Selling Property While On Benefits

shazier2000

Hi, im new here so i will first introduce myself. My name is sharon im divorced and i need some advise please. I have been on income support and housing benifit for the last 3 yrs,at the moment I lodge with a friend in a council house which is all above board. my ex partner and i have sold my house to our daughter which, will be completed on tues. she couldnt get a 100% morgage so we put the price at 100.000 instead of 125.000 and have let her keep 25.000 in property as a gift so, she could get the morgage. we will recieve 100.000 and have to pay the morgage lender 35.000 it is then split in 2 leaving me with 35.000.I intend to pay of all my remaining debts and am left with approx 17.000 . will I lose all my benifits and have to live on the remaining or can i put it into saving untill I retire. any help or advise what to do with the remaining please and how much savings am i allowed before it affects h/b and income support and will I have to live on it until it runs out before claiming again.
many thanks

healy

You really need to get advice from a Welfare Rights Officer as this is a complicated situation. They can be found at the CAB or at the local Council. I do think you will run into problems with the gift of £25,000 as I think this is likely to be seen as deprivation of capital, but you need expert advice to be sure.

DaisyFlower

Can you claim HB whilst owning a property already? I know you wont shortly but wondered why HB would be paid if you already had a home.

shazier2000

hi, i dont live in the property that i own,I have lived in private lettings for the past 2 1/2 yrs and moved in with a friend end of last yr. but do calim income support and H/B for the rent I pay here at the moment and, did for the private letting. I have been told that i am allowed to have 16,000 without it affecting my benefits because it is from the sale of the house? I want to pay of all of my debts when the house sale goes through on Tue. Ie credit cards, bank loan,etc and money I owe to my parents. in totall i will be left with approx 17,000 when everything is paid of. I paid into the system for many yrs myself before i became disabled but dont have a pension, i was hoping to put the remaining towards my retirement.

pandaspot

yes you can claim hb while owning a second property. As long as that property is for sale. There is no time limit for you to sell the property in respect of housing benefits.

However when you do sell the property, you state that you will have £17000 left. You will not be able to claim hb or ctb until this money drops below £16000

However if you were to use the £17000 to buy a new property then hb can disregard it for 26 weeks maximum while you try to purchase somewhere else.

hope that helps

shazier2000

Hi and thank you for your help, so what ur saying is, if i have 16.000 or less i can save that? and do i have to inform the income support and H/B that my house has sold straight away?the house that i own has already sold to my daughter, it was to her that my ex and I gave her a gift of £25.000, £12.500 each so that she could get the morgage as the house was not selling, plus she couldnt afford the original asking price,we wont be getting any of the 25.000 as this has been sorted with the solicitors and, being used for my daughter to have as the deposit, this was the only way she could get the morgage, she had to have a deposit. the sale will be completed on Tues next wk, giving my daughter this has also now caused me to worry going by a reply i had earlier.I was hoping to put what i had towards a deposit on another place but, with being out of work and on disability I cant get another morgage.

jai_2

Any large amount of money given away whilst claiming or immediately before claiming benefits can be seen by the DWP as 'Deprivation of Capital' and you really need to seek proper advice before you pay out anything including repayment of debts Contact your local CAB who will refer you onto a welfare rights person. As for the capital limits and benefits the Income Support will be affected. Anything over £16000 and you will not be entitled to the benefit. Between £6000 and £16000 a £1 notional capital will be deducted for every £500 you have. Under £6000 will be ignored. The HB and CTB will be ok as long as any amount of Income Support is still payable to you

jul22

shazier
I can't comment on any HB aspect, but if a person has £16,000 or over, then they are not eligible to IS. Incapacity Benefit is not means-tested and so you can still receive that. Same goes for DLA I think - but I'm not 100% certain on that! Hopefully someone else can advise there!

shazier2000

DLA is not counted that i am sure of, but thank you for your advise on other.

Oldernotwiser

Housing Benefit and Income Support are both means tested. It seems to me that your main problem will be that you have effectively given £12,500 (half of £25,000) to your daughter. As you don't have this money available you'll be in difficulties as you'll be unable to claim these benefits. I assume (please correct me if I'm wrong) you'll be treated as if this money was still available to you. If your daughter's unable to pay you this money back then it seems as if you will be better off getting a job; this will mean that you can do as you like with your money and is probably your best option.