Maintenance payments from exes don't count towards UC?

[riverofgods]

A family member has a very wealthy ex-DH who through an informal arrangement pays a few thousand a month and gave her a property in their split. She has deliberately made sure that she has no cash assets and spends what he gives her each month so she can then also qualify for UC which she receives in full due to not working. Apparently this is completely above board but i think its awful that it is.

How embarrassing to have thousands in maintenance and still hold your hand out for tax payers money!
She should be working. Hopefully she will be forced to look for work soon. Good to know the rest of us are subsidising someone’s
skiing trips.

It isn’t counted because a lot of women receive nothing or close enough. Some men also decide to become ‘unemployed’ or ‘self employed’ so they can drastically reduce the amount they pay. Your relative is a rare case and she could lose the maintenance at any point anyway if her ex lost his job for some reason or became sick and couldn’t work. As another PP said, it’s too vulnerable to change to be counted.

All children deserve to not be disadvantaged by their parents' divorce.

Maintenance used to be counted in benefits calculations, it lead to children living below the poverty line.

You can't get UC if you have a 2nd property as there are strict limits on savings/capital.

And this was going so well 😂

The only bit of BSP that affects Universal Credit is if the lump sump takes you over capital limits after 13 months.

Any other deductions is wrong.

It doesn’t count as income for UC (or anyone still on the tax credit system).

Even if this were true and she'd managed not to declare a second property and wasn't looking for work, the fact she lives in a property foc means she wouldn't get the housing element of UC, just the basic. We're not talking big money here. But I can't see how anyone could get away with not looking for work over a long period. It's not how the system works.

She doesn’t “get away” with not working.

Shes the carer of a child on the highest rate of DLA.

Wrong thread.

so many benefit bashing threads atm I got them muddled

Well there is;she needs to pay her bills.If maintenance was counted towards UC it'd leave thousands of people in financial distress as just because an ex is supposed to pay CM doesn't mean they pay it every week/month when their supposed to or the full amount;and what about when an ex suddenly stops paying?

You sound very jealous and it's none of your business.

Literally this. It’s absolutely unfeasible that she couldn’t be looking for work as a minimum but actually they would be chasing her relentlessly for not working 16 hours even if they weren’t paying half because they don’t want it on their figures and on their books that she sat doing nothing it looks bad.

and then as soon as she took a job at 16 hours a week they’d then be pressurising her to find a better one for 30.

Not sure if you haven't understood the statement you are responding to but no, UC does not support hobby landlords. If you have a spare property you are expected to sell it even if it is providing you with an income.

None of your business

Well no that’s not strictly true either but they would just deduct the income from your entitlement should there be any.

I don’t think they do the profits and loss either in terms of deducting the interest or repairs it’s quite simply just the gross income.