Taking in a lodger??

ohdearohdear

Hi I am thinking of taking in a lodger I have a spare room for them to use, just wondering how this would affect my benefits? I get IS and housing benefit and I pay towards the spare room tax I'm just wondering how they would work out a rent calculation? If the person was working that was to rent a room would they have to pay full rent and would I lose my income support?

pmlindyloo

ohdearohdear wrote: »

Hi I am thinking of taking in a lodger I have a spare room for them to use, just wondering how this would affect my benefits? I get IS and housing benefit and I pay towards the spare room tax I'm just wondering how they would work out a rent calculation? If the person was working that was to rent a room would they have to pay full rent and would I lose my income support?

You need to do the sums very carefully to make sure you are not 'worse off'. Don't forget extra costs of utilities (maybe)


The income from the lodger will be deducted from your Income Support in the following way. The first £20 is ignored. If you have a boarder instead of a lodger (ie provide breakfast) then half of the remaining rent is deducted from your IS. if you don't provide a meal (ie they are a lodger) then all of the remaining income(rent) is deducted. So, provide a breakfast!


You will still be entitled to HB and CT reduction because you will still be getting some IS which gives you automatic entitlement.


You will not have to pay the 'bedroom tax' and will be entitled to the full local housing allowance/housing benefit for a 2 bed place.


You will need to inform the council about taking in a 'boarder' but generally they are happy for you to do this.


Hope this helps.

ohdearohdear

pmlindyloo wrote: »

You need to do the sums very carefully to make sure you are not 'worse off'. Don't forget extra costs of utilities (maybe)


The income from the lodger will be deducted from your Income Support in the following way. The first £20 is ignored. If you have a boarder instead of a lodger (ie provide breakfast) then half of the remaining rent is deducted from your IS. if you don't provide a meal (ie they are a lodger) then all of the remaining income(rent) is deducted. So, provide a breakfast!


You will still be entitled to HB and CT reduction because you will still be getting some IS which gives you automatic entitlement.


You will not have to pay the 'bedroom tax' and will be entitled to the full local housing allowance/housing benefit for a 2 bed place.


You will need to inform the council about taking in a 'boarder' but generally they are happy for you to do this.


Hope this helps.

Hi thanks for the reply,

What I was wondering is would they have to pay the rent because they are working?
Ie they earn 250.00 per week would the council say right they have to pay 80 a week rent or do I set what I would like from them for their room? Say £50 per week?
When I phoned my council and enquirer they said they would need to see the persons wage slips and work out my rent from that, so could they say that the person would have to pay all the rent or do I just set my own price if that makes sense?

pmlindyloo

ohdearohdear wrote: »

Hi thanks for the reply,

What I was wondering is would they have to pay the rent because they are working?
Ie they earn 250.00 per week would the council say right they have to pay 80 a week rent or do I set what I would like from them for their room? Say £50 per week?
When I phoned my council and enquirer they said they would need to see the persons wage slips and work out my rent from that, so could they say that the person would have to pay all the rent or do I just set my own price if that makes sense?

You set what you like for the rent - remember to set it at a rate to take into account any loss from income support +


I think the council were talking about a non dependent living with you. Boarders/tenants are not counted as non dependents.


Say, for instance, if you had a son living with you who was working - then there would be a non dependent deduction from your housing benefit and council tax reduction on a sliding scale depending on what he earned.


You will not have a non dependent living with you - you will have a boarded. You must make this clear.

nannytone_2

as has been said .... income from rent would impact on your income support.
i would suggest that you charge a low rent ( so little impact on IS) and then split utilities.

seven-day-weekend

It seems there has been new legislation since October 2013:

.
http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/tenancies/lodger-rules-to-ease-impact-of-bedroom-tax/6522846.article