Benefits All Stopped Retrospectively

mart9012

My girlfriend is in receipt of Income Support, Housing Benefit and Council Tax benefit. She is unable to work as she has a severe personality disorder and attends an intensive treatment centre for therapy and mental health appointments. She finds difficulty in leaving her home alone to attend these appointments and requires a lot of support as she has crises where she is at risk of self harm and suicide.

This is still not resolved and we are waiting on appeal...

MrsManda

You've said that your gf needs someone to stay with her throughout the night and therefore it sounds like you're practically living together so why not finalise it?
It'll be cheaper to run one house rather than two, you may be able to jointly claim benefits, and you won't have to worry about her being alone.

Why has your gf got 'zero money coming in'?
Surely she should be getting Employment Support Allowance and if she's had these care needs for more than 3 months she is entitled to claim Disability Living Allowance as well.

It's also worth getting her gf to speak to her mental health support worker/the intensive treatment centre to discuss the situation and her worries

Penny-Pincher!!

mart9012 wrote: »

My girlfriend is in receipt of Income Support, Housing Benefit and Council Tax benefit. She is unable to work as she has a severe personality disorder and attends an intensive treatment centre for therapy and mental health appointments. She finds difficulty in leaving her home alone to attend these appointments and requires a lot of support as she has crises where she is at risk of self harm and suicide.

I have my own home some 40 miles away and so I tend to spend a few nights a week with her, because she is my girlfriend and to provide some support. Travelling from my home to hers on a daily basis just isn't practical and regardless she does need care during the night.

Recently her neighbour (we believe) reported her to the benefits fraud team because she claims I have essentially moved in although actually that is not the case. My girlfriend was called in for an interview for a benefit query and attended with her CPN at the JobCentre. Some weeks later my girlfriend called the benefits people to be told that she had been cleared of co-habiting with me and all was well. Then a week later a letter arrived informing her that all her benefits have been suspended. We find out from the CAB who called them that this is because she stated on a form LP54 (?) that she spends time with me at her home and time with me at my home. Apparently this is legally co-habiting. My girlfriend now has zero money coming in, is in danger of being evicted and is really panicking. Worse still the decision has been back dated to January 2010!

I'm in a difficult position. I normally spend two or three days with my girlfriend and sometimes she comes home with me for two or three days. Sometimes we spend three or four days apart. Recently her mental health has been at a low and I've needed to be with her a lot more. If I don't stay with her I'm worried that she may be at risk of harm but if I do we are breaking the law regarding benefits.

What the hell can I do?

Do you work or are you on benefits too?

sazzel_2

I think to have a chance of having her benefits reinstated you would need to prove that you are not financially supporting her and your main home is elsewhere.
for example, you dont keep any belongings at her address, you don't have any of your post delivered there, etc

hope you can get things sorted (:

[Deleted User]

sorry to be blunt but in your OP you state that you spend 2/3 days at hers and that she spends 2/3 days at yours,effectively you are living together be it in 2 different homes,if you are on benefits whats to stop you moving in with her?do you own your home or rent?

zzzLazyDaisy

woodbine wrote: »

do you own your home or rent?

OP has already said that he owns his own home.

OP, what rate DLA does your gf get? If she gets mid or high rate care, you can be classed as her carer. You don't have to claim (and in fact she would lose out if you did, you may also lose out depending on your financial circumstances), but you would still have an underlying claim which might help to explain why you spend so much time with her.

Did you provide her with documentary evidence of your separate existence - bills, council tax, electoral roll, etc to give to the DWP?

She really needs to get her mental health team to help her with this. Does she have a social worker?

I hope you get it sorted. My very good friend, when she was alive, had similar problems and sometimes myself and other friends would spend weeks at her house. We were not financially supporting her, but there were times when she just could not be left on her own. I hope she gets this sorted out, but do take care of your own health too - you won't be any good to her if you go under.

RAS

There is no rule on the number of nights you can stay. You could only stay one and be co-habiting and there have been a few hard won cases of people who are separated living in the same house but considered independent. What matters is whether your lives and finances are entwined.

Can MIND help you at all?

zzzLazyDaisy

mart9012 wrote: »

zzzLazyDaisy Are there any "rules" to say how many nights I can stay with her and be not co-habiting?
thanks

No. You will often hear people say that it is three nights, but that is an urban legend, it just isn't true.

The test for cohabiting depends on whether your lifestyle and arrangements show that you are living together as a couple, rather than as two separate people with independent lives. The fact that your gf said that you come to her and then she goes to you, seems to have persuaded the decision maker that you are living together, albeit in two separate households - and to be fair, in normal circumstances that would be a reasonable conclusion to draw.

But it seems that your gf's current unstable condition and associated care needs may not have been fully taken into account.

I have to make it clear that I am not a welfare benefits expert - far from it - and she does need to get expert advice and quickly. Hopefully her mental health team should be able to help her, or at least put her onto someone who can.

Loopy_Girl

mart9012 wrote: »

zzzLazyDaisy

Thanks for your comments. It is very difficult at the moment with so much pressure in our lives over this. Pretty much I am playing the role of her carer and I'm scared to leave her alone. She took a big overdose three weeks ago and her 3 year old daughter is with foster parents until she can prove she is stable. I had no intention of claiming CA but do you think that her need for a lot of care right now might be a reasonable justification as to why I have been spending so much time with her at her flat. I don't want to fall foul of benefit regulations but we couldn't afford to run two homes on a joint income and we can't settle into either of our homes as a couple for practical reasons. Are there any "rules" to say how many nights I can stay with her and be not co-habiting?

thanks

Could you not just bite the bullet and make it official (cos lets be honest, you more or less are living together) and rent somewhere suitable for all 3 of you?
Else you are constantly going to have this having to be answered as nosy neighbours will drop you in it particularly if you spend 3 nights there and her 3-4 nights at yours. I suspect you are splitting the time in the hope that this wouldn't raise any questions benefit wise.

Your g/f clearly needs alot of care and I guess you have to ask yourself whether this is the time that you do things properly, you can be a family and she (and you) can get the additional support from one another when there are bad times afoot.

sunnyone

You have been posting that you have considered living together for months benefit wise and you have also posted the time you spend together so why is it such a shock that you have been "found out"?

dktreesea

Mart9012, I don't see what you have done wrong either. You are not financially entwined, both maintain separate houses, - I don't see why this is cohabitating at all. Heaps of people have relationships where they don't support each other and don't live together.

The implication of the council's decision regarding your girlfriend seems to be that if you have a girlfriend, you are expected to take over responsibility for her financial needs and in particular her housing costs! That's ridiculous. Cutting her benefits is a stupid situation. Why should anyone take on the responsibility for someone else's rent just because they stay over from time to time? Should all couples move in with each other now?

I know a number of couples who have had relationships that have been going on for years without ever actually moving in with each other or financially supporting each other. And yes, in some cases one or both of the partners have been claiming benefits. I consider that decision, to cut her benefits, as an infringement of her human rights. It's like they are saying "If you live a celibate life, it's fine, we'll pay your rent into perpetuity (since we can't give you a job and we also aren't prepared to invest sufficiently in your education so you can get a decent job....) but if you meet someone, and he/she stays over for one or more nights a week, then that other person has to pay your rent instead."

That's a scandalous attitude, and I hope your girlfriend appeals it, right up to her MP if need be. One thing is for sure - if the situation had been reversed, i.e. you were the woman staying over and it was your boyfriend who had his housing benefit suspended, there would be outrage that a woman was expected to support a man and pay his rent for him when she had her own home and just stayed with him from time to time.

I can appreciate your poor girlfriend must be terrified at the thought of being forced into homelessness, but she needs to grow some fire in her belly and fight this.