Okay long one:
Friend is being pressurised into accept £25k cash this week, this would form part of her divorce settlement. However once accepted she will no longer be entitled to legal aid and housing benefit?????? She has 2 young children, fled the marital home, is in private rented & currently not working.
She is also unlikely I think to receive anything from her marital home as it is likely to be repossessed and interest only mortgage is a high percentage of its current value.
In the longer term she is happy to work and can go self employed fairly easily. She is unlikely to ever get maintenance from her ex - self employed, all cash in hand, is in severe debt.
Also she has outstanding debts to pay, if she used part of the £25K to clear them is that an allowable use of it or would it be seen as getting rid of the money in order to receive benefits?
If you have under £16k of savings do they ignore it completely or is it a sliding scale?
Thanks for any help you can give.
I've told her to look at entitled to and to book an urgent appointment with CAB, I've also told her to say no for now but she is worried about how her ex will react to not getting his share now. However I think if she sits tight she may end up with all of it IYSWIM.