Hi there,

My mother currently lives in North Wales, she suffers from ill health (heart problems that are degenerative, and long term) she has a pace maker, and currently receives PIP and is entitled to ESA but has a part time job of 18 hours a week, and a partner in full time work.

Her partner is useless. She spends all week in her caravan (closer to work) because he wont travel 20 minutes to drop her off or pick he up, the caravan she is in at the moment is suffering from damp and mould (this is not her caravan, its a rental, she has her own on another site but the season is over until March now) so it's not good for her. She works at a care home, it's not much in the way of manual labour like most though, as it's a care home for recovering addicts and most are just homeless and appreciative of somewhere to stay for a bit. But with the stress of her partner, and her health getting a bit worse, she wants to move back around family.

She can stay at her aunts for a few months, as she is out of the country, which will be of use as she tries to set herself up but will then need her own home. Both me and my sister have no room, other than sleeping on the sofa, so she will need to find a home near us. She has signed up for local housing agencies, ideally to get somewhere close, and not one of the rougher areas that are further away.

IF she moved here, what would she be able to get, immediately? would she be able to apply for ESA? (and hopefully get a 16 hour job for a year until she was comfortable to move the hours up) as I know they can be funny about moving to a new area and starting anew claim immediately, but she is moving for health and family support.

With PIP until 2018, would housing benefit be a guarantee? again, just until she can get on her feet and extend her working hours?

Will her owning a caravan have a large effect on her? the caravan is not worth much, maybe £1000 at the most. They bought it (its in her name only now) for £2000 3 years ago. It's on a site that does not allow the vans to be rented for income, so no holidays are taken in it. It's purely for her to get away when she can as being there is a great calming factor for her. But with it being a 9 month season, she has 13 weeks a year where she has upheaval. Using it as a place for a break 3-4 times a year will be better for her. The site fees are paid up for the year, so she has no bills there til 2018. It cant be sold unless its taken off site, which will cost enough that the sale would be for a neglible amount anyway. She really wants to keep it, as it's a place where she can go (occasionally with grandkids, but mostly on her own) to just have a break by the sea. But she does realise that once site fees become due at the end of next year, for 2018, she will likely have to give it up.

Also, if she did move here and was requiring a place to stay for 2-3 weeks, whilst her home was sorted. How would that effect people in my household. My wife currently gets PIP, can 2 people in the same household claim PIP? or it 1 per household.

Thanks for any help!

Well, one of these questions is quite simple: no-one's PIP will be affected by any of this. There is no limit to the number of PIP claimants in a household provided all qualify, and if your mother does decide to move then all she needs to do is report her new address as a change of circumstances to the DWP's PIP department. She would not need to do this until she had actually moved.

ESA - I presume she does not currently have a live claim because of the hours she works/her current partner's income. If she moves out and stops working for a time, she can make a claim for ESA at her new address. This should not cause any problems - it's not all that uncommon for people to move to a new area and make a new claim. For ESA the capital value of her caravan should not be a concern either as it's less than £6000.