Will son paying towards food while I'm on ESA (income based) lead to deductions?

Kazonline

Hi all, my son aged 21 has returned home to try and get back on his feet (he was living away at uni but it didn't work out). He has now managed to get a small part time job (14 hours pw at minimum wage = £83 per week).
I am currently on income based employment support allowance so I can't really afford to feed him out of my benefits.
I called ESA this morning to let them know he's living here and will be earning which seemed ok until I said he might give me something towards food. They then pounced and insisted it be put in writing.
I was thinking of asking him for £35 towards the bills + whatever was deducted from council tax benefit and esa. He easily eats more than this and costs more with my water bill (despite my nagging when he lived here previously the water bill nearly halved when he moved out - and there were his other two brothers here at the time as well).

I would be really grateful for any advice. I have tried searching the forum with 'board and lodge' but got some very unrelated matches.

I also tried calling CAB but unluckily got some who was very judgemental and told me what she 'thought' was the answer as opposed to anything based on fact (I know there are FAB CAB workers out there but I've no idea when her shift changes )
Thanks for reading x

Kazonline

So far I have found the following on http://www.benefitsnow.co.uk/esa/income.asp
(does anyone know how reliable information from this site is?)

Other payments that are fully disregarded include-
Payments for living and accommodation costs from people who normally live with you but are not either boarders or subtenants.
payments of education support allowance or other payments to assis with non-advance education.....

......

If you provide board and lodging accommodation in your own home, £20 plus half of the remaining weekly payment for each person is disregarded.
Accommodation provided by a close relative or by any other member of the family or not on a commercial basis is not classed as board and lodging accommodation.

To me this reads as his contribution will not affect my benefit, however I did also find that because his earning are under £120pw my benefit will be reduced by £7.40 (see http://www.benefitsnow.co.uk/esa/rates.asp#applicable "deductions for non dependants")

Does anyone read this the same as me? (ie, paying towards food won't affect my benefit, but him being here on that wage will lead to an automatic £7.40 weekly deduction)
Does anyone have any knowledge of the site I found?

Kazonline

They asked the question. I called them to tell them he was living here because I've always done things the legal way - although over the years I have been penalised many times for this (eg they stopped my esa last year without telling me because when I asked disability advisor for advice on going back to work it flagged up the part time job I'd had previously. They were adamant that I'd not told them and insisted I give them payslips etc, some of which Id never received so had to obtain, thus taking time. In the meantime I was able to prove to them that they had been fully informed because I still had the letter showing the deductions from benefit (I earned £23 per week so they deducted £3 while on IS, but stopped on ESA.) My advisor also told me he had also seen (and would give me a copy of) the form filled in for the transfer stating my earnings. When the proverbial hit the fan he said he couldn't give me a copy.
Consequently (they really dragged it out and kept demanding more) I had a huge relapse and was nearly admitted (which would've put my 12 year old son into foster care - I think that's why they finally allowed me to go home).
Thankfully I'm getting a lot better now and really hope to be able to start back soon (I've applied to do some voluntary stuff to build me up) - but it's dealing with stuff like this that triggers it.

HappyMJ

I'd just give him a shopping list and get him to buy the stuff on it with his own money so you don't receive any physical cash.

AirlieBird

Payments from family members are disregarded as income. However, they are expected to pay something towards living costs so a deduction of your benefits is made based on their earnings to reflect this.

mjm3346

This might help

http://www.newcastle.com/core.nsf/a/wr_benefitratesisjsa




http://www.newcastle.com/core.nsf/a/wr_nondepded

mjm3346

Whatever deduction there is (if any) would be based on his income not how much of it he gives you. Part of the rules for the deductions mention "Aged 18 or over and working 16 hours or more a week" other sections make no mention of the number of hours worked but it would appear the maximum possible deduction is now £9.40.

Kazonline

Thanks everyone for your advice, suggestions and comments :-)

Arlie bird - 'Payments from family members are disregarded as income.' - does that mean that money from family (eg his contribution to food) won't be counted as an income and so won't be deducted? Sorry to be a bit dim, but I do struggle with understanding things these days (but I am getting better again :-) )
Thank you also MJM, my understanding from those links is the same - ie what he gives me won't be counted, but what he earns will (but very nominally as an expected contribution to the cost of living here - eg housing). It's good to see the same info on a totally separate site as I think it makes it more reliable

Kazonline

mjm3346 wrote: »

Whatever deduction there is (if any) would be based on his income not how much of it he gives you. Part of the rules for the deductions mention "Aged 18 or over and working 16 hours or more a week" other sections make no mention of the number of hours worked but it would appear the maximum possible deduction is now £9.40.

Thanks MJM - if there was a button to double thank I would press it. I do doubt my interpretation of things these days, so your clarification is hugely appreciated :beer: