Any Expertise in Benefits Entitlement

[thebear29uk]

Hi all

A colleague of mine lives with her parents and 7 months ago took out a mortgage on their property effectively buying it from her father. He was being chased for debts and from the little I know the sale was sufficient to clear his mortgage and debts.

My colleague took on the mortgage on a relatively low salary and I think some juggling of figures took place to enable her to get the mortgage agreed. The arrangement was that her father would continue to pay the lions share. Since then he has given up work as a builder and now claims incapacity benefit of, she thinks, about £600 a month. Her mother gets income support of approx £60 per week.

The family are of an Indian background and, without wishing to offend anybody here, have certain traditions including the father's word is final. He seems to pocket her mother's income and is now telling my colleague he cannot afford to pay more than £200 per month towards the £550+ mortgage. She has been paying all the food bills and utility costs out of approx £900 per month salary on the understanding that the mortgage was mostly covered by her father's contribution.

My question is would she be entitled to charge rent to her parents as the landlord of the property and if so, could she receive this directly as housing benefit payable to the landlord. She cannot afford to allow this situation to get much worse otherwise she will be posting here in her own right. With it being family its a tricky situation as other than evicting him and her mother there is no way she can afford the mortgage and bills. She is fed up of her father's couldn't care less attitude but is close to her mum. If she had sole occupancy of the property she could then get a tenant to help meet the costs but cannot even think of evicting her mum.

Catch 22 or what??

Any advice much appreciated even if its to say she has no entitlement. At least she will then have a clearer picture of what needs to be done.

Regards

Dave

[thebear29uk]

Hi

There seemed to be a lot of topics last night and this fell off the board pretty quick so if anyone can offer help I'd much appreciate it.

Regards

Dave

[lily]

Hi bear

The parents should be able to claim housing benefit as benefits are their only income.

If he is getting incapacity is he getting disability living allowance? DLA is paid at two tiers and three rates.

Care and motability= either is assessed by lower middle and upper components, depending upon how the disability effects the individuals life. There is an upper limit I believe too. If the disability befins before age 45.

Try this site

www.dwp.gov.uk

I hope this helps

lily

[Rainbow]

Hi just a word of caution here about Housing Benefits - Usually you cannot claim HB if you are renting from family and the family member lives in the home also but you maybe able to claim if the family member doesn't live with you - see below from Shelter

If you live in a property owned by a family member and pay them rent, you may be entitled to housing benefit. However, there are a couple of things the housing benefit department will want to check. Firstly, they'll want to be satisfied that you're paying rent on a commercial basis. In other words, they'll want to know that it's a proper tenancy, not just an informal arrangement between family.

Secondly they may want to check that the arrangement has not been set up in order to take advantage of the housing benefit system - this is called a 'contrived tenancy'. For example, if your landlord only asks you to pay rent when you are not working (and so eligible for housing benefit) but not when you are working (and earning too much to claim housing benefit), this would be a contrived tenancy.

Also from Shelter regarding claiming HB and if you live with a family member
If you are renting a home from a family member and they live in the same house, you won't be able to get Housing Benefit, even if you are paying them rent. A close relative is a:

husband or wife,
civil partner,
partner,
parent or step-parent,
father-in-law or mother-in-law,
child or step-child,
son-in-law or daughter-in-law,
brother or sister,
brother-in-law or sister-in-law, or
partner of any of the above.
In addition, you won't be able to get Housing Benefit if you or your partner are responsible for a child and your landlord is a parent of that child.

Rainbow

[thebear29uk]

Hi

Just wanted to say thanks for the info. She is going to find out exactly what her parents allowances are and possibly speak to CAB.

Regards

Dave

[cynth]

What is DLA and how do you claim it, can you claim if you have more than one child with a disability? is it income dependant? what if you cant work for any reason, sorry to ask so many questions in one hit.

Cynth

[MelanieGiles]

DLA stands for disability living allowance and is awarded to disbled persons to assist with their living costs.

Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.

To have me propose an IVA for you, please visit:
http://www.melaniegiles.com/ivaEnquiry.asp

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