Is the only way to give up my sitting room?

I'm going to say this again. A person has to be habitually resident to qualify for assistance with housing/ to present as homeless. I have no clue if a person will be admitted to hospital if suffering from long covid as that is a clinical decision. However being in hospital, bearing in mind that it's not likely to be months, in all likelihood won't make a person habitually resident. During that time she would have to put in a claim for UC and hope it would be dealt with quickly. And then hope that the local authority will decide she is eligible, homeless and in priority need. And, again not wishing to put a spanner in the works, but local authorities still have to decide if a person is intentionally homeless. They might well give assistance to find a private rent provided she is habitually resident. I'm giving general guidance here, based on working as a homeless officer for 25 years. I'm clearly not making decisions! There are many variables and lots of things that will be assessed when/if the sister contacts the local authority.

Can she not work at all? I know long Covid is exhausting but there must be something she can do? What’s happens if she stays where she currently is? Does she/can she claim sickness benefits?

I agree with others when she is here she needs to contact shelter for advice .
And her gp for help with her health.
My sister had long covid for 3 years she went from working full time and travelling lots . To back to living in my parents spare room on sick leave. She lost her job and did the same as your sister. Slept most of the time.
Eventually she got some help from a doctor who worked mostly with people with long covid.
She started with a personal trainer 3 times a week. Very basic and slow exercises tailored to her . That she could also do every day at home. As well as other things to look after herself better.
Took a while but 3 years after getting covid she now works full time from home in a good job. She still goes to her PT 4 times a week . She lives with my parents still and they do help her a lot. And she has bad days or burn outs and needs a week off to recover.

Yes, this will impact your life in a negative way

I’d do that to, go to hospital get admitted and then say you have nowhere to go when discharged

All landlord know how benefit work, she needs to start a claim now and work on her residency at the same time and start looking for places, property is at a premium right now. At least she had her amazing experience abroad and now has you to fall on now her long covid has taken affect…
you can be technically homeless while sofa surfing and make application to the council for emergency temporary accommodation

Hi @Watdidusay

I have no real advice to offer but just wanted to say how sorry I am this is happen. It must be such a worry for you all. Am hoping there's enough ideas on here to help you get the plan of action you need.

Good luck x

I cant advice in this specific situation but I know someone who is unemployed and had nowhere to live due to the landlord kicking him put. So, he registered with the council, and was living in hostels/ cheap hotels for around 4-5 months (my understanding this was classed as being homeless), and then council got him a self-contained room in a shared house - seems nice, clean new place, 3 en-suite rooms sharing a kitchen. Its a private rent but done through the council and paid for by benefits.

This is really bad advice. ME/long covid can be mild (fatigue) or severe (bedridden). Many people with ME can work even if that means part time.

Paying rent ‘in advance’ as such isn’t banned, but it has to be done in a certain way.
https://theindependentlandlord.com/rent-in-advance/

I rent a room to a lodger. There are no requirements that a lodger is employed, that's entirely at the landlord's discretion.
I don't do credit checks.
Have a look on spareroom.com to see what's available.
The sticking point will be that the rent needs to be covered until Housing Benefit kicks in, and it may not cover the full rent when it does, so it will need to be topped up by other benefits.
I don't know how the benefits system works for someone who has been living abroad, but if entitled to benefits she should be able to get lodgings.

If entitled, you can use the Turn to Us website to calculate how much she might get.

@MadinMarch offering 6 months rent upfront is still legal until May 1st when the new law comes in.

• Talk to the council (without giving contact details, or using someone else’s).
• Talk to Shelter.
• Post on gumtree, local Facebook groups, any small ad services.
• Work out where actually stand now, OP has both said that the person has a GP and a bank account (both of which need a UK address) and also that they need to get a UK address.
• Talk to the guarantor companies.

Please for the love of goodness, can people stop saying that a person who has failed the habitual residence test can still access benefits. The test applies to : social housing, the homeless legislation, and UC etc. Part of the test for accessing housing is to ask if the person is on receipt of benefits. Being awarded UC or, in the 'olden days' another benefit which was described as a passported benefit makes a person habitually resident. A passported benefit meant the applicant could get HB so rent was paid automatically. In other words the government via one of its agencies had decided the person was habitually resident.
OP please get some advice from Shelter, or your local authority.

But she won’t be offered emergency accommodation if she doesn’t have priority need. The council also have no legal obligation to provide accommodation until she has passed the HRT

I think the 6 months up front is still legal if the tenant offers it. It's just that it's illegal for a landlord to require it.
However, most landlords would still want to see proof of income as obviously no landlord will intentionally rent out their property to someone who clearly doesn't have the long term ability to pay for it.
I think presenting as homeless to the council after a period on OP's sofa is probably the most realistic option your sister has.
Make claim for PIP as soon DS is registered with a GP.

Who on earth is going to employ someone who spends 20 hours a day asleep because they’re too poorly to do anything else?

My thoughts too. Effectively you’re going to have to all creep around trying not to disturb her? Grossly unfair on you and your family and utterly impracticable.

Op, your right this is not easy, but you are wrong in that the changes to tenancy is law. It’s not yet.

your sister needs to contact places like the passage in London, night shelters, shelter etc when she arrives. She can be placed in a night shelter who can support her into private rented. They do it every day, as my better half does this. Moves people into shared accommodation, private rented rooms/studios/flats etc. most are on benefits. All get housed. Your sister will need this specialist advice.

there are routes into housing but she won’t get a council flat, cos of HRT and lack of priority (unless over 55yrs as housing for older people has a different queue than general needs housing with 20,000 people on the waiting list.)

shelter staff can help with UC, benefits, housing advice, registering with health care etc. she has to be in the country to access the help. You can help by offering a night on the sofa, meals, ££ etc in short term, but once she is housed, she can get benefits etc

Can she not just…apply for a job? She doesn’t need to necessarily last in that job or be productive in it. But she would then have a job contract, she could get a property with that, she can then go to GP and sign off sick because she cannot do her job. Then apply for all the benefits…

What steps is your sister taking to try to solve her accommodation issues? As a PP said, there seems to be an enormous amount of pressure on you. But presumably, she is actively seeking to come up with her own practical strategy to return to the UK?

@HoratioBum im sorry but you are wrong. The whole point of the habitual residence test is that applicants who aren't habitually resident can't be offered any accommodation. They fail at the first hurdle and consequently no further inquiries can take place and temporary accommodation cannot be offered. A person had to eligible for assistance, homeless and in priority need to access that. And local authorities have a huge duty to prevent homelessness now, they have to be doubly sure that anything they do will succeed. A person who isn't habitually resident can't access benefits either. If they could they would be habitually resident.

He will have to become habitually resident. It's a myth that people just come to the UK and immediately get benefits and housing. Your uncle emigrated, he became resident of another country and consequently is no longer resident in the UK. The rule applies to everyone no matter their nationality.

She will be stuck at your house and not homeless. My friend has ME and works part time (full time would be too much for her). Could you help your sister find a part time job and then a house share?

The new renters reform doesn't say a tenant has to be employed to rent a property byt it has tightened things up for things like evictions.
I expect landlords,.estate agents and insurance companies are getting worried and so being strict on who they rent to.
You can read up on the renters reform.
So its not impossible to rent but those landlords who use letting agents will be stricter - you would be better off finding a landlord who manages his own properties.

You haven't mentioned your sisters age, if she is over 55 she can apply for social housing for over 55's - it used to be called sheltered accommodation but has a new name now as they rarely provide wardens or much support. The main thing it would have is a pull cord to access help if you fall or are ill.
In my area we have so many of these that no one wants as they imagine a care home style home but its not.
My FIL lived in one and loved it.
Of course she would need to do her 3 months to get benefits and would have to apply via the housing allocation website which might not be quick but that has to be better than a hostel.