Universal credit ex car

claudiagebi

Hi everyone,

I am looking for some advice regarding Universal Credit and separation.

My husband and I are separating, and he is moving out to a rented room. We have children together. He has two cars – both are in his name and he pays the finance for both directly from his bank account.

He wants to leave one car with me so I can take the children to school and commute to work. He will continue to pay the monthly finance installments directly to the bank. I will be responsible for the car insurance (at my address), road tax, fuel, and repairs.

I will be making a single claim for Universal Credit soon. My questions are:

Will the fact that he pays the car finance directly to the lender be treated as 'unearned income' for my UC claim?

Does the car staying at my address (while still being in his name/V5C) create any risk that DWP will think we are still living together?

I want to make sure everything is legal and transparent. Thank you for your help!

Emilee

No, it doesn't count as unearned income and does not need to be reported to UC.

Having the car at your address won’t make the them think you’re still living together, especially if you are living at different addresses and managing finances separately.

Rosie_Scope

Hi @claudiagebi, welcome to the community. Emilee has given some good advice here. If you have other evidence that you're living apart this should all be okay. For example, if they ask, you can show that your husband is on a different tenancy agreement to you and that you have separate bank accounts and things. That should be enough to show them that you're not living together as a couple any more.