UC and trial separation

[throughthewoods]

I've told my husband I want a years trial separation and he has reluctantly agreed.

He's planning on moving out to live with his mum. She's needing to move too, so the plan is they will look for and rent a shared place together. We can't currently afford to pay half the rent/bills on a new place and all the rent/bills on our jointly owned house, so the plan is that when he moves out I apply for Universal Credit as a single person to top up my (part time) income. I will be keeping our 3DC in our house with me.

My question is - do we need to separate bank accounts for the purposes of applying to UC as individuals? Will UC not class me as single parent if I still have a joint account with my husbands money coming into it?

I can see the point in separating out our finances out of convenience if we're living separately and in preparation for a split at a later stage if things head that way. But at the moment I'm trying to keep things as simple as possible. We don't argue over money or have any issues there.

Yes as you are separating (don’t use the term trial when applying for uc) you need to have completely separate finances. And they will ask for all proof of bank statements etc.

Will your exh be paying child maintenance? This isn’t accounted for when applying, so he can pay you a set amount each month for the children. You don’t have to go through CMS for this. But it will need to be paid into your own bank account and labelled as such.

If you do get back together you need to notify them immediately.

Thanks. Ok that's something I need to get organised with then. It's going to be tricky especially when we are transitioning/waiting for UC to come in as we are on a low income to begin with. The practicalities are so daunting.

Yes he will be paying child maintenance if we have separate accounts, as UC and my money still won't cover everything here.

You can apply for uc if separated (don't use trial) he could actually be in the same house but you must have separate finances and not share meals etc. you then claim cms from him as a set monthly payment, you can negotiate that yourselves). As a home owner you can't claim housing costs (there's help with interest but it's a loan and doesn't kick in for months).

If you get back together you need to report immediately, they are super hot on this sort of situation, I read this was one of the biggest areas of indiscretion, not declaring residential partners let's call them.

Depending on dc's ages you may be expecting to seek more hours remember