Mum Moving In With Us

shannygirl

Hi,
My mum was widowed a couple of years ago and they lived in a rented 3 bed house which she can't afford to stay in and given that she has spent more and more time with us and we have the room we have asked her to move in with us. She will have her own bedroom, living room and bathroom but not an annex - spare rooms we had upstairs. We own our house (well, maybe a couple of rooms as the mortgage still has another 10 years) but we have a very low income at the moment, about £890 per month, including Council Tax reduction and working tax credits.


My question is, will my mum moving in affect our Working Tax Credits? I have already advised the Council Tax office as she is a pensioner and viewed as a non-dependent and they don't expect it will affect our reduction too much....but will it affect Working Tax Credits? I've had a long look at the list of changes of circumstances and it isn't listed but I don't want to get caught out later on. I have tried to contact them several times but as I leave the house at 6.45am and don't get back until 6.45pm getting through is a nightmare.


Ideally, I would not like to charge her rent just because she's my mum and she put up with me for years and it would be nice to now look after her but I'm sure the DWP won't see it like that.


I will be telling them regardless but just any info would be useful before I go to them.


Many thanks!

shannygirl

Many thanks! That's interesting as I thought they would force me to charge her rent.


Long term it's something we might think about if it becomes a permanent move (at the moment it's maybe for the next year or so until she decides what she wants to do) but not immediately.


Thanks again.

giddypenguin

blondebubbles wrote: »

It won't affect your tax credits unless you did charge her rent and that rent is over £4250 per annum.

Sorry to jump on this thread - Why is this the case? Do tax credits allow you to rent a room, or is this just the normal disregard (I get so confused about this!)?

giddypenguin

Ah, that's great news - a friend of ours might be lodging with us towards the end of the year, and I was panicking it was going to push us into an overpayment - big weight off my mind! Thanks!

[Deleted User]

Also, remember that your mum's income doesn't count towards "household income" for the purposes of Tax Credits - by "household", they just mean you and your partner if you have one.