single parent payment

abaco1

Hello there
I was wondering if anyone may be able to help me, I am new to the site so please bear with me
My children and I arrived in in Ireland in june 2010 after leaving my abusive husband and our family home in the uk.
My mother has lived here for 22 years and I thought she may be able to help me with my children .
Our house went on for sale immediatley and is unfortunatley still on the market now.
I did not apply for any social assistance until march 2011 when I realised my savings were rapidly running out as I thought my property would sell and i would be able to support us independently .
I applied for rent allowance and single parent payment. Both turned me down and i have made numerous appeals. I eventually satisfied my habitual residence status, and was granted child allowance and a medical card for the three of us .
The rent allowance dept finally refused me again in september and as the single parent office were not appearing to be considering my claim i reluctantly accepted a one off offer of maintence from my now ex husband , which after paying my solicitors fees that i owed , and continuing to drawer on the capitol and is decreasing again.
I have since been to another interview with the single parent investigator and she informed me that as i own a property in the uk i may be refused any assistance here as it counts as capitol.
We cannot eat a house.
According to the information i have seen on their literature, your own home is not counted as an asset, but the inspector implied that the house we are renting may be classed as my " own home " ( I am certain my landlord may disagree ! lol )
I am now truly distressed that we may have no option but to return to the uk, but apart from the fact I have concerns for our safety regarding my ex husband , my children are flourishing here and they would be devasted to have to leave.
I just wondered if you could shed any light as to what position I may be in.

Tom Dunne

Moved from Signatures forum.

Lugh Ildanach

Your "own home" is considered to be the house you live in.

If you own the property with your ex, and are not in a position to sell the property to realise the proceeds, or if the property is up for sale, then you can ask to have the value of the property disregarded for the means test. They will want evidence of the position, eg. solicitors letters if you are going through legal proceedings to separate the property, or evidence from an auctioneer or estate agent if the property is up for sale. They will want to know that the property is up for sale at a realistic price too.

For full details see the means assessment operational guidelines here http://www.welfare.ie/EN/OperationalGuidelines/Pages/meansassess.aspx#sect3

After all the value of the property to you, if you can't live in the property, and if you cannot sell it, is zero.

cee_jay

From the guidelines:

Property Offered for sale.
(This does not apply in the case of Rent Allowances).

Where a person has offered his/her home for sale, the value of the property is not assessed as means for a period not more than two years from the date on which the property was first offered for sale. This exemption was introduced on 7th September 1995. If the property remains unsold after 2 years, the normal capital value is assessed thereafter.

This exemption only applies where the property is not invested or put to profitable use, i.e. is lying idle. Where the property is let, it is assessed in the usual way.

Basically you have 2 years to try to sell the house and have it not assessed against you. Once those 2 years are up, the capital value of the house will be assessable as means.

steddyeddy

Hey op have you contacted any charitys like women's aid for example. They have excellent advice for people rebuilding thier lives after domestic abuse. Im sure your not the first person in this situation. Best of luck op and welcome to ireland.

abaco1

Thanks for the pointers guys , really appreciate it , will give it a go