MIL being made homeless

[OMGverywellthankyou]

MIL is early 80s, currently living with her partner. They have never married. She lives in his house and off his income. Throughout the relationship her partner has been financially abusive and controlling and MIL has been unable to escape the co-dependency of their relationship despite offers of help (that’s a whole other very long thread). So this brings me to our current predicament. MIL’s partner has terminal cancer and has been given, at most, months to live. MIL has very little pension -apparently she opted out of full NI contributions when married to her previous husband years ago- no savings and nothing else to her name. She thinks her partners will says she is allowed to live in the house for up to 2 years following his death, then she will be forced out. Although it is likely that she will be forced out asap by her partners children who are named in the will. MIL is not named in the will and will receive nothing at all. MILs only relative living in the UK is DH.
What on earth do we do? We cannot take her in long term as we are 150 miles from her, and have 2 adults and 2 kids in a 2 up 2 down house.
She cannot afford a rental deposit or regular rent. She has no money or means to physically move her things. She has no friends in her area at all to help or take her in (the result of the abusive relationship).
A quick calculation on the age UK website says she will be entitled to £68 a week pension credit. It doesn’t mention housing benefit.
Would she be able to get a council/housing association house and housing benefit? If so how do we do that? Will she have to apply where DH and I live and should we take her in, as we are her only next of kin? What I mean by this is not that we don’t want to take her in, but is she better off staying in the house until they give her some formal notice of being homeless?
Has anyone been through anything similar with an elderly relative? Any advice appreciated, thanks.

I'm not sure on the details of exactly what she'd get but there aren't homeless 80 year old women on the streets so you can be confident her local council would house her somewhere. She needs to be homeless so, no, you shouldn't take her in. She should wait until she's forced out (evicted) before asking her council for help. Her pension will be topped up with pension credit.

It's really hard and I hope it all works out.

She should stay where she is until she is evicted (if that actually happens). Otherwise any alternative arrangements make it unlikely she will be given social housing. That said if this was my Mum i would take her in without hesitation

Some councils have housing which is for age 55+

There is less demand for it than for general council housing.

Speak to her local council.

Her council will house her if she is made homeless. I would direct her to her local CAB when/if that time comes as they will advise her what she is entitled to and how to claim it.

Would she not also have a claim for a portion of ex dh's pension?

She won’t get a pension, just pension credit of £68 per week.

I would suggest that you might find it helpful to contact your local Age UK for general advice. You could also help your MIL to contact Citizens Advice if she speaks to them and gives consent you can speak to them on her behalf.

Where is she and we can give you links to relevant services to help

Thanks everyone. I’ll see what I can get from the local council here. I don’t think she has any claim on ex DH’s pension as she and him divorced over 40 years ago and unusually for that time period DH and his siblings stayed with their dad. MIL re-married (another man she might not have divorced) since then. It’s all a bit of a mess 😞

She is Kent area at the moment.

https://www.gov.uk/over-80-pension/further-information

its not enough to cover housing costs but I think she’d be entitled to this? You should get her signed up if she isn’t already. It’s more than the £70 mentioned earlier in thread.

Has she contributed to the house she is in at all? Mortgage, improvements etc? If so, she should get some legal advice. (Citizens advice might be a good starting point)

She will be fine - at her age she will be offered over 55 housing quickly, the rent will be covered by benefits and although she won't be rolling in it she will be perfectly comfortable. I'm assuming she doesn't have substantial savings - if she does these will need to be spent before safety nets kick in.

This can't all be arranged in advance though unfortunately.

Contact the local authority, housing department. Many housing associations have excess places in over 55 schemes and she could be allocated one of these. Ring up the council and they will talk you through the options, including benefits. This might be of help https://www.turn2us.org.uk/get-support/information-for-your-situation#A-Z

Shelter can advise, as can her local council or Citizens Advice.

Contact dwp,/ local council she should get a small home rent plus council tax paid.
She will also get an amount to live on to bring her up to the minimum pensioners
guarentee. Issue might be furniture, but there are charity shops and may be other help. She will not starve or be homeless

She thinks her partners will says she is allowed to live in the house for up to 2 years following his death, then she will be forced out.

Unless it says this in the will then I'm sure you're right that she'll be out on the streets. She will basically need to present to the council as homeless, and will probably end up either in an over 55 place, or short-term in a hostel. Agree she needs to stay until evicted.

Reach out to some almshouses, a friend of mine's DM was in a similar situation recently and has managed to get one, a brand new one which is very cheap and she is guaranteed to stay in for life

What a difficult situation to deal with, I imagine there are a lot of mixed emotions in play. Can your mum ask to see a copy of the will now so she is certain of the two year clause. Of course her partner could still alter the will again.
I would have thought priorities would be for her to gather up important paperwork of her own, would storage for any of her bigger possessions be useful to arrange? Surely she can clear up for you guys whether she is actually single or divorced! Not sure but perhaps that might be relevant for benefits claims.

Just to say with the other good advice given she needs to round up her valuables and any paperwork/memorabilia etc that's hers and secure them somehow - it's not beyond the realm of possibilities that her OHs beneficiaries will enter the house and clear it once OH has died
So she needs to have her stuff safe and either off site or very obviously hers so that the DVDs of her wedding(s) or whatever don't get skipped/turfed out in a house clearance.

If she remarried after her divorce, she may have some pension rights under THAT husband's pension contributions.

The AGE UK helpline is excellent. Do give them a call.

Thanks everyone. I really appreciate it. For some reason I didn’t think of Shelter, so will see what advice they have. As to the will he is very secretive about it and won’t tell her what is in it so we assume she is getting nothing (he is mean and controlling despite MIL being a live in carer/maid for him for 20+ years). She has not made any contribution to the household as she has no money to do so. As to the previous husband that’s going to take some time to find out. I don’t think she has divorced him but he might have divorced her? He was apparently work shy so I doubt he had any private pension. I will look into how to find this out, although now isn’t really time to ask her and surely that route will take a long time and cost a lot of money, she has no money for legal advice, and unfortunately we have very limited funds for this too.
Will look into if there are almshouses around too.
Will mention to MIL about getting her stuff together as I assume she could be denied access to the house to collect belongings/valuables if the worst happens soon.

The council will house her if she gets evicted and housing benefit will cover most of her rent. Pension credit is £218 a week assuming no other income not £68. She may be able to apply to your council housing dept and use her son as her 'local connection'. Either way she'll need to apply now but won't be housed until she's actually made homeless so she mustn't leave the house voluntarily.

Call shelter or age uk for advice