paying. I was working 22 hrs a week a few years ago and dispite being told by entitled to that I was due a small amount of housing benefit on top of wtc and ctc I subsequently found out my income was too much (I also was receiving child support that put me just outside the income bracket).

Are you sure you cannot claim hb now? My understanding is that you can claim from 39 weeks after a job loss... have you looked into this?

The Op is not entitled to HB now as she is buying the house. HB is only for people who rent.

terryw

rdpro

real1314 wrote: »

rdpro, you really should not give out advice on something that you have no real experience of. It could have serious consequences for the recipient.
In any sale of property that leads to a HB claim, the Local Authority will check Land Reg records and establish the surplus capital, which they will themn expect to see declared by the HB applicant. Any discrepancy would have to be fully explained and could result in the applicant being treated as if they still have the full amount. There are very few ways to hide/move/dispose of capital that would be accepted.

However, OP if you have any significant debts apart from the mortgage (credit cards etc?), you may find that you can pay those off without penalty.

Without bashing anyone's advice here, I'd like to point out that the average LGC rarely, if ever, checks any of this. I know of two people that sold their houses, banked the capital, went on a world tour with some of the proceeds, and still claimed full HB/CTB on their return, while retaining about 3/4 of the sale capital in savings - they were never checked and to this day keep the balance in their names. Yes, they took the p*ss, and I'd prefer to avoid than evade.

To say that a LGC will automatically check land registry files is complete BS.

terryw

rdpro wrote: »

Without bashing anyone's advice here, I'd like to point out that the average LGC rarely, if ever, checks any of this. I know of two people that sold their houses, banked the capital, went on a world tour with some of the proceeds, and still claimed full HB/CTB on their return, while retaining about 3/4 of the sale capital in savings - they were never checked and to this day keep the balance in their names. Yes, they took the p*ss, and I'd prefer to avoid than evade.

To say that a LGC will automatically check land registry files is complete BS.

Put their names and district on this forum please.

Even without that watch your local paper and check out the prison sentence they receive.

terryw (very near to bashing his head against the nearest wall)

rdpro

4 years and counting, no comeback.. don't worry, I don't consider them as friends, but neither do I consider them as enemies.. by the way, they passed the capital quite legally to her mother, and she passes back the interest earned monthly.

real1314

rdpro wrote: »

Without bashing anyone's advice here, I'd like to point out that the average LGC rarely, if ever, checks any of this. I know of two people that sold their houses, banked the capital, went on a world tour with some of the proceeds, and still claimed full HB/CTB on their return, while retaining about 3/4 of the sale capital in savings - they were never checked and to this day keep the balance in their names. Yes, they took the p*ss, and I'd prefer to avoid than evade.

To say that a LGC will automatically check land registry files is complete BS.

Not in my experience. By a long chalk. EVERY LA I have experience of would do this as a matter of course, and the increased availability of historic address date increases the ease with which this can be done. It doesn't even have to go as far as data matching to discover this, and what you are advocating is not within the rules anyway. Op might "get lucky" but that's a huge gamble imho.
Anyway the OP is only looking at £15k, which would result in an assumed income of £36 per week initially, reducing by £1 per week after every 7 weeks or so, subject to other spending.

EdInvestor

Is it correct that HB/LHA is only available for rent? Aren't contributions also made towards the interest on a mortgage ( not the capital)?

rdpro

EdInvestor wrote: »

Is it correct that HB/LHA is only available for rent? Aren't contributions also made towards the interest on a mortgage ( not the capital)?

http://england.shelter.org.uk/advice/advice-4176.cfm

separate from HB, but it's there