Council tax benefit and electoral roll

TC18

Hi i wondered if anyone could help me.

I currently work offshore and get moved around a lot so dont have a proper place put my name down on the electoral roll.

All my banking, credit and money etc. is down at my mum and dads address so i would assume that if anything i would put my name down there. I would go ahead and register but my mum is disabled and my dad is her carer and they receive i think a discount because of this. my dad is quite scared that if i put my name down that they will loose all sorts of benefits because the council think i live there all the time. (when im home and not on any work etc. i usually only stay there 2 nights at the most to help my dad out).

is there an option to say yeah this is my registered address but i dont stay there that often?

im looking to get a mortgage and the only thing stopping it is not being listed on the electoral roll.

any ones advice is greatly appreciated

benefitbaby

Hi, I think the bigger issue is understanding whether you are eligible to register on the electoral roll at all. You mentioned you work off-shore, is this in the UK or elsewhere?
You have to be ordinarily resident in the UK in order to vote and register on the electoral roll and this will depend on where you normally reside, if you are not in the UK for the majority of the time I think you will hit a brick wall.

If you can show you are resident in the UK then you would register at the 'appropriate local authority' I assume this means the one in which you reside, judging by your post you don't have one unfortunately.

TC18

thanks for your reply.

yeah its confusing me too. when im offshore its in UK waters and im never usually out of the uk long (still have to pay UK tax).

Ive been tying to find out information on google about this but cant seem to find any. all it comes back with is that you have to be registered and that if two people already pay the full amount it doesnt matter how many adults live there :S

i suppose i will have to ring in the morning from a telephone box and just not tell my dad cos he will be seriously paranoid that the council will think his committing fraud and somehow track him down for letting me stay there 2 nights every so often lol

benefitbaby

If you do speak to the local authority for guidance make a note of the date, time and name of the person you speak to you, you should also ask them to confirm their advice in writing.
If you follow their advice and it later causes a problem you then have evidence of 'incorrect advice by an officer of the local authority' which would hopefully assist to remedy things. Good luck.

marybelle01

Yay - I know the answer! You can register from your offshore address! It means filing in a new form each time you move, but then when you visit your parents, your are literally visiting just like anyone else would. No questions asked then.

benefitbaby

Brilliant post, I know it was not my question but the OPs query has been bugging me as it seemed slightly ridiculous that he couldn't register if in UK waters. Thanks

TC18

marybelle01 wrote: »

Yay - I know the answer! You can register from your offshore address! It means filing in a new form each time you move, but then when you visit your parents, your are literally visiting just like anyone else would. No questions asked then.

My offshore address? so it would be number 12 somewhere in the north sea :P or can you just put on the form work in uk waters (would effective be called a seaman as i move rigs so its from one location to another like a boat, i'd be filling forms in every couple of days :rotfl: )

TC18

benefitbaby wrote: »

If you do speak to the local authority for guidance make a note of the date, time and name of the person you speak to you, you should also ask them to confirm their advice in writing.
If you follow their advice and it later causes a problem you then have evidence of 'incorrect advice by an officer of the local authority' which would hopefully assist to remedy things. Good luck.

thanks for your advice.

il give them a call tomorrow and see what they say then update. knowing my local council they wont know what to do lol il probably end up paying the difference to my parents.

Mojisola

TC18 wrote: »

im looking to get a mortgage and the only thing stopping it is not being listed on the electoral roll.

TC18 wrote: »

il give them a call tomorrow and see what they say then update. knowing my local council they wont know what to do lol il probably end up paying the difference to my parents.

For the sake of getting a mortgage and stopping your Dad being stressed, it will be worth the money.

paddedjohn

Havnt you got any family or friends that you can say you live with?

Red_dog_Sam

Try this - apparently you can make a "declaration of local connection" to register to vote from an address even when you do not have a fixed address of your own.

"On the Declaration of local connection form you need to give an address where you would be living if it were not for your current situation, or an address where you have lived in the past."

http://www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/register_to_vote/no_fixed_address.aspx