hi

i have a client that basically separated from his wife 12 years ago. They are not divorced. However, he has applied for pension credit. The DWP have taken into consideration the fact that former partner is living in their former matrimonial home with cl's son aged 22 years old. Home is valued at 60,000. So DWP have divided value in half for calculation. Plus cl has 3000.00 savings.

We are trying to argue regulation 4(b) of PC regs 2002, regarding estrangement. DWP have two comms decisions in support for their argument. Has anyone come across any recent ones that would support my case? Basically we rea arguing that they rae not estranged so that cl can fir into that criteria. If anyone has any other ideas please let me know.
thanks

Salma

What percentage of the purchase price of the property was your client’s contribution?

When they took the mortgage did they take as joint tenants or tenants in common?

Does your client’s wife have a right of occupation under sections 30-38 of the Family Law Act 1996? A sitting tenant may reduce the actual market value to nil.

Guidance on proper valuation of a property can be found in R (JSA) 1/02.

On estrangement see R(SB) 2/87 and CIS/4843/2002.

Regards
Paul

Just found R(IS) 5/05 which is bang up to date and, of course, very persuasive if used as it is reported. However, at para' 12 the commissioner said the following: -

Separation has different meanings in different contexts and, as was held in CIS/4843/2002, it does not necessarily imply estrangement. However, when a woman talks of being separated from her husband, she is not usually talking just of physical separation but of a separation prompted by emotional disharmony. That is not always so and I accept that there are cases, of which CIS/4843/2002 may have been one, where the circumstances need to be investigated in order to decide whether the parties are estranged. The question will be whether the parties have – to use Mrs Everett’s expression – ceased to consider themselves to be a couple and not whether, despite that, they continue to maintain friendly relations.

Hi thanks for your help i may need to chat with my client about the situationa bit more about you know.
thanks salma