Universal credit and selling/buying a house

[Illbefinejustbloodyfine]

I work part time, single parent, 2 young dc. Getting divorced.

I get UC as a top up benefit. This was taken into account for my recent mortgage application.

I'm wondering though, if I end up having to sell the house, and get equity, I'll no longer get UC and the amount I can get a mortgage for would be much less, meaning I wouldn't be able to buy.

Does anyone know what would happen, if I had a chunk of equity for say 6 to 12 months, then bought a house, could I claim UC again?

You can have the money in the bank for an agreed amount of time after selling the family home during divorce. It's usually 6 months.

I believe it can be disregarded for up to 6 months if being put into buying another property but not sure what happens if you don't then use it for a property - presumably you would have to pay all the Uc back ? Or maybe you have to be proceeding with a house sale in the first place for it to be disregarded, so that they know it is definitely going into another house purchase. You can ask on your Uc journal.

Thank you, yes I will ask the question if/when the time comes

I was on UC when I sold my house and the UC advisor said I had six months leeway for the money to be in my bank account while I was buying another house. Which it all was, but it over ran by several months as I bought at auction and then renovated with the balance. At no point did they ask to see a bank statement so I don’t know how much resources they’ve got to check dates. Just try and keep it to six months or less.

Thats really helpful and reassuring @Tistheseasontobejollytrala thank you.