Working full-time and wanting to move in partner on benefits.

daveandjadea

As the title stated I currently work 37.5 hours a week, my partner is unemployed on income-based JSA. We are looking at moving in together, and need to know how her benefits will be affected:
Will she lose JSA completely?
Will we get any help with rent cost? (place will be council)
Will we get any additional help, or help in place of her JSA should se lose it?

Any info would be greatly appreciated

EDIT: She also currently gets tax and housing benefit

Soniclord

Because you work full time I believe your partner won't be entitled to JSA at all (only national insurance contributions) but I'm unsure? The reason I say I'm unsure is because I live with my partner and because we claim tax credits (for 2 children) that's the reason I'm not entitled to JSA (Income Based just like your partner) but if no children are involved and you don't claim tax credits then I would have thought she? could still claim JSA, because my brother lives at home with my parents still and even though my dad works full time he isn't expected to 'keep' him so he is still entitled to Income Based JSA. The same should apply to your partner but I don't know because your a couple and they might (even if they shouldn't) take into account your income as well???

I don't think you will get any help with the rent cost because you work full time therefore they will see it as you can/would be expected to afford the rent anyway if you lived on your own, and they'll look at it that way. Far as I know they will anyway.

As for getting any additional help IF she loses JSA I doubt you'd get any but again I'm unsure.

Hopefully someone with a bit more knowledge comes along with some other advice for you.

EDIT: This website might help http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/index.htm

Oh I've also just read that if you're earning more than £90 a week then your partner (if she moves in) won't be entitled to JSA.

allen35

daveandjadea wrote: »

As the title stated I currently work 37.5 hours a week, my partner is unemployed on income-based JSA. We are looking at moving in together, and need to know how her benefits will be affected:
Will she lose JSA completely?
Will we get any help with rent cost? (place will be council)
Will we get any additional help, or help in place of her JSA should se lose it?

Any info would be greatly appreciated

EDIT: She also currently gets tax and housing benefit

If you earn over £115 pw which i expect you won't qualify for any money from jobseekers allowance.

Depending on your income you may qualify for working tax credits and this is dependant on either this tax year income or previous years. Check out entitled to website.

With regards to housing/council tax benefit this depends on income and how much your rent is, once again put details into entitledto.com for a rough guide.

daveandjadea

This is what we're struggling to understand;
If she no longer gets JSA how's she supposed to pay for anything??

Is this because they assume as her partner I should be paying for everything for her?
Is this the same if she moves in with anyone else??

I earn £15,600 per year, take home £1,047 p/m - I'm under 25 so have been told I don't get tax credits.

I also ask as she's disabled so requires support to get back into work (not that she gets much), so I assume if she loses JSA she'll also lose any support she gets to help her back into work too.

paddedjohn

is she claiming any disability related benefits?

Morglin

If she's disabled, she may be able to claim DLA, which wouldn't be affected by what you earn.

As you will be living as a couple, then any means tested benefits take the whole household income into account.

You cam do a calculation here to see if you have any entitlement to anything:

http://www.turn2us.org.uk/benefits_search.aspx

Lin

A.Penny.Saved

I also don't think she will be able to receive any benefit because you are working, earn above a level and will be expected to pay for her being her partner. It would be the same if she moved in with anyone else as a partner I believe unless they earned very little.

I do think that she should be able to get some help with housing costs, I know at least they do allow for council tax. When claiming benefit, the claimant gets a certain amount for council tax and that is reduced depending upon a partners income. That is what my council tax claim says anyway. It might depend upon who's name the council tax is in so that might be worth investigating. For housing benefit I don't know whether there is any equivalent.

GreyQueen

I don't work for DWP but from what I hear from friends, if you have a F/T working partner and run out of contrib-JSA you're not entitled to income-JSA, so yes, your income would be expected to keep you both.

Housing and council tax benefits are means-tested. If your partner is claiming them she is legally obliged to inform her council, within 4 weeks, of a change in circumstances, in writing. So, if you move in with her, she will have to inform of a change in household and a change in income. She will have to provide them with your payslips so they can see if she will still qualify for help. It'll be 2 x monthly payslips (or 4-weekly)/ 3 x forthnightly payslips or 5 x weekly payslips, depending on how often you get paid.

They'll suspend her benefit whilst they get this info to avoid creating and over or under-payment. They give a time limit for this info to be returned by; if you don't provide it they'll cancel the claim.

It's not necessarily a disaster; have seen claims where a F/T working partner has moved in and after the re-calc, the benefits continued as before. As a couple, you'll get a bigger allowance before money is taken off entitlement than a single person.

Also, you mentioned that her place is a council place, so even if you had to pay the rent, it'd be substantially cheaper than a private rent. I guess you'd be ahead by the equivalent of whatever you pay in rent at the moment?

If you did move in and she didn't declare you in her household she'd be liable to prosecution and a criminal record so best not to risk that. More and more people are being caught out by data-matching exercises between DWP, HMRC etc etc. My local authority runs its payroll against these; anything which shows up as contradictory will trigger a fraud investigation somewhere.

Oldernotwiser

daveandjadea wrote: »

This is what we're struggling to understand;
If she no longer gets JSA how's she supposed to pay for anything??

Is this because they assume as her partner I should be paying for everything for her?
Is this the same if she moves in with anyone else??

.

You really don't seem to have got to grips with this partnership malarkey!

Seriously, between you there'll be savings from running two homes and the travel costs between them and, if she has care and/or mobility needs she could claim DLA.

Emmzi

Yes, as her partner, you would be paying for everything.

You might choose to wait until she is back in work before moving in....

custardy

daveandjadea wrote: »

This is what we're struggling to understand;
If she no longer gets JSA how's she supposed to pay for anything??

Is this because they assume as her partner I should be paying for everything for her?
Is this the same if she moves in with anyone else??

I earn £15,600 per year, take home £1,047 p/m - I'm under 25 so have been told I don't get tax credits.

I also ask as she's disabled so requires support to get back into work (not that she gets much), so I assume if she loses JSA she'll also lose any support she gets to help her back into work too.

if you were living together and she lost her job
would you have just chucked her out? or simply coped with the one wage?