Maintenance and housing/council tax benefit

[crace]

Can someone help me understand if child maintenance affects those two things? I am starting a split up with my husband and we've got a house to sell.

Matters are complicated that I am a childminder but hoping to find a rental close by that will a)let me continue work and 2) accept housing benefit.

Because we have a house to sell, huge mortgage and quite bad debt I will not ask for child maintenance yet but once everything is sold and cleared (which the sale of the house will take care of) I will be.

So... if any of that makes sense, any advice?

If you end up with more than £16,000 in the bank from the house sale you won't get HB benefit.

I don't know about CM but I do know that after 3 months of being on Income Support (able in to claim full HB as in a HA house) they have paid me different amounts every fortnight and already given me an overpayment....and mine is a dead simple case! They take "all" my money which is only Child benefit,Child tax credit and Income support into account.

Be prepared for a rocky road if you go down the HB route.

Can I do it before sale of house? I am hoping to leave asap..

I won't get any savings from house sale, it will wipe slate clean

You'll have to put the house on the form as an asset if you are on the mortgage. They won't care about your debts.

Can you take your name off the mortgage?

Bum. I think I will see if I can get to the CAB and hatch a plan... This being in limbo is rubbish

Hi Crace

Sorry you are going through this, its a nightmare i know, i have been there!!

I am a childminder and also a lone parent, i split from exh nearly 3 years ago.
My ex would not move out of our jointly owned house so i did (he was having an affair and still seeing her, could not live with him til house sold) , i moved into private rental and i get housing benefit.
I had to get a letter from estate agent confirming that my house was on the market and i had to keep HB office updated every month of what was happening with it. Our house sold for only just enough to pay off the mortgage so it has not affected my claim.
When you first fill in forms to get HB they need to know everything, i had to give them a detailed copy of my accounts (summary not enough, they needed to see my full accounts and they photocopied every page of the NCMA accounts book!!).I dont get maintenence (another story!!) but i dont think they count it anymore when assessing HB but i may be wrong.
Hope that helps but if you want to know anything else please ask.

FeelingOld.

So you can have a mortgage and get HB? That's brilliant news as I have a friend in the same situation.
What did you have to say about moving out and was it because you had DC with you?

I can't tell you how helpful that is. Thank you. Does the HB come to you or private let? And was it pretty easy to find a landlord that will let you CM?

Oh and where do I go to cab office?

I moved out with 2 dc, I just told HB people my marriage had ended. Just needed to have proof of everything. My landlord is a family friend so had no problems there, he said it was just a case of changing his insurance slightly. Landlord had to write letter to HB people confirming i was renting from him and how much rent is.
HB is paid in arrears, 4 weekly into my bank account and then i am resposible for making up the difference and paying the rent.
To apply i went to local town council offices and got all relevent forms from benefits dept but you do need to gather a lot of stuff together, all bank account stuff, proof of earnings etc. I thought i had it all done so went back with forms to find i still had stuff missing twice, took about 4 weeks before i finally got any money, its usually a 6 monthly update after that when they need more proof of earnings etc. This paperwork also sorted out my council tax reduction too.

Crace, I cant help re HB am going to stay in the house and his maintenance will pay the mortgage etc, but have a look at CAB site and I think they have a find your local on there. Mine is at our library or local council offices.

Good luck with all this and I hope that it works out for you.

Ok, sounds like in order:

Find somewhere to let that will let me continue c/m work

Meanwhile get house on market and letter from estate agent.

Go to council and apply for HB/council tax.

How do I prove earnings?

To prove earnings you will have to take in your accounts so get them up to date asap. I used the NCMA accounts book when i applied and they photocopied every page!!

Blast - I haven't updated that in ages. How far back are we talking here?

When i made my first application it was beginnning of may so they wanted to see my accounts for the whole previous year.

They do ask to see your accounts after that about every 6 months (well my council do) so you need to keep them updated cos once you get the form to fill in you only get about 14 days to get the info to them.

Oh good lord, that's going to be hideous. Ok, forewarned and all that.

Still not sure what's happening but I need a plan

Hoping you are around.. Can you help with this?Can someone help me understand if child maintenance affects those two things? I am starting a split up with my husband and we've got a house to sell.

Matters are complicated that I am a childminder but hoping to find a rental close by that will a)let me continue work and 2) accept housing benefit.

Because we have a house to sell, huge mortgage and quite bad debt I will not ask for child maintenance yet but once everything is sold and cleared (which the sale of the house will take care of) I will be.

So... if any of that makes sense, any advice?