I’m not missing something here am I? Universal credit, renting and saving for a deposit.

[tiredconfusedhungry]

Keeping it a bit vague. I’m separated, STBXH and I were looking at figures last night and we’re not going to come out with much to put towards a deposit. We’re looking at around £15k each, I’d need a deposit of around £60k - £70k and that’s to buy a 2 bed house.

We’re in the South East and house prices here are high, rent is high. We’re already in the ‘cheaper’ part, moving further away from where we are puts us in prime commuting land and would be more expensive.

Anyway, it’s likely I will end up renting and saving for a bigger deposit. I did a calculation on entitled to (based on no savings) and I could get some help with rent, which is great. It means I could save some money each month and then hopefully buy after about 4 years.

But now I’ve looked into it further, if you have more than £16k in savings you aren’t entitled to any help. Which I do understand, but it then means that after all essential bills and costs are covered, I’d have about £200 left a month. Which doesn’t go far with 2 kids and certainly wouldn’t leave me anything to save.

So essentially I’m never going to be able to save a deposit am I?

Not sure benefit fraud will help OP’s career prospects or attempts to buy a house.

To find somewhere cheaper means moving upwards of an hour away if not more (we are in Thanet in Kent, for reference). An hour away takes me closer to London in one direction and Tonbridge Wells in another 😂

Plus it would mean my kids moving schools and me moving away from my parents, Sister, in laws, ex-DH who all support with childcare for me to work, for free. So I could move 2 hours away for cheaper housing but end up paying out a load for childcare and have no support system. Plus my job is based near the area I live. I couldn’t commute. I know I sound like I’m trying to throw spanners in the works but if there was a cheaper area nearby I would do it in a heart beat.

Yes I get a basic rate for mileage.

How much does your STBX earn? Can he afford to buy or rent a home?

If there is a disparity in finances, that should be taken into account in the financial settlement. You could also agree that you stay in the home and it is sold at a later date if he doesn’t need the money now. Nesting could be another option for now. The children stay in the house and you both rent a studio, the parents swap houses instead of the DC.

What you can consider is shared ownership, it’s set up for people your situation

You may not necessarily need to go back to uni or retrain, there are many jobs paying more than 27k that you could work into without needing another degree.

Our local supermarket is currently recruiting for customer service staff for 29k a year, team leader for 35k- no degree required and you may well have transferable skills and could then go on to management.

Things like mortgage/financial advisers, no uni requirement, you do sit exams but typically funded by employer alongside working and once qualified there’s 45k+ for most easily.

27k isn’t a hard salary to beat and doesn’t require another degree & more student debt to get there.

Blimey you've got it all worked out how to fleece the taxpayer haven't you !

Thank you (I mean that genuinely). I’m in a bit of a spiral with the housing thing, my efforts may be better focussed on my job.

It never made sense to me as to why it was one rule if you were on tax credits and another for those of us on other benefits. I'm glad to see it's changed

@Blushingm. Yes they do. And they get a larger work allowance before the taper.

@MikeRafone. And what is the soon to be ex supposed to do if they don’t get their share of the funds to get a place?

as others have said. I would live within your means and get on social housing list. Having your own home has its pros and cons. Maintenance costs further down the line when you are on a pension might be a challenge. And it probably will be clawed back for care costs. As it should.

it is frustrating though

I can’t afford the mortgage here on my own, certainly my can’t afford to buy out ex as well. He would also need money from here to buy, so paying him something monthly (even if I could afford to) wouldn’t be any use to him.

Who bought homes with tax credit money? And a quick google suggests that 63% of people who currently claim UC are in not in work. That’s a 1% increase from the previous year.

Agreed. When I was a kid, millions of people lived in council houses.

Absolutely need loads more social housing and for it not to be sold off and to get rid of this reliance on private landlords who are the only ones benefitting from all this UC taxpayers money being spent on UC rent element.

No problem. Part of my old job used to be helping people into employment and it’s a very common misconception now that improving your career prospects = needing another degree. The amount of people who take on another £40k in student debt to earn often only £2k extra per year is crazy, and the way things are currently most employers value experience over another degree/qualification/exam- obviously there are exceptions, medicine etc you do need a degree but for the vast majority now you simply don’t and there are other ways in.

But that’s not what she is doing. Yes, you can sell a house, get the money and then buy another house and it doesn’t affect your claim.

But she isnt doing that. She needs years to save up.

The housing situation is terrible for single income households. Even for shared ownership they have a minimum wage to be accepted. It may differ in different areas but it was £28,000 for a one bed flat when my daughter did it and she only just qualified and that was with a gifted deposit of £50,000. They say you need to earn less than £60,000 as a couple to be accepted. It's totally mad. You'd expect people on that salary to not need shared ownership. People think it really helps those on a low income but in my daughter's small block of flats they are mostly graduates in quite good jobs but just living in an expensive area. It is a pity that people still often look down on people living in shared ownership as if it is council or housing association property but the housing market is just mad in the South East and spreading further. They just talk about affordable homes when for a lot they aren't.

Would renting a room out be an option to help you pay towards mortgage ?

In the kindest way I think you've identified the answer... move out into the commuter belt. You can't afford to buy where you are now.

Pretty much all your new neighbours will be the same as you - the commuting costs are painful but you'll own your own home and have an asset.

We’re already in the commuter belt? Just in the cheapest bit, if I move anywhere within an hour of me it’s more expensive?

You could do what I did and bought shared ownership with my deposit money, got UC and the housing element which covered all my rent, then you have your mortgage which you pay out of your income and you can start either overpaying your mortgage and or saving up to the savings amount if you have any spare. Then when circumstances were better for me and I wasn’t paying out for childcare UC stopped and so I saved harder and moved to owning outright.

Don't give up.

I work with a lovely Indian woman whose husband was killed in a car accident and she is saving up to one day own her own home. She is 29 and has 2 small children. They live in a studio flat in Hounslow which costs her 800 per month. She told me that she'd converted the one room into 3 by putting up cloth walls so each child has their own space around their bed. She's saved up around £80K so far, and hopes to buy something in the next couple of years. She's determined to do it.

Could you cut costs in the way that she is doing in order to grow your deposit?

When I was made redundant in my early 50s and working casual low paid jobs, I used to walk everywhere to save on bus fare. I was walking 5 miles a day, but soon got very fit.

No you should ways to increase your income. That's what the rest of us have to do.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/162869435#/?channel=RES_NEW

something like this. Spend your £15k and then claim UC?

By advising people to work, save into a pension and pay rent directly to the public purse on top of their taxes and NI? Ok. It's not like any fleecing I've ever seen.

What is your alternative, for low wage workers, given that the consensus seems to be they shouldn't own the home they live in?