House Move Help

BlueyHSI

I currently house share with 2 other friends, all bills and rent split 3 ways which has been fine. However one of the housemates is moving in with his other half and the other guy leaves for his round the world trip soon after (lucky git).
So my situation is......another friend of mine who owns his own house has offered me a room. I only work 22 hrs per week since taking the option to go part time rather than no job at all. So this would be ideal for me.
However...After my side of the rent and bills and food are all paid I would be left with next to nothing, so I checked my local council benefits calculator and found out I would be entitled to some help with rent and council tax.
How would this affect my friend who owns the house? He currently gets a tax discount for being the only one living at the address. Would he need to pay more tax? Would he just pay half and I pay the other half with help from the council?
So am I better off staying as I am and having no money left after each pay pack (done many a times...not nice) or ask for help and hope this will not affect my friend by him having to pay more tax?

[Deleted User]

Hi,

only thing I can tell is that as your friend lives alone just now he gets a 25% discount on council tax.

You might be entitled to some housing benefit.

BlueyHSI

Yes, according to my local councils benefits calculator I am entitled to some help with both rent and council tax. I have scraped by for so long without taking any benefits so this would be some welcome help for me. What I dont want to do is move in and then leave my friend having to pay more tax for having me there.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

well, he would lose his 25% reduction in council tax, and I suppose if you were claiming a wee bit of benefit, using his address, then you could hardly say that you were only there for the weekend or so, if you see what I mean.

viktory

There might be tax implications for your friend that he might need to declare the the tax man.

Oldernotwiser

viktory wrote: »

There might be tax implications for your friend that he might need to declare the the tax man.

He shouldn't have to pay tax on this income as it would come under the rent a room scheme where the first (I think ) £4,000 of rent is tax free.

viktory

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

He shouldn't have to pay tax on this income as it would come under the rent a room scheme where the first (I think ) £4,000 of rent is tax free.

You learn something new every day on MSE

RAS

The rent a room scheme allows about £370 per month income before tax is payable, including CT and utilities.

OP, if your friend currently pays 75% of the CT because he get the single person's discount, when you move in and pay 50% of the CT, albeit partly through benefits, he wins.

And he does not pay tax on the rest of the money IF he keeps the whole lot below the Rent a Room limit.

BlueyHSI

Right, for the record the rent he was thinking of charging was £280 so under the £370.
If this goes through and I did get help from the council for a little bit of the rent and ct his tax would drop from 75% to 50% as I would be eligible for the other 50% and he would not have to declare the extra income due to me paying him under the £370.
This right or am i over complicating it?