Divorce settlement effect benifits

[Mumtogir]

Hello im hoping someone has been through the same recently , so ive litrally weeks away from officially being divorced , settlement is great got what i needed to put a good deposit down on another property , only my house has now sold and ive been made redundant, i now cannot get a mortage and money from my settlement was going to buy me and children a new house , can someone tell me where i stand with my universal credit if i have this money in the bank untill ive got a new job and can get a mortage. Will I lose it all ? Will they take into consideration covid ?

[ComtesseDeSpair]

If you have over £16,000 in savings then you won’t be eligible for UC. Between £6,000 and £16,000 and what you’re entitled to will be reduced.

Savings are savings regardless of what you intended to buy with them and if you have them then you need to use them to pay your way. What if everyone decided to stash their own money away so they could buy a house and claimed benefits for their living expenses? Hopefully you won’t be out of work for too long and can apply for a mortgage then.

[justchecking1]

You may need to check with the department but I'm sure there's some kind of grace period for cases like this where the money doesn't affect benefits. I'm not sure if that applies to new claims though, or just existing claimants

[PicaK]

When I talked to the UC people in March they confirmed there was a grace period for the sale of the house - holding the equity in a bank account - she couldn't remember if it was 6 or 9 months though.

[ZombieFan]

"Money from the sale of premises which were lived in as the home is disregarded to give a person time to buy other premises if the person is going to

1. use the money to buy premises and
2. live in those premises as the home.

The period of disregard is 26 weeks or longer if it is reasonable from the date of sale."

[granadagirl]

I understood the owning a house until it is sold you can still get housing benefit
Also monies from sold house is separate to use for another house

[PicaK]

No if you own a house you don't get rent or mortgage help included with UC.

There's some fiendishly complicated stuff about upkeep costs but tbh I couldn't follow it.
So it looks like you'll not be penalised OP. Good luck with the job hunt.
Been made redundant twice. I think the majority of the time people end up in a better place. But the waiting and not knowing bit in between is just horrible

[Mumtogir]

Thank you all for comments , i dont get the housing part of it & only started claiming as i was on maternity and was left with nothing but my maternity money , ive managed to sort it all and have been offered a job today 🤞

[PicaK]

Hurrah!