I just won the ruddy lottery. But …

[Lotteryinducedturmoil]

I just won the ruddy lottery 🤩
£10,000 per month for a year 🤩
But, I’m not sure if I can spend it!?
I have been desperately saving for a deposit to buy my first house for myself and my 3 young daughters for years so this is beyond bloody amazing.
I’m a lone parent & work full time on minimum wage. My wage only just covers my rent so I get Universal Credit to top up my earnings.
I can’t work out if I can use all of the money to put towards a house deposit. Would that be classed as deprivation of capital?
I have been googling my fingers to the bone and can’t find anything out other than I may be expected to live frugally on it for ever more.
My head is going around in circles and getting nowhere.
The first £10,000 monthly amount will take me over the threshold of the savings limit of £16,000 meaning that I won’t qualify for universal credit any longer.
Will I be able to get a mortgage with just my (ever so slightly over) £1,000 a month wages?
I had spoken to a mortgage broker recently and they said I’d be able to get a small mortgage for a shared ownership property with my current wage plus UC benefits/ child benefit etc.
Does anyone have a clue how it all works?
I also have a complete twat of a husband who I have been separated from for 5 years but am still married to. Will he be able to get his nasty hands on any of it?
Any advice would be most helpful.

Congratulations 🤩 it's nice to hear of someone having good luck!

What else would you call hiding money from the government in order to keep receiving benefits?

Income will be £11k pcm for just a year, then £1k pcm which will not service any mortgage, so it will be very tricky to get a mortgage, as no affordability.

You can get free training from Govetnment.

She can afford to pay for her own training now...

Why should she when she can get taxpayers to foot the bill?

WTF!!

Congrats OP.

I think save as much as you can because even though at the end you will have enough for a deposit you still need to pay your mortgage each month.

Can. But don't need to. A well off friend told me about the free Government he used to upskill and change and futureproof her career. Why use that money on courses when she don't need to, and most of us will earn more than her in the next 2-3 years, including her lottery winnings. £100k won't go far towards a house, especially when you on £12k a year. She needs to be very careful.

Get a divorce asap

Do not tell anyone about the win minus uc
As if it gets back to your x he will most likely be entitled to half when he agrees to a divorce and if he finds out I'm sure he long it out .
Unless u have children together ect.

Get off UC straight away or your owe a back payment .
And could be prosecuted for fraud .
Try and do this within a month

If it's a set for life £10k a month .
Speak with the mortgage broker after 3 months they may be able to add it to your income for the mortgage .
Which will give u a LOT higher mortgage amount .
Make sure your credit score is at its peak .
Use clearscore and Experian to check both free sites.

At present limit yourself to what u was on before .
I'e your wage and reduce the £10k by the amount u was geting on UC.

So your on the same total wage .
Then store the rest away.

If your under 40 open a L ISA account
The government give u 25% for free towards a house .
But you can only put in £333 a month .
But still it's free money ontop .
Save the excess untill u have at least 25% deposit .
As your be given the better morgage options with this amount .
If your in a low cost housing area I'd suggest just save up and buy outright with no morgage .
Either way congratulations and good luck with it all

The free government what?

I'd like to know more about these so-called "free Government" that can be used to upskill and futureproof one's career. Please do share, @bernadette1984 as I'm sure I'm not the only one who is intrigued.

This seems like a good idea especially if you say that you were given the deposit, if anyone asks. Get them to claim it if you can, if not ask your parents to help by setting up a separate account maybe in their name and yours. Just don't tell ANYONE else, folk get jealous

OP - please be careful, some suggestions on here would be considered fraud.

Sure. Fraud is always a good idea.

https://skillsforlife.campaign.gov.uk/?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=PPC&utm_campaign=AdultSkills23_202307_0_All&gclid=CjwKCAjw1YCkBhAOEiwA5aN4AWrHp6_ROfC1kW2h7r4EjlPoSsdcgr6aG0GFQWzTEshSdyedKneF3RoC_t8QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Yeah, in my experience full time is 35 hours a week. Makes a big difference to the take home!

I looked at your thread because I'm about to put a different benefits ending question up.

You need advice you can trust and my guess is it's going to be difficult to work out who that is.

My suggestion is join the money bit of Which? (the consumer organisation) they might even have a helpline that would point you in the right direction for decent financial advice.
https://www.which.co.uk/money

Yep. And talk to a benefits advisor before you do anything because deprivation of assets isn’t as straightforward as you might think when it comes to DWP benefit rules.

If the OP tries to hide the money it’s fraud and if it’s paid into an account where any income related (means tested) benefit is paid in, the bank has an automatic obligation to inform DWP if it takes the claimant over any threshold.

I wonder if the OPs bank (because they can see she is good at budgeting) would give her a short term loan for, say, 100K and a mortgage based on her salary so she could buy soon with the loan being paid off over the next 11 months from the winnings. If she could get a shared ownership home she and her children might be able to get the full advantage of this win. No deprivation of assets, you are allowed to own part or all of your home.

Congrats and good luck. I can see bad days ahead. Divorce quickly. Well done ,

Any update, @Lotteryinducedturmoil ?

Would love to know how you got on?
It's a tricky situation, because while it sounds like it should be life changing, in your situation it could easily just be very complicated without massively improving your life!
UC pays towards rent but not a mortgage so presumably at the moment your housing costs are covered. If you put a deposit on house with the money (even if you get it as a lump sum), you'd have a mortgage (if you could get one, it would be unlikely/impossible due to affordability) of at least £500pm that UC won't cover so you'd need to earn more. Chances are you couldn't get a mortgage and would just have to live off the money until it's gone which won't be as much fun as it sounds!

I think only one PP suggested what I thought be the best option, which is shared ownership. Buying part of a house with your winnings (either saved over a year or lump sum if they will give it) leaves the rent part payable which UC can cover until your income increases (eventually children will be older, easier to get into childcare/leave at home). Once that happens, you will finally be in a position to be able to get a mortgage for more of the shared ownership and eventually own the house.