Benefit advice

[JMEN04]

Hello, I am looking to separate from my husband. Currently our house is shared ownership and all in his name. I am registered as a tenant and we live here with our child. We've lived here 4 years, married 7, together 9.
My question is that if I ask him to leave, is it possible to claim benefits to support myself
Despite the house not being registered to me? Ideally, I would like to pay my way financially but would need help to do so. Does anyone know how this would or could work? For context, my husband is a stickler for the rules so would probably want to inform housing if he moved out. Thanks

What you’re suggesting wasn’t allowed under Housing Benefit rules but you’re in luck, it can be under Universal Credit rules.

You can rent from a former partner in the ho where you lived together if it’s deemed to be a genuine commercial contract. That doesn’t just mean a piece of paper - it means the decision maker being convinced that your husband intends to act as a genuine landlord, e.g. would enforce rules like eviction for non payment.

So it’s theoretically possible. I think I’d be challenging though why you weren’t making a financial claim through divorce, including based on the equity in his part share. Is there any?

What do you mean by paying your financially but needing help to do so?

Ideally I'd like to not have to ask my husband to cover any bills or anything, I'd like to cover the mortgage/rent and all bills independently from him.
TBH, I haven't got as far as thinking about divorce. I feel I'm not really entitled to anything because the mortgage is in his name and his family provided the deposit. I don't want to take from him.

@JMEN04

Ideally I'd like to not have to ask my husband to cover any bills or anything, I'd like to cover the mortgage/rent and all bills independently from him. TBH, I haven't got as far as thinking about divorce. I feel I'm not really entitled to anything because the mortgage is in his name and his family provided the deposit. I don't want to take from him.

But you’ll take from the tax payer? 🧐 You should be doing this properly. Either you’re together or not. If you’re together, you should be taking UC housing element to pay off his mortgage, effectively feathering your own next because you would have a financial interest in the property. If you’re not together, you should taking what you’re legally entitled to and then only taking benefits based on that position.

As I said, UC does allow you to rent from a former partner, even the home you lived in together. Housing Benefit specifically excluded both those things.

But it must be a genuine commercial contract. If I was assessing that, no way would I think it was a genuine commercial contract whilst you had a legal interest in the property. UC is not there to pay off your mortgage for you.

You have another thread about spousal support tonight. Ask mn to delete one of them.

Okay so no, I don't want the house or the deposit or anything. I do see that as his money although technically I know that I am entitled to half when we divorced, that's what I was referring to. Certainly not having help to pay the mortgage, and then taking the equity to. I just want secure housing for our child until I can afford to get somewhere on our own which would be around 18 months when child starts primary school, less childcare and I can up my work. I would then happily come off any benefits.

@nettytree why? The posts are about two different things, I thought keeping the info separate would be less confusing

under UC there are 2 bits with shared ownership, the rental bit and the mortgage bit. As you say you're a named tenant there should be no issue with you claiming the rental part at all. I'm not sure why the other posters are being nasty to you, I didn't take anything out of what you had written as trying to take advantage of anything.
The mortgage help on UC is more complicated and it sounds like you're not on the mortgage so wouldnt be eligible anyway.

@JMEN04

Okay so no, I don't want the house or the deposit or anything. I do see that as his money although technically I know that I am entitled to half when we divorced, that's what I was referring to. Certainly not having help to pay the mortgage, and then taking the equity to. I just want secure housing for our child until I can afford to get somewhere on our own which would be around 18 months when child starts primary school, less childcare and I can up my work. I would then happily come off any benefits.

But from that’s exactly what you’d be doing: using UC to pay the mortgage on a house in which you have a legal interest. It doesn’t matter that you vaguely decide now that you don’t want to take that entitlement - it exists, therefore you’d be using UC to increase the value of your interest.

You can get UC and have a mortgage of course… but you get a higher housing element for renting.

You cannot say that you see the house equity as his money, and also tell us you can’t work full time for another 18 months because of your child. A huge reason why it’s morally fair (as well as legally sound) for you to be entitled to count his equity in your financial settlement calculations is to balance the impact to your earnings by his joint family decisions.

If you don’t want to rely on his support, get back to work full time and let him look after his child or pay nursery fees.

It’s taking the piss to expect that you can just give away your financial rights to him, and take UC instead. If your name was on the deeds then UC decision maker would be looking at whether that constituted the £16K savings - for example, if you moved out then there’d only be a specified period before you were expected to sell up or be bought out. I’m not sure how that would be looked at when it when it was potential share of assets from divorce.

UC decision makers aren’t stupid though - this will look like you paying off your own mortgage.

@pisspants

under UC there are 2 bits with shared ownership, the rental bit and the mortgage bit. As you say you're a named tenant there should be no issue with you claiming the rental part at all. I'm not sure why the other posters are being nasty to you, I didn't take anything out of what you had written as trying to take advantage of anything. The mortgage help on UC is more complicated and it sounds like you're not on the mortgage so wouldnt be eligible anyway.

I’m not trying to nasty. If OP gets divorced, and agrees finances, and he keeps the house (maybe she takes a higher share of savings or pension ) and she no longer has an interest in it - fair enough.

But say she should be entitled to £x from the equity (based on overall divorce assets) and that £x is more than £16K. Why would it be morally right to just gift away that £x to him - and then claim UC as a result?

She can give him all the assets if she likes, but I think it’s really off to do so and then decide to take UC instead.

And extremely happy off if she hasn’t yet legally given him the assets, and can still claim on them later! (and UC has been paying the mortgage on said asset!)

I understand your point and I hadn't thought of it that way; mainly because my primary aim at the moment is ti get out of a terribly unhappy marriage. I'm not seeing all of the points clearly. And this scenario is not my intention at all so I wouldn't wish to proceed. With the house being shared ownership, there isn't a huger about of equity I suppose. The deposit back is probably realistic which won't amount to much following fees etc. it would probably be financially better for us both for me to receive our savings, and set up home so where. Work as close to full time as possible and not require any financial support.

You may also find that renting his house from him would be emotionally difficult and hold you back. It may well be better to cut ties.
Good luck getting out!