Pushing for Sale of the House loss of CTC/ IS?

hiya,

I currently have a 2 and 4 yr old. I'm in the family home at the moment and paying my husband for the mortgage as it is in his name only. I have lived here for 10 yrs and were married. When he left I claimed CTC, Income Support and work 6 hrs a week on a Sat when he has the children. He is taking me to court to push for a house sale, my solicitor adviced 60% / 40% is the norm. However my husband has a 19k salary on top of the money from house so will be able to get a mortgage I won't be able to. Does anyone know if I will also loose my tax credits and Income Support as well if house sale goes ahead?

many thanks

Speak to your solicitor again. If you can find a way to pay the mortgage then an alernative option might be for a 'mesher' order to allow you and the children to stay in the house, with the proceeds then being split (60/40 or otherwise) one the children leave school and it is sold.

It's also worth speaking to an independent mortgage advisor to seee whether you have even a small mortgage capacity - look to see whether there are any part-buy, part rent properties which you might be able to afford.

if the hoseu is sold, and you receive a lump sum whcih is NOT then used to buy a new property then the lump sum will be counted as capital which you will habve to declare to the benefits agency. You may lose your income support until the capital falls back down below the limits, but as I understand it Tax Credits are based on income, not savigns, so won't be affected.

I was in a similar situation to you 3 yrs ago. I wanted to stay in FMH and ex wanted it sold. Kids were 4 and 5 at time of separation. EX husband on salary of 25k. I decided I wanted to stay in FMH, that was my ultimate goal, to provide stability for the children so I got a job, working 12 hours a week and then eventually got another job so that by the time I got to court, I was working 20-25 hours a week. I went to CSA for maintenance as I wasn't prepared to be threatened every week by him. I got some council tax benefit, working tax credit and went to my final hearing in march 2010. I asked the judge if i could stay in fmh and i will pay the mortgage. She granted a mesher order 60/40 to me. I can stay until youngest is 18. he is 7 now.
The only downside was that the children had to go into childcare as i live in sussex and have one job in kent and one in surrey. I know it was hard at forst for them but we are all very happy now.