Chicken boarders

[cordelia]

DH was told by his mother who is over 60 and works that she has unexplained stress fractures in her leg, so she is giving up work now, she already gets her pension, and her husband gets two pensions so they should be ok, financially.

 

She loved the independence of work, but it was arduous. The oddest thing is that, they have put their house up for sale, which is understandable, so they can get a bungalow instead. But instead of buying a bungalow, they have put themselves on the Council waiting list for a bungalow. Is this even legal?

They will have tens of thousands from the sale of their house?

 

They aren't admittedly my favourite people, and I dread that we might see more of them with time on their hands, they are just too different to my family ( obviously should have thought of this before I married their son ) but fortunately we don't really see that much of them, and never go to their family occasions ( I should explain that all family occasions before we married involved their family being drunk....ugh....not really my sort at all, at weddings, funerals etc. And by this I mean, foul mouthed heavy drinking types, when extended family was involved )

 

I don't hold with people falsely claiming benefits, DH has a cousin, who has never worked with a " bad back" which her aunt says does not exist, and used to pay her boyfriend rent, telling the authorities it was her landlord, in the house the pair of them shared....lovely people.

 

So I just wonder if MIL and FIL are going down the same route, for no apparent reason, when they have money

[Olly]

No expert, but I would have thought that they would be classed as 'intentionally homeless' - council housing is under great demand these days and not generally intended for those who can house themselves by other means.

[merlina]

Putting yourself on a council list and getting a council house are two very different things!

 

All councils use a scoring system to decide who gets property. Disability is one of the criteria which will attract points

 

'intentionally homeless' is only really relevant if they are claiming to be in priority need - ie that the council has a legal obligation to house them - if this is the case the council would certainly take into account their resources and whether the sale of their house made them intentionally homeless (they could argue that due to disability it was no longer reasonable/tenable for them to remain there)

 

In other words the law is quite complex and how each council applies it in practice also varies quite a lot

 

It may well be (and my guess from what you've said) that they go on the list and, like many others, languish there for many years

[LolaLayla]

Could they possibly be applying for a bungalow in a sheltered housing complex It can be quite useful to be on one of those lists because if some illness occurs that causes difficulties with activities of daily living you can suddenly find yourself at the top of the list depending on your assessed need.

[Chicken shack]

Now I am going back many years 28 to be exact. I worked as a social worker and I had a wounderfull lady who lived in a large rambling old detached house but without proper heating. The social sevices at that time would have installed gas fires but there was no gas to the property. Every room had a step up or down and all the door handles were too high for her arthritic arms to reach so she was also unable to shut doors. She ate at a stool in the kichen because she was unable to carry her dinner to another room. She was very indipendent and hated accepting help but in the end it was decided she would be better off in sheltererd accomodation. She was getting to frail to wait for a sale of her home to go through. If she had had a council house she would have been given sheltererd accomodation within a week even though they said it went on need, in pratice it didn't. I had to phone every day untill finally they gave her one. I was unable to see her settle due to being heavily pregnant but I left knowing I had hepled a very a vunerable old lady who would once the sale went through pay the full rent. Not sure what my point is but even if you have the means some people need coucil sheltered housing while others have time to sell and then go into private sheltered accomodation.

 

I am not sure how your inlaws will pull this off. However it will be intersting to see how it works out. Keep us posted.

[keyhole kate]

Going on the council waiting list and getting accomodation are two entirely different things quite frankly I think your in laws have more chance of being struck by lightning than being housed by the council

 

I rent a two bed property through a council scheme called Digs it is for people who can afford your rent (housing benefit) but dont have the upfront deposits etc my tennant and her twins boy & girl have been in my property coming up to three years following her marriage break up and her home being repossessed even then she was not considered a priority lord only knows how long she will be on the list before she gets housed so tbh your in laws havn't a hope.

[cordelia]

Thanks for everyone's comments. I don't think they are applying for sheltered housing, they just ( I think ) are hoping to hide their money away and get cheap housing....their other son had advised them to try and claim disability years ago, and this was before MIL had a full time job, doing quite arduous work for a few years now that she has been enjoying. He wanted her to say her hands were too disabled to use. I think there is a lot of this going on, someone at work said their grandparents, divided their money up amongst family so that they could claim as much from the state as they could..the recipients were not allowed to spend it, it was just to claim benefits....it's quite shocking.

 

Obviously, stress fractures are no joke, but I just can't understand, why they don't buy a bungalow, like any sane person in their situation would do....

 

I think it's just a weird culture thing. FIL hadn't worked for years, after a car crash, when he hurt his neck, occasionally he wore a neck brace, but didnt qualify for disability, which upset him. This didn't stop him playing pool, daily, going on holiday etc. And finally when he was 65, he said he was going to get a job as a lorry driver....( he didn't of course) , but I guess whatever benefit he had got ran out at that point. Although he must have got his pensions by then