Question regarding UC when you've sold your house but not bought another one yet

[Chamomileteaplease]

Asking for a friend, promise!

Friend has a buyer for her house. But she is worried that she won't find another one quickly and may have to short term rent.

If she does, she will have a few thousand in the bank, from the sale, to go straight into her next house, (with the mortgage), while she rents short term.

Will this cock up her Universal Credit or tax credits during this period? She is worried she will lose out during this period which will jeopardize her buying of the next house even more.

Many thanks for any knowledge.

Oh and I put this in Relationships because she is only selling due to a very stressful divorce .

I think it affects you if you have more than 5k in savings

It effects it if over 6k of savings and she should save all evidence of what the money is spent on
There are Universal credit help groups on Facebook, the admin seem to know more about benefits than UC themselves

thank you both.

So in effect, might she be using up some of this capital in the meantime, if she has over £6000 from the sale?

I will tell her about the Facebook help .

Yes I think you have to be on your arse to get universal credit. Any savings are expected to be used, regardless of what you've earmarked them for.

We had just over 6k set aside to pay our tax bills next April and universal credit expected us to live on those savings. They said it provided us with an "income" and refused our claim.

Obviously we would have been in deep shit with HMRC when the tax bill was due and we didn't have a penny to give them.

It might be possible to move the money elsewhere, to someone else's account? probably illegal though

Money from the sale of property which is to be used for the purchase of another property can be ignored for up 6 months (or longer if extenuating circumstances, though these are usually e.g. finding a new property takes longer than usual because you have a significant disability and need something suitable.) See assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/787441/admh2.pdf

So that it isn’t viewed as simply savings which render her ineligible for benefits, she’ll need to provide evidence of the house sale, solicitor letters etc and evidence trail for its origin.

She can declare the money and submit evidence it is from a house sale, they normally disregard this money for 6 months

Wow that is brilliant. Six months should be fine. Thank you so much everyone. That is a bit of good news that I can pass on to her!

thank you!

think its £8000 in savings b4 they can touch UC but don't quote me on that 😊 x

6K+ in savings and deductions will be taken. (£4.35 for every £250 or part of £250 over 6K).
Over 16K and you're ineligible.

Pp is correct about 6 months plus possible extension but be prepared to argue it as some DWP staff are not as up to speed as they could be (lots of new staff).