benefits

[michellem123]

My sister and myself own a house which has stood empty for five years. We are on benefits income support and incapacity benefit.Today our benefits were stopped because they said we have this house which we could sell and live off the sale of the house, can they do this?as we now only have child benefit plus 25.00 child maintanance to live on ,we both have 2 dependant children.What are we to do in the meantime? It could take months to sell the house. Can someone tell me what do we do?

[Pippa68]

They obviously can do this ~ you both have over a certain threshold of savings (house value). I don't see why you didn't sell the house instead of claiming benefits years ago.

Are you still entitled to housing benefit for the homes you live in?

[Ethel]

You must have failed to fill the forms in correctly where it asks you if you own any property, apart from the house you live in.

All claim forms for benefits ask this.

I suggest you get on to a few of the companies that buy your house quickly and sell to the highest offer. It can be done and dusted in a month,

In th meantime you could raise a small loan against the value of the house.

[redcrx]

Of course they can do this. If you own an empty property why would you want to keep it? It must be costing you money to keep in good repair and in council tax (or do you claim this?)
You seem to be saying that the benefits you get arent a great deal ("we only have") so why did you not sell it in the first place. I'd say you should feel lucky they are not asking for money back if you have falsely claimed or worse still a charge of fraud.

[Yodel]

What can you do in the meantime.....how about getting a job?

[Bestcabby]

I Think there is no way you can get out of this, unless the house is valued very low. I Know if a couple got savings of 16,000 or lower, it wont affect there benefits.

Maybe you're best bet is to contact one of the companies that do the Buy & Rent scheme. They normally give you 70% of the market value of the house e.g. 60,000 x 70% = 42,000. And you can live in the house & rent it from them. I Know the amount you & you're sister will get is over the threshold the benefits allow, but you shold end up with around 20,000 each.

Check it out i would.

p.s. You didnt say if you & you'r sister are married or have a partner that you have declared living with you, if you have thats even better for the threshold.

Good Luck

[chimpydoodle]

The savings limit is 16k for everyone now, it used to vary according to age, family circs etc but recently changed.

if you own a house then it should have been declared at the point when you made your application for benefits. If you had been honest and told the Jobcentre about this house to begin with your application would have been refused, rightly so as well.

There is every chance you will be prosecuted for fraud, i hope the Jobcentre are successful and get every penny back from you that you have claimed fraudulently.

[Pippa68]

Crikey..there could be one huge amount of money winging it's way back into the DSS coffers.