adult children affect benefits?

failinghappily

Hi
My husband has been made redundant and I am self employed but currently ill so we have no income. We have applied for JSA and council tax benefit but have heard nothing yet. We have two adult children living at home and both working between 20 and 30 hours a week. We have been asked for details of their incomes as part of our claim. How does this affect our benefits? Surely our children are not expected to support us! I don't think they will take to the idea! Can anyone advise?
Many thanks

neverdespairgirl

They will be expected to pay a share of household expenses - such as council tax and rent.

HappyMJ

They will be expected to contribute towards the household bill being the council tax. Your JSA is not affected and you will not be expected to pay your share of the council tax.

Edit: SNAP!!

neverdespairgirl

Happy - is it a questions of "great minds think alike", or is it, "fools seldom differ"?

failinghappily

Many thanks folks! It will be a shock to them to have to contribute but glad they don't have to pay it all!

Caz3121

failinghappily wrote: »

Many thanks folks! It will be a shock to them to have to contribute but glad they don't have to pay it all!

Do they live for free currently? If they are working they should be paying towards their keep.

Riversong

failinghappily wrote: »

Many thanks folks! It will be a shock to them to have to contribute but glad they don't have to pay it all!

Look at it this way. It's a small step to their independence, both financially and physically. I wish my parents had helped me learn about money etc, i didnt even know about council tax when i left home at 18. Maybe its a good time for you to help them with some basic budgeting? X

Lady_gaga

failinghappily wrote: »

Many thanks folks! It will be a shock to them to have to contribute but glad they don't have to pay it all!

Why? they should be contributing anyway!!!

BigAunty

failinghappily wrote: »

Hi
We have two adult children living at home and both working between 20 and 30 hours a week. We have been asked for details of their incomes as part of our claim. How does this affect our benefits?

If your children are 21 and over, and assuming they only earn the National Minimum Wage then one will be netting £120 each week and the other £180.

Obviously if they are younger or earning a larger hourly rate, this will vary massively.

But this finger in the air calculation shows a potential £300 pw income that's coming into your household by non-dependents. Could be more, could be less.

It's also not much of an incentive for them to work full-time, either, since they pay virtually no tax/NI and no living expenses.

failinghappily wrote: »

Surely our children are not expected to support us! I don't think they will take to the idea! Can anyone advise?
Many thanks

There is an expectation in the way the benefits system is set up that assumes close relatives contribute to household expenses, hence the modest non-dependent deductions that take place with means tested benefits.

The Turn2us online benefit calculator may be able to model the impact of their income on your benefits.

Of course, they won't take to the idea if you've let them retain 100% of their wages since they've started earning. You've been effectively subsidising them by providing food, heating, hot-water at full cost to yourself.

So the reason why they won't like it (until you explain what it costs you and the impact of their income on your access to subsistence benefits) is because you didn't introduce this discipline of sharing household expenses with them, so they feel entitled to be selfish.

Now is the time, regardless of the impact of their earnings on your benefits, to show them your energy, food, council tax, insurance, tv, broadband, telephone bills, mortgage, etc, to demonstrate how expensive if it is to run a household.

Some parents charge their kids keep but put some of it away in the form of savings to give back to them as a deposit on a place of their own or a little nest egg.

If you are too sick to work, then you should review your eligibility for ESA rather than JSA.

kingfisherblue

I am on benefits and my daughter works. She submits her payslips to the council and I get a bill, which my daughter pays. She also contributes to the household purse because she eats the food I buy, uses gas, electricity, broadband and TV, etc. She also helps with cooking and housework, as she lives here. Yet bad as it sounds, it is a lot cheaper and easier than if she had a place of her own, where she would have to pay all of the bills, do all of the cooking and housework, and still go out to work.

KxMx

kingfisherblue wrote: »

I am on benefits and my daughter works. She submits her payslips to the council and I get a bill, which my daughter pays. She also contributes to the household purse because she eats the food I buy, uses gas, electricity, broadband and TV, etc. She also helps with cooking and housework, as she lives here. Yet bad as it sounds, it is a lot cheaper and easier than if she had a place of her own, where she would have to pay all of the bills, do all of the cooking and housework, and still go out to work.

That doesn't sound bad at all- sounds the normal way of things if you ask me!! Too many parents run round after adult working children who live at home :eek:

Kind of the reverse in my house, Mum works FT and i'm on IB. Per month I pay a fixed amount of keep, which is split how she wants it on water top-up payment card and PO budget card (gas/electric), spend £10-20 on household items such as cleaners etc so she doesn't have to spend out of her earnings, and £5 which is to enable me to download as much as I want on the BB. She says i'm not working so I shouldn't have to pay but I insist since it costs her me being here during the day and not having a higher income. And she is on a poor wage too.