Who is considered a partner?

mountainyfolk

I'm a single, divorced mum with two teenage children. I work for 24 hours a week in the care sector, and currently receive a small amount of housing benefit, working tax credit, and child tax credit. My sister is 62, has just started receiving the basic state pension, but also claims working tax credit to supplement her self employed income which is pretty low. As neither of us are flush for cash I am considering asking her to move in with me - why pay two rents? My question is, would the two of us sharing a house mean we would both then lose out big time on our working tax credits? I'm guessing I would not lose any of my child tax credit, but would probably have to lose the little bit of Housing benefit I receive, but would my sister and I be classed as a couple for working tax credit? Another problem is that she can't say exactly how much she earns each year as she is self employed, writes articles for magazines etc, and sometimes she sells a lot of articles, and sometimes she can go for months without selling anything so if she did move in with me, and I do need to tell the relevant authorities about it, I don't know what - apart from her state pension which is fixed - we could put her income down as.

BigAunty

Not as a couple - that's about living together as a relationship - but as a non-dependent. As far as I know, this could result in a non-dependent deduction from your HB.

Put your circumstances into the Turn2us online benefit calculator - there is a section there for you to indicate if anyone lives with you who is not a dependent.

Levels of deduction are here

http://www.tameside.gov.uk/housingbenefit/nondependentdeductions

zagfles

You definitely won't be treated as "partners". It's basically someone who is your husband/wife/civil partner, or who you live with as if they were, eg boyfriend/girlfriend.

You might get non-dependant deductions in your housing benefit though.

suelees1

As has been said she would be seen as a non dependant so yes you'd have the non-dependant deduction applied to your housing and council tax benefit and would obviously lose the single adult discount. You'd easily make up for it though with other savings you'd make.

BigAunty

It's not just rent that would be saved but other duplicated bills, too, such as energy, council tax, water, house insurance, broadband, landline, tv licence and so on. Through economies of scale, food bills should be lower, too.

I bet if you ran the figures through the MSE budget planner for the two households, before and after, you'd be surprised at the potential savings from a combined household.

Also, on MSE we see many posts from parents who are shocked at the loss of income that results when their teenaged children are no longer classed as dependents and their tax credits and child benefit are lost. So having another adult in the property with a decent income will also act as a cushion.

mountainyfolk

Thank you so much all of you. You've really put my mind at rest. I have to say I'd love to have my big sister staying with me - it gets lonely sometimes without another adult to talk to - and just a rough costing out has proved to us both that living together would be a big benefit financially particularly with fuel costs. I just became concerned when I read an article in the newspapers saying that the benefits people would be going after people living as a couple, and I thought, would my sister and I be classified as a couple if we do this? I knew/suspected I'd lose some of my housing benefit, but I didnt want either of us to lose out on our working tax credit

suelees1

good to hear of something which will have a great outcome

You should look at the second adult rebate for council tax as well. You never know, you might be entitled to a few quid off the max.

neverdespairgirl

mountainyfolk wrote: »

I just became concerned when I read an article in the newspapers saying that the benefits people would be going after people living as a couple, and I thought, would my sister and I be classified as a couple if we do this?

Only if you have a remarkably unusual (incest-based) relationship with your sister.

Oldernotwiser

It's much simpler if you remember that the concept is LTAW - (Living Together as Husband and Wife) rather than as a couple. After all, a couple is just two people.

bengal-stripe

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

......the concept is LTAW - (Living Together as Husband and Wife) rather than as a couple.

With the introduction of Civil Partnerships this concept has been widened and will include partners of the same sex.
(Prior to that, two men or two women could not be 'partners'.)

Nobody would extend 'partners' to close members of the same family.

BigAunty

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Civil Partnerships aren't particularly relevant. Homosexual couples have been considered to be LTAHW for years.

Are you sure it wasn't a legal loophole, that since they had virtually no legal rights, they weren't classed as a couple for benefit purposes, their relationship simply not recognised by so many institutions?

I recall a same sex couple in the 90s with a joint social housing tenancy getting HB for the unemployed one despite one working and they did not strike me as someone who would have concealed employment income or been shy to declare their relationship. Perhaps the other persons income was too low to make much of an impact.