News1 min ago
Mother Retiring With No Money And No Home. Help!
26 Answers
What to do with a mother who retires in Feb?
She has not owned a home for the last 30+ years since she was widowed, lives in rented accommodation that the owner has just put on the market, lost her job in August, has no savings and only the state pension to rely on.
She has basically been funded by her mother (not 86 and who is seriously ill with Covid) all her life and buried her head in the sand/made poor decisions.
If she's lucky she might inherit £100K at a later date...
I'm at my wits end with her. Any advice appreciated.
She has not owned a home for the last 30+ years since she was widowed, lives in rented accommodation that the owner has just put on the market, lost her job in August, has no savings and only the state pension to rely on.
She has basically been funded by her mother (not 86 and who is seriously ill with Covid) all her life and buried her head in the sand/made poor decisions.
If she's lucky she might inherit £100K at a later date...
I'm at my wits end with her. Any advice appreciated.
Answers
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Start by checking on the Local Housing Allowance rates for the area that your mother lives in:
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Then start looking for rental accommodation in that area, where the cost of renting isn't higher than (or is only marginally higher than) the LHA figure. (Try sites such as Rightmove, Zoopla, PrimeLocation, Gumtree, etc, as well as local newspapers, estate agencies and rental agents).
Get your mother to apply for Housing Benefit
https:/
or Universal Credit, as appropriate
https:/
If your mother isn't already in receipt of Pension Credit, check to see if she's eligible:
https:/
When your mother's in her new home, check that she's claimed the automatic single-occupier discount on her Council Tax AND that she's enquired about the possibility of a further Council Tax reduction from her local authority:
https:/
Use a benefits calculator to see if there's any further support which she might be entitled to:
https:/
https:/
Then start looking for rental accommodation in that area, where the cost of renting isn't higher than (or is only marginally higher than) the LHA figure. (Try sites such as Rightmove, Zoopla, PrimeLocation, Gumtree, etc, as well as local newspapers, estate agencies and rental agents).
Get your mother to apply for Housing Benefit
https:/
or Universal Credit, as appropriate
https:/
If your mother isn't already in receipt of Pension Credit, check to see if she's eligible:
https:/
When your mother's in her new home, check that she's claimed the automatic single-occupier discount on her Council Tax AND that she's enquired about the possibility of a further Council Tax reduction from her local authority:
https:/
Use a benefits calculator to see if there's any further support which she might be entitled to:
https:/
^^^ A typical ignorant post from TTT, who seems to ignore the fact that council housing, and housing association stock, is massively over-subscribed, with only about one in ten of applicants being successful in their housing applications. (My friend was placed right at the top of the list, after being given notice to quit by her landlord, because she was a single mother with a young son, with both of them having mental health problems. She was extremely lucky that a housing association bungalow became available just days before she was due to be evicted, otherwise she and her son would have been left homeless. Most people aren't so lucky).
Unless there's a reason that DonaldDuck92's mother is classed as a priority case, the chances of her getting a place in social housing are actually very low. (Her age might possibly be in her favour though. That's not because old age, per se, moves people up the list of priorities but because some councils are actually finding difficulties in filling vacancies in supported accommodation for people over 50).
Unless there's a reason that DonaldDuck92's mother is classed as a priority case, the chances of her getting a place in social housing are actually very low. (Her age might possibly be in her favour though. That's not because old age, per se, moves people up the list of priorities but because some councils are actually finding difficulties in filling vacancies in supported accommodation for people over 50).
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