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UC capital disregard for property
I want to check if a prospective tenant of ours will get the UC housing costs element pending the sale of his property. Currently his only income is PIP. Regarding the capital disregard rule, I note the ADM says, “where a person is trying to dispose of premises, they can be disregarded from the calculation of that person’s capital where they are taking reasonable steps to dispose of the premises and those steps have been commenced within the last 6 months”.
The property was first put on the market in March 2022, a sale was agreed but fell through, and it was put back on the market in June 2022. Does it matter that the first step to sell the property was taken over 6 months ago? Or can it be said that putting it back on the market June is a step which commenced in the last 6 months and so this should be sufficient for the capital to be disregarded?
The six month limit is just a starting point. It can be extended where it is reasonable to do so - see reg 48(2) UC Regs.
I think the efforts to sell the property in this case must have begun in March 2022. However this is exactly the sort of case where it would be reasonable to extend time. What more could the claimant do?