UC want all my money back…

[MapleHazelLatte]

I applied for UC when I separated from DC’s father 3 years ago. I have since been living with my parents and he stayed in the house we bought together. I’ve been asking him to take my name of the mortgage to give me my share but he just has been dragging his heels about it. I applied for UC when we split up.

i then got a notification to say I was having a review phone call. Apparently someone had accused me of still being with DC’s father. I had to send all my bank statements for the last 3 years and fill out forms regarding the house. Originally I vaguely remember they did say they would disregard the house for 6 months then I heard no more.

a couple of months later I was told I had been overpaid but it was only slightly and a manageable amount to pay back.

I’ve not got another letter saying I shouldn’t have got UC since 2022 and they want ALL the money back other than the first 6 months. It’s “disallowed” I’ve worked this out to be around £30k. I have no idea what I’m going to do. Anyone else been in this situation ??

Were / are you married?
Would you qualify for legal aid?

You can ask for your share in the house to be valued as nil value if you can not sell the house because your ex lives there and will not sell. You would need to give any evidence you have and it would go to a decision maker. UC actually can not force you to sell the house only your share in it, so you would have to argue that no buyer would buy your share in it without your ex selling his.

I think those that are arguing that system is unfair having really considered what the alternative would mean. If OP was allowed to claim as if she didn't have equity in the house then this would obviously place her at a huge advantage compared to someone that for whatever reason was forced to sell their house and hold the proceeds as cash or just someone that had the money as savings all along. If OP can sell the house then she wouldn't be eligible for benefits.

Did you not try to force the sale OP over all of these years?

The 6 months disregard when you become estranged is intended to give you breathing space and a bit of time to work through your options and take advice.

There are other disregards as well per the Regulation linked upthread.

Para 6 of Schedule 10 covers situations like that the OP is in. If they'd sought its application when the initial six months expired and could show steps were being taken they'd be fine. Legal advice may even be that shifting an unwilling ex as occupier would be so costly as to be a fool's errand.

Yes it will be that. Even though youve been completely honest & kept them updated, and they have made the error of continuing to pay you you still have to pay it back. The rules are ridiculous.

You need to speak to CAB, see what they advise but I fear they will tell you the same thing here to take him to court & force him to sell or buy you out.

I understand it but it wasn’t made clear and as I said I’d told them a few times I was still on the mortgage but had received no money from the house. He can’t be arsed is what it boils down to, and it’s a control thing as he doesn’t want me to have any freedom with my own money if you know what I mean. I’ve asked him to take my name off and he just says yeah I’ll have a look it’ll be about £16k then I don’t hear anything else. As I didn’t contribute much to the mortgage when we were together and not at all for the past 9 years as I’d been a SAHM I’ve felt like I shouldn’t be owed much. I’ll ring citizens advice today 😔

This is one of the reasons UC is utterly evil.
The tax credit system was pretty fair and as it was worked out on income only, based on each tax year, allowed some social mobility and was only based on income. Your income could fluctuate over the year but it was averaged out. You could own property and have savings.
Now, you can’t save for a deposit, and anything you own is counted as an “asset”, except actually it’s counted for practical purposes as though it’s liquid cash.
Clearly none of this is in the interests of a stable society, or children of broken relationships. UC was designed to be punitive.
OP please see CAB, and get your house valued properly.

We were never married

Yes but they expect you to be able to provide evidence of starting the process to force the house sale such as instructing solicitors, getting advice etc.

@MapleHazelLatte I think the correct course is to contest the recovery decision via Mandatory Reconsideration and if necessary appealing to the First-tier Tribunal. Your start point is to go through their reasons with a fine tooth comb and identify where they're wrong.

But I wouldn't suggest trying that off your own bat hence the signpost to CA or other advice agency.

Take your ex to court to force sale of house and repay what you can from that then agree a payment plan to repay the rest. You are only entitled to UC for 6 months whilst you were supposed to be selling the house. If you own property you are not entitled to UC support. Go to see a solicitor asap about taking ex to court to force sale of house.

And this,will cost thousands which she doesn't have...trust me I've been down this route and ended up with a 15k legal bill. If he obstructs and ignores court orders, it will get very expensive to and there is no legal aid.

I'm staggered that you've managed to receive £30k UC over three years while living with your parents so no housing element.

I'm a single parent and the most I've ever received in a month is £300 and most months it's more like £100. Barely worth the hassle of reporting my income to them.

I’m fucked

I dont think that poster is asking for your help - they are just explaining the current UC position.

Debating about what is and isn’t fair is pointless. OP needs advice on how to approach this with her ex and with DWP. That’s where CA can help.

@INeedNewShoes my youngest was a newborn when I applied so I’ve only worked very part time? I declared where I lived, my 2 DC.. I don’t know why they calculated it as they did but that’s what it works out to.

id be trying to speak to a welfare law firm, usually you can get 30mins free on the phone with lawyers. Speak to several of them .
you haven’t done this on purpose and it sounds like it might be worth appealing. Citizens advice are good, but they are not specialists
deep breaths, your body must be running with adrenaline. It will be ok one way or another, you’ll get through this x

You absolutely should be working more than 2 days a week. You get 30 hours free childcare and you live with your parents.

the UC rules are clear on this re 6 month disregard. You can submit a MR but you would need to provide different evidence to get a decision.
you will not be expected to repay the £30k at once debt management will come to an agreement for affordable repayments.
going forward you will need to sort out the housing issue and get your name off the mortgage.

I feel for you OP. One of the things I don't like about UC is that niggling feeling that they're one day going to decide you haven't reported something correctly and ask for all the payments back.

I'd gather together any evidence of communications with your ex showing that he is dragging his heels with selling. Take anything that might be relevant when you do manage to meet with CAB.

Hi @MapleHazelLatte. I'm so sorry, this must be very stressful.

Can you answer the following questions?

1. Is the house in your joint names, i.e. is your name actually on the deeds, not just the mortgage?
2. Do you own as joint tenants or tenants in common?
3. If you own as tenants in common, did you agree in writing to own it in unequal shares, e.g. two thirds for one person because they were going to be paying most of the mortgage, or one person ringfencing their deposit?

You need to find out what your actual share in the house is, and it is not just whatever your ex decides it is.

Your not fucked. You need to return back to work full time to raise your income now uc wont pay you. Then go from there.
for now offer a small monthly payment plan, explain the situation and say thats all you can afford as you need to take your ex to court etc they should accept it on that basis. You cant get blood from a stone.

Absolutely agree.Have seen this problem almost on a weekly basis in my job .It really doesn’t help the genuinely vulnerable people in society ie domestic violence,poor physical and mental health etc . It also controls people and makes it hard for people to improve their financial situation which then has a snowball effect on the above problems !

Sounds messy. You don't want to implicate your parents. I would move out and use savings for a few months.to rent basic accommodation.

Even if not married presumably your name was on the deeds of your original property and you are entitled to half which even if low cost you should get a decent lump sum. Whilst it isn't sold your ex needs to give you half of the going rental value. If he chooses not to rent it out he will have to reimburse you from his income.

If your ex is on the birth certificates, he needs to pay child maintenance.

If ex refuses take legal advice. You will get back what is rightly yours so definitely worth pursuing as soon as possible.