AIBU to move house now? Single mum/Universal Credit advice please!

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Hi all, I was wondering if I could ask some pretty urgent advice on what to do in my situation. Urgent as in I’ll need to decide before tomorrow! I’ve got myself into a real dilemma here. I’m particularly looking for advice from people who’ve had to shift onto universal credit from tax credits suddenly and all that entails.

Backstory: I’m a single mother of three kids (aged 17, 7 and nearly 5) living in a pretty rough, crime ridden London borough. My oldest son was mugged last month on the way home from school and there are daily fights/stabbing/robberies where we are. Not good. Most of the schools have gone downhill also and although I actually do really like the schools my kids are currently at, I wouldn’t want to send my younger two to secondary school locally when the time comes if I’m honest. It’s really spiralled round here but it is better the devil you know.

I’ve lived in the area most of my life and when I left my abusive ex 5 years ago, we had to go into temp accommodation for a while until I found the private rental we are currently in just over 4 years ago.

It’s dreadful; the agents try their best but the landlady lives quite far away and just doesn’t care at all. There have been several major leaks that’s she’s left to get worse (which have seeped through wood/brick/plaster), my boiler exploded and she left the cylinder leaking through to downstairs for two weeks (a couple of months after I’d decorated 🤦🏼‍♀️), she left us with a broken oven for three months. The back room has leaked for the entire time I’ve lived here and destroyed a lot of my kids toys. (I’ve now thrown/moved everything out of there Bar a spare freezer so we’ve lost the use of that room. The laminate was all broken even when we arrived, etc. The radiators have all stopped working and it’s getting cold again. The list goes on and on - she just does not care about making her house a decent place for her tenants to live. I have spent a lot of my own money into the place, decorating, paying plumbers to fix some of the leaks and professional cleaners to help with the mould. But quite frankly I’m sick of plying my own money into this bitch’s house when she won’t fix the source of many of the problems in the first place (identified by Thames water as faulty piping). On top of the shitty house and shitty area, I am so, so done.

I’ve managed to save up enough money for a deposit/first months rent on a new place (no mean feat for a low earner when rents are extortionate in the southeast). As I said, my earnings are not great and are topped up by tax credits/housing benefit (another issue as not many agents/landlords want to know). I’m not proud of it. But I’ve managed to find a nice little place in a town 10 miles outside of London (decent road/rail links however). It’s slightly smaller, but everything is new (floors/kitchen/bathroom) and it’s lovely. The area is nice and boring safe with good schools. I’ve been well and truly seduced even though the timing is not sensible.

Problems: we’d have to commute down for the next year as my oldest is doing his a-levels and can’t move schools at this point. I also work down in the original area so would wait to move jobs/kids to new schools until my eldest had finished his exams. That’s a 20 mile round trip every day until next summer. That will be very stressful on all of us (and maybe too much strain for our little Hyundai)!

I’ve also been on the phone to HMRC for advice as I’d been made aware that I’d have to switch over to Universal Credit and the guy on the other end of the phone advised me not to and to wait a couple of years to move until all tax credits claims change over to UC on a “managed move” so that we retain the same level of financial help. He told me that moving onto UC suddenly would mean quite a drop in income and potentially a long wait for the money to come through, meaning that I could go into rent arrears on the new place in the first couple of months of living there which is not brilliant and is now causing my new agents to wobble (the decision may well be taken out of my hands by them tomorrow actually)! The guy at HMRC was very kind; he suggested that saving a bit more money before I move would be better - to cover 2/3 months rent instead of one as UC is notoriously unreliable. He also told me that if I move house/change jobs within the borough I’m currently living then I can stay on my existing claim. He suggested I sit tight where I am for a couple of years and get into a better position before moving as so many people who had done what I’m planning were in lots of trouble now. My oldest will come off it when he hits 18 and goes to uni but apparently that will not trigger UC - he’ll just come off the claim. Anyone know if that’s correct?

This is all very worrying and I’m wondering if I should pull out of the move. The new house will be ready in a month (an overwhelming thought as it is) but I’ve not gone too far into the process yet to put a halt to it. I’d lose my holding deposit (£288) - a costly mistake. But I’ve not paid the whole lot yet so it’s not too late to back out.

But then we’d be stuck here in this depressing hell hole and I can’t stand this house. It’s making me and the kids so flipping depressed. AIBU to move now regardless or should I be sensible and stay put for the time being? I’m thinking I have two or three options:

1.	Stick with moving to the new place, go on to universal credit and become a lot poorer. Live in a beautiful, well taken care of house/area. But a 20 mile daily commute back and forth during my son’s a-level year is iffy. The kids could have a lovely life in the new area and we have a support network up there. But the finances are worrying me hugely as is the commute. It seems a case if right house/wrong time.

2.	Find a house (how long would that take?) and move within my current borough so that my kids are local to their schools and I’m nearer to work. I could stay on the safer tax credits/housing benefit system within my local authority so the whole move would be smoother and more timely. But the area is still a shithole (perhaps something we could cope with if the house wasn’t also a shithole) and rents are pricier (albeit not by much). Start saving up again for a “forever move” to the more rural area I was looking in which could take another few years! (Before the younger two start secondary school). 

3.	Stay in the current house we’re living and plunge all my savings into fixing (well, patch-jobbing) my evil landlady’s house. Actually this is not an option - I would resent it so much I would go properly mad. 

Just to note: I’m not proud of my current situation, having to claim tax credits/housing benefit top up like this. I wouldn’t have dreamed we’d end up in this situation. And I know there are people out there who believe beggars can’t be choosers and we should suck up living in a quite frankly gross and dangerous house. (I’ve met people with this attitude). But my children’s health, happiness and safety is not something I’m willing to compromise on regardless of my social standing as one of societies’ underclass. When I am fully qualified in a few years I will need less or no help from the government with any luck. I am also raising three (potentially higher rate) tax payers with any luck! 🤞🏻

If any one has any knowledge on this stuff I would be forever grateful...

If you move to a new area and need to make a new claim for help with housing under a different local authority then that would trigger a switch to Uc. there is a 5 week wait for your first UC payment to come through but once your ID check is done you can apply for an advance payment ( like a loan to tide you over).Managed migration could be years away, they have only just started it in Harrogate and only as a pilot of ten thousand claimants.

Hi @Babyroobs thanks so much for you replying. I know so little about Universal Credit and it does look very scary indeed. The man on the phone at HMRC suggested that although there was no exact date for managed migration in my particular area at the moment, they had been told they were looking at 2021 or 2022. So that's a couple of years away at least. A couple of years left stuck in this area (but hopefully not this house)!!!

I didn't know there was a loan you could apply for though - that does sound more promising I must admit. I still can't work out whether I should wait to move out into the sticks until a more sensible time (son finishing a levels/save up another grand at least/etc) or if I should just bloody go for it and let the chips fall where they may!!! 🙈

I’m having to move house, landlords are selling the property. I’ve been told that even though I’m moving within the same council area, it will still trigger a move onto UC as ANY change is classed as a change of circumstances. If you do decide to move, make sure you apply for the UC loan on the day you make your initial application xx

Just looked on the website to verify. Address change WITHIN same council will not trigger a change onto UC. I’m shocked my council adviser got this wrong. I’ve just had a huge amount of stress reduced xxxx

I thought any change of address triggered a nice to UC regardless of whether it was in the same area so that narrows your options to move to the rural area with sorry network but commute for a year or stay where you are for the next twelve months minimum.

Would the move but commuting 20 miles to work and the schools work okay in terms of the son's A levels? I just fear disruption in what is probably the most important eyar of his life may not be a great idea whereas waiting until he has finished next June might be better.

Is there a way to move and come off benefits? For example ins ome areas of the country rents are a lot cheaper (I am from the NE of England) and in July you could all move somewhere perhaps with work and cheaper rents and not need to rely on benefits to pay the rent etc. For example if you worked full time and had an all day Saturday or Sunday job with your then 18 year old looking after the children on Sat or Sunday once the A levels are over that might mean you could come off benefits perhaps?

Ok ignore me!

You cannot apply for the Uc advance until Id checks are done which will not be the day you make your initial application unless you can do the Id verification online ( this often doesn't work !! ). If you move house within the same local authority you can just update your housing benefit claim and it should not trigger a switch to Uc. It would only trigger a switch to Uc if you are making a new claim for housing benefit.

I'd be minded to stay put and get Environmental Health involved re the disrepair issues, OP. Some of them sound pretty serious, and I think your LL has behaved appallingly and needs to be made to face up to her responsibilities.

Before you make a decision, I'd go online and check how much help you would get towards your rent if you were to go on to UC. The LHA is likely to be a lot lower in the new area, so you may not get as much help with your housing costs as you do now.

You will need to bear in mind that some months, you may get paid twice in one assessment period, and that can wipe out your UC completely. Would you have enough cash in the bank to cover your rent when this happens? (It's possible to avoid this by playing canny with the date you start your claim though)

Your DS leaving school won't trigger a switch to UC. Will he be going to uni or starting work? If he remains at home and isn't a student, he will count as a non-dependant and your HB will go down, but if you're on UC, it won't be affected (no non-dependant deductions under UC, one of the few ways it's more generous than HB).

I would stay

If you found a place like you describe after all the issues you had I'd say go for it. Iv not found universal credit to be a bad situation at all and actually found it better for my household.

It takes 5weeks to be paid. You can request an advance, I'd recommend doing that within a week if applying. That way you can ensure your rent is definitly paid on time.

The house sounds lovely and I'd I was in your shoes the 20mile commute would be worth it. Only as its temporary, a year will fly

Oh yes of course make sure the amount you will receive is enough.. As pp hve pointed out the lha needs checking

The commute would be my main concern.

As far as benefits go, you need to actually do the calculation, because apart from the initial wait for payment on UC, you might not be worse off at all.

"I’ve also been on the phone to HMRC for advice as I’d been made aware that I’d have to switch over to Universal Credit and the guy on the other end of the phone advised me not to and to wait a couple of years to move until all tax credits claims change over to UC on a “managed move” so that we retain the same level of financial help. He told me that moving onto UC suddenly would mean quite a drop in income and potentially a long wait for the money to come through"

This kind of thing makes me angry, well meaning but poorly informed people giving "advice" like this - it's more damaging than giving no advice at all. He's right about the wait for the first payment - you can request an advance payment as you soon as you claim, but it's a loan and deductions will be made from future payments to pay it off. He's also right that ideally you need some savings to help you manage the transition to UC. But "quite a drop in income" is not necessarily true at all. As I said, you need to do the calculation to compare.

My advice:

• do a benefit calculation using the Turn2Us calculator to see what you would actually get in the new place
• factor in getting an advance payment to tide you over and then paying it back in instalments over 12 months
• do a budget with income/goings and include commuting costs

That's the only way to work out whether it's affordable.

Have you asked the council for advice about your housing options? Sometimes they can offer help with a deposit on a private rental.

You are probably eligible for social housing and could apply for it but of course depending on where you want to move to there is going to be limited availability and a long waiting list!

"I have spent a lot of my own money into the place, decorating, paying plumbers to fix some of the leaks and professional cleaners to help with the mould."
Have you requested deductions from the rent to compensate for this?
Have you made a formal complaint to your lettings agent?
Have you reported the landlord to your local council?

england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/repairs/doing_the_repairs_if_your_landlord_wont

england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/private_renting/complaints_about_private_landlords

england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/repairs/complain_to_environmental_health_about_rented_housing

I'd say go for it. Do you have to stay in your current job? If you are a low earner would it make sense to get a job in the new area and younger kids in school there? Then can your older one use public transport to get to school? Or even learn to drive? This would take the pressure off you enormously enabling you to support all of the children in to the new routine. Your current housing sounds awful. Living in a decent house/area will make a huge difference to you all. Good luck.

Hold on to your Tax Credits as long as you can.

IM no expert but I think the move to UC is triggered by needing the housing element, so if you get HB now, yes the move would force you onto UC, likewise if the move is to another council area. If you don’t claim HB and move within your current area I’m pretty sure you stay on TC, that’s what I was told by TC as I’m looking to move but only within my area.

"Hold on to your Tax Credits as long as you can."

What are you basing this advice on, exactly? Advanced knowledge of the benefits system? Specific knowledge about OP's circumstances?

Many people get the same or very slightly more on Universal Credit. Some people are worse off and some people are actually better off! It all depends on their circumstances.

OP, if you want advice from someone actually qualified to give it, please contact or visit your local Citizens Advice.

Your childrens health is more important you said your area is bad if i was in your shoes i would of left a long time ago. Things might be tight but you can not bring children up in a area and house like that.

Its getting cold now children should be in a walm house not full of damp and leaks.

Have you done a UC calculator online to see how ‘worse off’ your be?

If you're on Facebook join universal credit essentials. I think they also have a website. They will help you calculate how much you would get and have in depth of UC rules such as what triggers a move to UC, what effect different DC have on your claim etc. I would be about £200 a month worse off on UC so am aiming to stay on TC as long as I can but it may not be this way for you.

Hi
First off I am so sorry to hear that you are experiencing all of these problems in your home and with your landlord.
I work for Universal Credit. Unfortunately the advisor you spoke to at HMRC was right. If you move into another property in the same borough where you are now, you will just have to report your change of address to Tax Credits and your Local Authority. Then your Tax Credits and Housing/Council Tax benefits will carry on as normal. However if you move into a property outside your current borough, your Tax Credits will stop immediately and you will be asked to claim Universal Credit. Your Housing Benefit will carry on for another 2 weeks.
That being said, as another person said earlier, you may end up being ok on Universal Credit. If you make a claim, as soon as you attend your Initial appointment at the Jobcentre, you will be able to get an Advance payment on the day you attend. That amount will be up 100%of your provisional UC award. You will get to repay if from your award each month at a rate that you decide on. You do not have to take all the money(advance) that is offered to you. You can ask the advisor to tell you how much different amounts are to repay, just make sure the amount is right for you. You said that you are currently working, if you are working over a certain amount of hours you will not be required to attend the Jobcentre for regular appointments.
Your earnings will however be taken into account when your monthly UC award is being calculated. As you have children and housing costs, you will get a £287.00 work allowance. This means that any amount that you earn, the first £287 is disregarded and out of the remainder we take 0.63 from every pound.(£1000-£287= £713x0.63p=£449.19) so only £449.19 taken into account when your UC award I’d calculated. This is just to give you an example. Don’t forget you will get a Standard Allowance(for you), child element(for all your children) until your eldest stops studying, housing element. These elements will make up your monthly payment.
You will have to print a copy of your UC statement and take it to your new Local Authority if you are going to claim Council Tax Reduction.
Depending on how much you earn, you may be able to carry on get free prescriptions, dentist etc. Also if you had any outstanding DWP debts, housing benefit debt, court fines. These will be deducted from your award. However if the amount being deducted is not suitable/affordable for you, you just call debt management and work out an affordable amount.
I think you need to just put pen to paper and work out a few figures and then you will see things a bit more clearly and then that will be the deciding factor. Make sure you factor in the excess petrol costs that you will incur doing the 20mile round trip.
Your safety and your children’s safety come first.
Please ask as many questions as you need to. Myself and the other people on this forum are here to judge you. You did the right thing in asking for advice. Just take a breath. You will get there x

First of all, I think you need to stop feeling like a second class citizen just because you are a low earner, that's no way to think, you're just as good as people who sail through life without struggling and I guarantee you have a stronger character because of it.
Second, as you say, staying where you are is not an option, why should you line the pockets of a lady who couldn't give a damn, she only cares about your money so vote with your wallet.
I would pull out of the move if I were you, but I am not you, I think you need to really think if the cons are worth the pros? Could you manage on less money? How much less? How much would the commute cost? Etc. I'm on UC and the "advance payment" is available to everyone but must be paid back within months, this meant for me, £90 per month out of my award, which is huge when you're receiving so little and means that from day one you'll be in debt.
If I was in your situation I'd move to another property within your borough, just for a year (2 at most), just long enough to save up a decent amount of money before going onto Universal Credit.
Buuuuuut... I have no family, no support network and frankly am skitterish about change these days lol. You do have support, so if you think you could manage it, and you have people who could help in the short term, then you should go for it. It sounds like you love this new place, maybe a year of hardships is worth the long term benefits, I suspect that for you it probably is.
It's just a shame that you have to make a final decision so quickly as my greatest piece of advice would be to immediately go to your local citizens advice, taking with you anything you have on your current earnings and benefits, as they could extrapolate what you could expect from the move to UC. They could also have advised you on your legal standing with regard to your landlord as I suspect that you could have withheld your rent until she fixed the problems with the house (after giving her written lists of problems and chance to fix them). I think the fact that she did not make the house safe, warm and watertight are against the law so if you come across this problem again, always get legal advice.
I wish you all the best

Oh for fucks sake. Someone who "works for universal credit" giving wrong information for a change.

"However if you move into a property outside your current borough, your Tax Credits will stop immediately and you will be asked to claim Universal Credit. Your Housing Benefit will carry on for another 2 weeks."
Not true. Relocating does not immediately affect a tax credits claim. It does affect housing benefit (obviously). Tax credits will continue but HB will stop immediately. You don't get it for another 2 weeks if you've moved, as you can't claim HB for a house you're not living in! If OP needs help with rent she can't make a new HB claim, so she will need to claim Universal Credit (to get the housing element). Her tax credit claim will stop when (and only when) she claims UC, which will probably be as soon as she moves house, but it's not moving which stops the tax credits, it's claiming UC.

The 2 week run on for HB is only for people who haven't moved and are claiming UC for another reason.

Have you contacted your Local Authority/CAB regarding your housing situation? Maybe take a few pics and go to your Local Authority and CAB and see if there is anything they can do to help. They may be able to put you somewhere more suitable and better.