Help! Hudge Mistake!

[Wenderrs]

My husband and I separated in 2017, I moved into council flat, ex husband stayed on in home. I continued with Tax credits, not entitled to housing benifit as I owned family home jointly with ex.
in the havoc of lockdown and to see if I could get help with my rent I took this to apply for UC.
i have not paid attention in filling this form online and skimmed past the page with owning property has been on, as none of the rest applied to me and all boxes were already placed with NO in them.
just had meeting with work coach where I asked when would I start paying my rent again? As I’d not heard anything and was getting worried!!
well now I’m out of my mind with worry! I have always told them about property since 2017! I thought this was already on the system. Have been given a form about asset and equity. I think the last 2 years of this pandemic I’m to pay it all back!
if I had known what I was doing? Or realised a mistake I certainly would not come of one benifit I’m entitled to, too go on another I’m not!
if anything I’ve frauded myself!!!
can I go back to tax credits? As on UC I’m not entitled to one pence.

Except that there are exceptions to this rule as many on this thread have pointed out.

@Wenderrs you may not have contributed since 2017 but equally you haven't been paid rent for your half of the house. I'd see a solicitor.

@Darbs76 so even though my ex stays in the family home with our child I would still not have been entitled to any of the claim?

If this was turned around and the man had left, no-one would be saying op should be paying her ex rent as his kids would still be living in the house as op's son is !

@pizzaand this is something I have never thought of until this post, so thank you I will enquire about that.

@Babyroobs oh yes you are right of course my son is in house too.

Yes i think you have an unusual situation here as the kids are split between you. Often there is a court order made that the resident parent can stay in the marital home with the kids until they all leave education and then the house is sold and equity divided. The non resident parent would pay child maintenance etc. In this kind of situation, really it would have been easier if this was all decided when you split or when the divorce settlement was decided. Are you divorced now ? What was the agreement with the house/ child maintenance. You could ask him for rent I guess, but equally he could ask you for CM for your son and you ask him for CM for the other two but it gets messy. If it were just your ex in the house of course you could have demanded it be sold back in 2017 or you stay in it. The fact that you also need to pay rent just complicates things but if your 18 year old will be a non dependent soon, you are going to have to speak to a solicitor and get things sorted soon if no agreement has bene made up until now.

@Babyroobs
we had an agreement that 2 of the children would be shared equally, it was my son at the time that decided he not want to be back and forth he took the family breakdown especially difficult. It was agreed we would not sell the house until kids were dependent and that I would continue the tax credit claims, as always had.
we don’t pay each other CM. We both contribute to their upbringing and needs.

As far as I am aware you can’t claim help with housing if you’re a property owner. But I’m no expert

@Babyroobs i didnt have a problem paying my rent and would of continued to do so. It was only when covid came and was not working for the 8 months of lockdown I thought I’d get help.

@Doyoumind yes your absolutely right, this could have been all sorted at the time if the error had been cought. I had always declared the property since 2017 I would have not just decided 3 years later not too?

its my own fault I understand that, I’m panicked and trying to sort it.

No you’re not. So why do you keep banging on with incorrect information? The thread is already full of detailed advice.

You did declare the your new single status to tax credits, though? That would have been a new single claim.

Yes tax credits were informed and my address changed. Had been on tax credits for a number of years. That be why I understand was not put on to UC credit at that time, as I was not entitled to anything because of property, and be worse off?

Currently if you split with a partner you would need to switch to UC but I guess the split may have been just before the rules changed, so were able to stay on tax credits as a single claim. I can't remember exactly when the rules changed but maybe late 2017/18.

That’s one less thing to worry about anyway.

@Babyroobs Actually now I think of it, I changed tax claim to single person whilst I was still at that address awaiting council property. Marriage was most definitely over a few years even before I finally left.

Im sorry but people can get a council house if they own another property, a close family memeber split up with his wife, had to move out (because obviously its normal to live with your ex) applied for a council property as homeless, et voila he has a council flat,

All these posters, what do you expect people to do for a place to live when a relationship breaks down?

I think it depends maybe how much equity is in the jointly owned property. I had a client who was told she could not go on the list for a council property as her savings exceeded a certain amount ( can't remember the exact figure). Maybe the house couldn't be sold and equity split in your example, maybe if kids were still in the home.

@Wenderrs how old is the son living in the martial property?

Every council (certainly in England not sure about other countries) can have different rules on housing allocations.