Mortgage Universal Credit if relations ship ends

[Ran91]

Hi all, first time poster just after a little advice or clarification.
So my relationship isn’t going great (reasons I won’t go into right now) and I have began to consider what would happen if I left.
We have been together almost 30 years (unmarried) and have a 15 YO disabled son.
Mortgage is joint and has around 3 years left on it. I worked full time from leaving school until my son was born, then went part time until the company I worked for closed around 5 years back and am now my sons carer.
Neither of us would be able to remortgage to buy the other out and I also don’t want to force a sale (the house will be passed onto son or value of it help provide care when I/we are gone).
And so my plan was simple… me and son move out and private rent, claim UC, leave name on mortgage keeping my financial interest in it.
I did the Turn2Us benefits checker, including the mortgaged home that I wouldn’t be living in and the remainder on mortgage, current value etc: T2U advised entitled to UC including Housing element which I wasn’t expecting with me owning other home. I was telling a friend who has a friend who works in housing of local council and she reckons I won’t get a single penny in benefits because the house would be seen as capital.
Im a lists and ducks in a row kind of person so I just need this clear in my head to be able to move forward. Does anyone know or maybe have direct knowledge whether there is any truth in me possibly not being entitled to anything?
Thanks x

I have no experience in England on this but i suppose you won’t know entirely until you do it.

When I checked what I'd be entitled to it said if the house you own is occupied by another owner and you don't live there then it isn't counted for your assets. You can check that easily though I'm sure if you call them?

One of the questions is;
In the past 6 months, have any of the following happened? *

• Moved out of this house after relationship breakdown
• Taken legal steps to try to move back into this house
• Taken steps to try to sell the house
• Moved out of this house to do essential repairs that are needed before you can live in the house
• Bought the house, but not yet moved in

If I answer YES it says ‘The value of this property won't be taken into account when working out your benefits’ and has my UC entitlement as £360 per week
But if I say NO it says ‘The value of this property will be taken into account when working out your benefits’ and then has my UC entitlement as £0
I’m so confused 😵‍💫 I’m almost reading it as within 6 months I would have to force a sale

My understanding is that your jointly owned property would be disregarded temporarily, allowing you to claim uc and hb for an interim period of time. But that would be to give you time to sell the house , arrange for your ex to buy you out etc. You will have thousands of pounds ( over 100k?) tied up in the marital home. It makes no sense that you'd be given benefits to pay your rent on another house for years on end, whilst you leave your equity untouched. I can't see that being something that would realistically be funded by benefits, so you should speak to someone for clarity, rather than just using the online calculator.

Thankyou for that, that is kind of what I was thinking… and yes I do understand that makes absolute sense. I suppose in an ideal world the house was always meant to secure our sons future but if we split that can’t happen.
we don’t currently claim anything other than my Carers so this is all new to me.
It seems we’re stuck… anyone know a good therapist 😂

Yes its disregarded temporarily only, you’d be expected to sell it longer term.