Living seperately

Cashtyke

A friend of mine is going to live seperately from his wife. He has a child who he will be have custody of. He is currently on JSA after recently losing his job. He has asked me if/who he should inform of the change of circumstances and wondered if it affected him in any way. His wife isnt working at the moment. He has agreed his wife who is going to live a two hour journey away will have access over the weekend. Due to the distance/cost etc he was willing to let her stay at his house for weekends only. Is there some sort of ruling about being a lone parent and how long he can have a visitor (wife) stop for, as this is worrying him. Im a bit hazy on this info and wondered if anyone could shed some light on it for him
thanks for any help

Scarlett1

If he is on JSA then he will be claiming council tax benefit/housing benefit too and they have rules regarding other occupants in the house, best bet is if he visits his local jobcentre plus or CAB for proper advice, they might see it as the couple still living together and they might reduce his benefits accordingly

babyboo42

Hi as I have mentioned before on this whole how many nights can someone stay issue,it isn't about how often someone stays,it's about maintaining seperate households. Many people think having a partner to stay only 2 nights a week means they aren't classed as living together but many married couples do this if a partner works away so...
If his ex maintains a seperate household then there shouldn't be a problem.
When thinking about seperate households the DWP etc think about whether they eat together,share household chores etc so it's a broader picture if you like.
Hope this helps