Separated but living together - benefits

[ETgo]

I'm just starting to look into separation (possibly divorce but just want to separate first). Does anyone know if you are allowed to submit a UC claim (if entitled) if you're still living in the marital home?

For info we're married but I'm not on the mortgage - too long to go into now - and somehow he's transferred the ownership of the house from him to a LTD company he has set up under our adult children's names.

Everything feels a big mess and I know I need to speak to a solicitor about the bigger picture but in the meantime I'm trying to work through my options - due to debts I have I have no spare money currently so unless I declare bankruptcy I'm not in a position to save anything at all to help make separation easier. This is why I was wondering if UC is available but I wouldn't want to put a claim in if I wasn't entitled - there's no option to say you're still living in the family home when you go through the questions about your circumstances.

Do you work?

Yes you can claim universal credit if you are living completely separate lives in the same house. You have to be cooking separately, shopping separately, doing laundry separately and obviously sleeping separately etc.
when you apply for universal credit you need to put yourself down for a single claim and your husband as a person who lives with you and then you can contact universal credit to explain the situation further (they usually contact you anyway when you make a new claim).

I think UC usually put a time limit on it for when they would expect a divorce and financial settlement/ buy out / house sale to be completed and you to get your equity. It won’t be open ended. You may have to provide evidence showing progress to get it extended eg the house is on market.