Private renting and universal credit (with kids) in London

[lillyledbetter]

I am trying to help a friend who is separating from her (terrible) husband. She has three kids and we are in London. She is desperately looking for a place but her only income is universal credit. The council (Islington) seems to have little advice! Her English is also not 100% which I think works against her.

Is this impossible? What should we be doing or asking? The market seems so tight that I suspect it just won't be possible where we live.

Any advice will be passed along gratefully!

What type of housing is she in now? As the children need somewhere to live it could be more sensible to get the husband to move out, by fair means or foul, to stay put even if overcrowded.

What is the situation at the moment ? are they currently in rented accommodation or own their own home ? I imagine waits for council houses in London are huge so is she looking for private rent ? Does she have a deposit / first months rent saved ? Universal credit will only pay up to the local housing allowance for the number of bedrooms she is eligible to claim for so she should check that out before she looks for properties.

Thank you so much! She is in privately rented accommodation now which is great problem is her husband will not move out and the process to get him out is so long. She wants to move much sooner and I understand, but I don't think it's going to be possible I told her to just start that process. I haven't pried that much into her finances, but I doubt she has the deposit and she does not work (young children and also not great English) I'm right that no private landlord is going to rent to her in this market, right? It's such a pity because she really needs to move. Council will move her but it will be far out of the borough and her kids will have to change schools but I suppose this is what she will have to do. Thank you all!

Sorry for all the accidental cross outs -- not sure why this alawys happens to me!

Yes it may be hard. If youngest child is over 3 she will need to look for work if claiming Universal credit. it would be a good option for her to try to improve her english to give her the best chance of finding work. Is she new to the country. i am just asking this because if this is the case then she may need to pass the habitual residency test to claim Uc unless they already claim it?

Thank you! Yes her youngest child IS older than three I did help her with a CV so she may be looking for work already but I'm hesitant to ask. Yes, she absolutely needs to improve her English it's conversational but not fluent. She does have settled status here (as a EU citizen pre-Brexit.) Thank you all again!

I can't help with advice but to say -- is the code for cross outs if you put it at either end of some text. Use a comma , instead if you don't want cross outs. Wishing your friend luck with her situation