You must give us the reasons for selling your home and provide evidence of the situation that led to the sale.
This evidence may be:
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letters from your mortgage lender about action they would take to collect any debts
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proof of your income and outgoings at the time you decided to sell
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evidence of other factors involved in your decision to sell
You don’t need to prove that keeping your house was impossible. You do need to show us that your circumstances forced you to sell.
We will decide if we agree that you had no other choice in order to stay in your home. We will make this decision based on the facts of your case and the evidence that you give us.
If you sell your house when you had other reasonable choices (see below), then you won’t be able to claim Housing Benefit.
To decide whether you qualify for Housing Benefit we will consider the following factors:
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whether you could have claimed benefits to help with your ownership costs, such as Income Support, Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance or State Pension Credit
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whether you had debts that were secured on your home
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whether these debts were likely to lead to your mortgage lender taking back your home
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other assets you could have sold