close relative?

kingfisherblue

angiel72 wrote: »

errr a roof over his head, use of kitchen, lounge, bathroom, garden... and a contribution towards the £850 a month i pay to live here.

You pay £850 whether your grandson lives with you or not, so I can't understand why £50 a week isn't profit. After all, if he is paying for his own food, plus an additional contribution towards bills, then they are covered. What will the £50 a week cover except a contribution to rent or mortgage that you have to pay anyway?

Also, will your landlord or mortgage provider allow you to take in a tenant? You may need their permission.

paddedjohn

angiel72 wrote: »

if it was short term then i would not ask him for a bean. but we are talking about an arrangement that could last for a good couple of years... it was his idea for me not to provide his meals and his suggestion that he contributes what he can to the household bills, as this is how he would have to live if he went privately. i resent the implication that i am mercenarily trying to extort money from my grandchild. he has looked into renting a room through a private landlord, but cannot find one as he has no previous tenancy for a reference, he has no income apart from job seekers and the cheapest room he could get was living in a shared house with alcoholics and junkies at £70 a week, with an electricity meter in the room, no lounge area and no food included... so how exactly does me asking a reasonable rent at a reduced rate make me a bad person? as i pointed out in my OP i am trying to find out if he would be entitled to any benefit. if not then obviously we will have to come to a different agreement or should i let him find a nice, comfy cardboard box and chuck him 20p as i pass him in the street?

and yes, he will still get charged rent at the same rate when he is working. my grandson has been staying with me (RENT FREE) since the beginning of Feb, and has taken to going out early morning and coming back late at night because he is embarrassed that he contributes nothing. the terms i stated were what HE thought was a fair agreement, based on local rents etc. i have taken real umbrage at some of the posters on here, climbing up onto their high moral horses when a) i am asking for advice and b) none of you are in full possession of all of the facts in this matter.

At the bottom of your rant above you mention that we are not in full possession of all the facts, well if you cared to share them with everyone then perhaps you may get the advice you require, we are not mind readers.

angiel72

what is your problem? the different arrangement we have discussed is him moving in to a room in the nearest city and coming here for baths etc at weekends. storing his tv, laptop and other valuables here and having this as his mailing address. HE DOES NOT WANT TO LIVE HERE RENT FREE. as a TAX PAYER i think if someone is entitled to a benefit, they should get it... are you a tax payer or like woodbine a smoking scrounger with no intention of getting any sort of employment? just asking as you seem to have an opinion on MY situation without knowing the particulars, i feel i can ask yours and make snap judgements too......
oh and by the way, the "spare room" is where i usually do beauty therapy treatments, which i have not been able to do since my grandson moved in there. so in effect it IS costing me as i can usually earn way more than £50 a week. but hey, i'm obviously a heartless money grabbing !!!!! that cares more about lining my pockets than providing a safe environment for my family

angiel72

it was a simple question. can he get housing benefit if he lives with me or not. i wasn't aware that i had to provide the minutae of each and every detail of my life. do you want to know what blood group i am.... !!!!!!. as usual people decide to make judgements rather than answer a simple query.

benefitbaby

angiel72 wrote: »

it was a simple question. can he get housing benefit if he lives with me or not. i wasn't aware that i had to provide the minutae of each and every detail of my life. do you want to know what blood group i am.... !!!!!!. as usual people decide to make judgements rather than answer a simple query.

This is not the way to win friends and influence people!

Your query has been answered several times:
- No, you are not a close relative for benefit purposes
- Yes, your grandson can claim HB
- The HB office may determine his 'rent' has been contrived to take advantage of the benefit system as he has been living there for some time without paying rent.
- The HB may refuse the claim (based on above point) or they may pay it.

princessdon

You are honestly better being tougher. You love him, but he's at a cross road in his life. Take his money, leave him short unless working and support him fully to gain work or study, apprenticeship.

Benefit cycles are hard to break.

To answe your question, yes I am a tax payer, never taken a penny (bar child benefit, now removed). I have always taken care of my nephew and still do, even as now a man. He is a student living in my rented HMO to students (purchased when I was a student). He gets no free ride, he pays the same as his housemates. Ok I do his washing, listen to girl problems and sub him when short, but he pays rent out of his loans the same as others do.

You indicated above he is testing you (they do) so put your foot down, make him pay and kick his butt into productivity. He's still very young, but needs to know that although you love him dearly he has responsibilities that are his alone. Even if you save his money to give as a deposit. Expecting tax payers to pay when you don't expect his parents to IMO gives the wrong impression. Why would this be long term? It's short term as you'll be on his back daily to get a job, nag, harass, force to go bar to shop asking for jobs. He'll get one when your generosity stops, your aiding his drop out will prolong his path choice.

angiel72

thank you princessdon, you seem to understand my ethos behind asking him to pay his way, and as i said in an earlier post he is embarrassed about my loss of earnings and his lack of financial contribution. to clarify why i don't ask his parents to contribute... my son in law has a chronic bowel disease which prevents him from working and my daughter has (only recently) qualified as a nurse and is on quite a low income. i know they get some help from tax credits, but not very much. and the reason they moved from a 3 bed to a 2 bed was because they couldnt afford to stay there. my daughter is mortified that her son can't come home, but the only place for him to sleep would be on the sofa! the reason i say this could be a long term arrangement is that when he does get a job (hopefully VERY soon) he will need to pay back half of his first years tuition, part of his maintainance loan and his bank account student overdraft..THEN he will need to have at least £1200 behind him to rent a one bed flat for rent in advance/deposit so it's not going to be just for another couple of months (which is why we have agreed that he HAS to pay a fair rent) i just wanted to know how he and i stood legally re the benefits system as i have never claimed and nor has he.

to answer another poster: My landlady is fine with me taking in my grandson as a sub-tenant, on the proviso that he holds no wild parties, causes no damage and behaves in a responsible manner. mind you last time i held a wild party, my landlady was one of the worse offenders

itch_for_a_glitch

angiel72 wrote: »

what is your problem? the different arrangement we have discussed is him moving in to a room in the nearest city and coming here for baths etc at weekends. storing his tv, laptop and other valuables here and having this as his mailing address. HE DOES NOT WANT TO LIVE HERE RENT FREE. as a TAX PAYER i think if someone is entitled to a benefit, they should get it... are you a tax payer or like woodbine a smoking scrounger with no intention of getting any sort of employment? just asking as you seem to have an opinion on MY situation without knowing the particulars, i feel i can ask yours and make snap judgements too......
oh and by the way, the "spare room" is where i usually do beauty therapy treatments, which i have not been able to do since my grandson moved in there. so in effect it IS costing me as i can usually earn way more than £50 a week. but hey, i'm obviously a heartless money grabbing !!!!! that cares more about lining my pockets than providing a safe environment for my family

Ask away I will answer your questions.
I'm a taxpayer.
I claim no benefits.
I'm like Woodbine in that we live in the same county and are a similar age.
Regarding employment , your assumption is correct, I have no intention of getting any sort of employment.

If you can use your spare room to make "way more" than £50 a week that sounds a better use of your room. Regardless, I'm sure your grandson will soon find work and will need a place of his own, rather than living with his granny.

FBaby

Why are you assuming that it would be a long term arrangement? How do you know that once he gets a job, he will choose to share a place with a friend, or a girl-friend. Maybe he will need to look further for a job and so need to live somewhere else. Or he might decide to go back to Uni after all.

I think you shouldn't rely on his contribution towards to the rent as you seem to see it as extra income. He will get £50 ish to pay for his food. Charge him for electricity and gas if you need to but I don't think you should charge him for rent, unless he indeed gets a job locally and tells you his intention of staying with you out of choice rather than just having a roof over his head.

tomtom256

angiel72 wrote: »

the £50 is for renting the room and the use of the bathroom, kitchen, lounge etc .. which i could rent out to a "normal" lodger for around £85.

This would be deemed as contrived as you are going to charge a family member less than any "normal" lodger.