single mother - no mortgage - homeowner - any help?

[hilbil21]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to put it really but if I was a single mother with a 10 month old but living in my own property which has no mortgage on it, would I get any benefit help?

Do you have an income?

Yes I believe you would. The entitledto calculator is very good.

No income at the moment. Rely on partner. Was just wondering if we were to split would I be able to even live! House is £160k in value, I have no savings. House is also solely mine

You'd get child benefit and child tax credits assuming no savings.

Ok doke. I just wondered would they class the property as an asset I could sell and downsize to have some money if that makes sense?

Income support. CTC and child benefit.
IIRC it would be around 130 for IS and CTC per week.

I don't think they would.

Thanks all

Do you live with your DP?

If you live in it, yes. If you own property in addition to the one you live in, no.

I own my own home but we are skint. We get Working Tax Credits and
Child Tax Credits. Owning my own home makes no difference to this (although I wouldn't put it past the current government to change this).

I currently live with DP. But the thought has crossed my mind what would happen if we split up. My mum passed away in November and we have moved into her house which she left to me. Because I have never been in this position before I was just curious as to whether I would actually be worse off than I would be if I needed council to provide me a flat etc

If your DP lives with you, his money will be taken into account.

Sorry for youe loss

If it's big enough to downsize you may struggle to pay running costs heating etc if it's larger than you need.

Your council tax will also be larger. Many councils don't offer full council tax support now so you could well be paying 5-15% of it per month out of your basic £130 a week. Just to give you idea

Humpty Dumpty query is on the basis DP didn't live here and it was just me and DS. The council tax here is £190 a month and the gas and electricity is not cheap either. To be honest if anything did happen I think I would sell and buy a flat

That's catch 22 mind if you did down size and get say £50k profit this would then be taken into account for benefits until you had used it for living expenses. Think it around £6k of savings allowed for some mean tested benefits. After that it's deducted on scale. That's not to say you shouldn't use it to support yourself but that it may not last as long as you think if you no longer qualify for tax credits or income support etc.

Yeah I suppose! I think it's the only circumstance I would rather not own the house!

Also bear in mind that benefit entitlement changes when child turns 5, and I think that's dropping to 3.

Bear in mind you will probably get council tax benefit. If you were in a private rent and I believe (but not sure) council tenants have to top up their rent so you are actually in quite a good position.
In my brief stint on income support I had to top up my rent by 150pcm. I am better off working.

If anything were to happen you would probably be better off trying to stay put and plan a return to work as soon as feasible.

Would you not be better off working at least part time with child in childcare?

If you are married, the house is not solely yours in a divorce scenario.

I have made ends meet in situations like you describe by renting rooms out. I've been doing it on and off for 25 years with two children in the household and have throughly enjoyed the experience. There have been a few problematic ones, but for the most part I have had extra income and made life long friends and the kids have enjoyed interacting with all sorts of interesting people (from famous tv/pop stars to a French Linguist PhD student specializing in action verbs in the maori language). Because I have always lived in urban areas, I have been able to maintain the quality of lodger and curtailed the infringement on my household by only renting to short term lodgers (in town for business/school).