Living on benefits and selling home?

james1988

Hi,
If you own a home outright but now live on enhanced universal credit and PIP can you sell your home and put that towards part buying a new home with a relative footing the rest of the cost.  The house that they currently live in is in disrepair (unlivable) and they cannot afford repairs. 

Would this allow the individual to seek housing benefit to pay for the rental part of the ownership if the home is part bought by the relative to provide them somewhere to live. The sale of the current house is unlikely to cover the whole purchase of a suitable property i.e. small bungalow.  
Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated
BWs
James

poppy123456

There is no such thing as Enhanced Universal Credit, It's just "Universal Credit."

It would be the housing element of Universal Credit they would claim, not housing benefit.

Whether this is possible is a different story. Claiming for help with any rent when renting from family isn't easy. The question is, if they didn't pay the rent to that familiy member, would they evict them? Or would they continue to let them live there? Have a look at this link. http://data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2019-0465/Contrived_tenancies_v4.0.pdf

I don't think anyone on a forum can specifically answer your question because only a decision maker can decide this.

Having said that, bungalows are extremly rare to find and when you do find them, they aren't cheap to buy. Have they thought about a ground floor flat? It would be cheaper to buy one of those. If they sold their current house, would there be enough to buy a flat?

Silverfox3824

You will need to check legal. 

Universal Credit would tell you owning or selling your home is classed as savings. The UC threshold for savings is only £16.000. 

DLA/PIP & AA are the only benefits that are not means tested. 

calcotti

Silverfox3824 said: Universal Credit would tell you owning or selling your home is classed as savings. The UC threshold for savings is only £16.000. 

DLA/PIP & AA are the only benefits that are not means tested. 

In the context of this thread that is thoroughly misleading. There are various circumstances in which capital can be disregarded one of which, as already advised, is that capital from a house sale which is to be used to purchase another. The value of a house that is owned and lived in by the owner is always disregarded.

Your second sentence is also incomplete. New style JSA and new style ESA are also not means tested, nor is Carer’s Allowance means tested (subject to the earnings limit).

7501x

@poppy123456

Sorry to jump on, I thought that when selling a property (whether you intend to buy another property or not) that 10% of the market value or sale price is disregarded as capital? Just thought I’d ask as it wasn’t mentioned here.

Hope OP managed to sort the circumstances out 😊

poppy123456

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/954985#Comment_954985

The reason it wasn’t mentioned is because it didn’t apply in this situation.

It applies in situations where a person owns or part owns another property they don’t live in. 10% is deducted from the value of that property for the cost of the sale. See link and scroll to “value of the property”
https://cpag.org.uk/welfare-rights/key-topics/survivors-domestic-abuse/value-property-and-its-effect-means-tested-benefits