Will someone lose benefit if they live with us?

Laprivan

I hope this is the right place to post this question. If not please could someone point me in the right direction?

An ex-colleague / old friend of mine is having a hard time of things. He lost his job several years ago and is currently claiming universal credit as a single person. It now looks likely that he will be evicted in the near future.

We have a spare room and would be happy for him to move in with us for as long as he needs to get himself back together which I'm guessing could be a year or two. He would have his own bathroom but would share a kitchen and living space. We wouldn't expect him to pay any rent or household expenses; utilities, council tax, food etc. We don't have to claim any benefits ourselves (thank goodness).

What I'm trying to find out is if moving in with us would mean he would lose his universal credit benefit? Even without rent / living expenses he would still need money to travel about, pay for a mobile and have a bit of independence. I realize that obviously he would lose any housing related benefits, but I wanted to check that he would still have some income to call his own.

BorisThomson

He would only lose benefits if the DWP decide you're in a (polygamous) relationship together

He just needs to inform them he is no longer liable for rent.

Hoogle

I understand not kicking a friend whilst he is down or using a friend to make some cash. But why not make an official tenancy agreement subletting your spare room. That way housing benefit can be paid towards your costs even if it just £50 a week. Trust me this works out better than council just turning their back on him and saying he is not a vulnerable person there for he can fend for himself and refuse to home him. Or if he does qualify for B&B or even social housing that is available, it would still be a lot cheaper for them and less hassle.

trigger_fish

BorisThomson wrote: »

He would only lose benefits if the DWP decide you're in a (polygamous) relationship together

Sounds like some kind of sect, lol!

trigger_fish

OP

I agree with Hoogle on this.

Do it on official terms with your friend/tenant getting what he is entitled too.

Both parties have nothing to lose.

xylophone

https://www.gov.uk/rent-room-in-your-home/the-rent-a-room-scheme

Laprivan

Thanks all for the information and the link. Just to make sure I understand things now, in the simplest case he just needs to tell the DWP he is not paying rent and he will then get to keep the basic benefit that is not related to housing.

The other advice though seems to be that it is a good idea for him not to stop paying rent and claiming that part of his benefits. Is that because doing that could cause him problems if he needs to claim again? The share a room scheme seems fairly straightforward and as far as I can see would mean that in effect he would just be getting an extra £50 a week in his pocket, which I suppose wouldn't hurt. Anything else to be aware of here? Basically I want to do the right thing by my friend and the DWP and not cause problems down the road.

pmlindyloo

How old is your friend? Over 21 I am presuming.

Your friend would be entitled to £73.14 (standard single person's allowance) of Universal Credit if they had no housing costs when he moved in with you.

If you charged him for living with you then he would be a lodger, not a tenant. To claim housing costs he would have to have a liability for rent which could include costs for utilities. You would either have to draw up a lodger's agreement (which might be a good idea anyway despite your good intentions) or write a letter for the DWP confirming his liability for rent. This may need to be broken down into how much is rent/how much for utilities/how much for council tax.

What you are suggesting - his claiming housing costs when he has no liability for rent and his 'pocketing' the rent himself is, in my books, a 'no no'.

You can use the Rent a Room scheme but , if you have a mortgage, you may need to ask your lender's permission to take in a lodger (most do not object)

I totally understand your good intentions but many of these scenarios do not work out so please think very carefully about this.

Why hasn't he been able to find a job in the last few years? This rings alarm bells for me.

Are there other ways you could support him to get a job and find him somewhere to live?

You talk about his 'getting back on his feet'. Are there other factors here that may make a difference? Debt? Mental Illness? Divorce?

I hope I don't come across as too harsh!

Mojisola

Laprivan wrote: »

The share a room scheme seems fairly straightforward and as far as I can see would mean that in effect he would just be getting an extra £50 a week in his pocket, which I suppose wouldn't hurt.

If you aren't charging him rent, he can't put in a claim for help with his rent.

If he claims it when you aren't charging him anything to stay there, he will be committing fraud!

Laprivan

Thanks pmlindyloo for the help here; it's much appreciated. To answer your questions as best I can, my friend is in his 40s, he has never married and has no close family. We own our house outright so no problems with mortgage providers but I'd need to check if having a lodger would affect our home insurance. I think the reason he lost his job and has had problems finding another is that he was hit badly by depression and I think he was reluctant to get professional help. Of course the recent financial pressures haven't helped on that score.

From what you've written it seems that the whole lodger thing seems as if it might be more trouble than it's worth. The only reason I was considering it was that other advice seemed to imply that it would be a good idea from his point of view (for reasons I'm still not sure of), to allow him to continues to claim rent as a benefit. My main question seems to have been answered positively in that I wanted to make sure that he wouldn't be left without any source of income and that seems to be the case.

We could provide him with help to pay his existing rent but I don't think where he is living at the moment, a pretty shabby one bedroom flat, is doing him any favours. We have a house that is big enough for the three of us to have a bit of room to ourselves if we want it, and can at least provide some company which I think he needs. It seems an easy and obvious solution.

annandale

If he is going to be evicted in the near future, why?

If he's on universal credit he should be getting housing element. I assume he's not getting the full rent element paid.

I don't see why it would be a good idea for him to claim rent element unless you need the money.

It won't have any bearing on how quickly he gets rehoused. And it's basically claiming money from the dwp that you've said you don't need.

And no. If he had to claim housing element again at some point he would need to make a fresh claim for it depending on where he's living at that time

Claiming housing element to live with you wouldn't have any beneficial or detrimental effect on his universal credit claim. The only benefit would be the extra money going into your pocket.

Living with you officially or unofficially won't make any difference on whether the council see him as priority for re housing.

As for suggesting that he pockets the money, it's fraud as you've already been informed