Entitlement to benefits

[Haziedoll]

If the marriage ends and you sell the family home and are left with a sum of the money due to the equity in the house are you expected to spend that money before you become eligible for benefits?

The section on housing benefit clearly states that you are not entitled to housing benefit if you have savings of more than £16k but the child tax credits section doesn't refer to savings.

Also I understand from previous posts that a lot of private landlords will not accept hb claimants. What happens if you start off using your own savings to pay the rent and then transfer to hb when the money runs out. Do you just get turfed out? Where do you go if there are no hostels or b&bs in your area do they make you relocate to a different area?

Tax credits are income not capital based (ie your capital is irrelevant, although any income it generates isn't).

No idea on your HB questions, sorry.

housing benefit reduces at £6K savings and stops entirely at £16K. They presume you are earning so much interest a week on any savings and reduce your entitlement to reflect this. If the children have savings this does not affect housing benefit

You can apply for housing benefit and not inform the landlord - you show HB you tenancy agreement and bank statement showing the rent payments made to the landlord.

Tax credits and housing benefit are calculated on income, but maintenance received for children is not included in this.

Landlords insurance is sometimes invalidated if they accept HB. If you think you may need HB then you need to check with landlord before signing agreement as council could say you have made yourself intentionally homeless if you get kicked out!

Yes, they do often move you away from areas you want to be. And you will have to move schools as well. But if it's emergency accommodation then so be it.

Housing benefit here pays direct to landlord, so wouldn't be able to get away with 'lying'

No need for the landlord to know that you were getting housing bemefit as you would be getting LHA if private rental & the goverment has set targets to ensure that hb is paid to claimant.

However you would be expected to use your capital and income to pay rent until your capital came down to the level where you could claim.

Here's a link to the DWP HB regs
(I assume these are up to date)

House sale capital section says:
Earmarked capital [HB Sch 6. 2-3, HB(SPC) Sch 6.1-3; CTB Sch 5.2-3, CTB(SPC) Sch 4.1-3]
If capital from the sale of a house is kept for a house purchase, it is not counted for up to six months, or longer if:

major repairs or adaptations are needed for you to occupy your home
or the completion of the purchase of your new home is unavoidably delayed.

No need to tell the landlord about housing benefit?? What about his mortgage insurance??

Sorry I wasn't implying she should lie to the landlord - I know when I applied for it HB did not contact my landlord, but I have told him anyway.

Fair comment about the insurance, I didn't think of that.

Thank you. Not in this position yet but it doesn't hurt to be prepared.