Classing girlfriend as a lodger so she can keep her ESA

cooners

I'm looking at buying a house soon so me and my girlfriend can live together. Whilst looking into it I've now worked out her ESA is income based so even though she'll keep her PIP she'll loose her ESA leaving her extremely short of money. I earn about £20k a year so enough to pay the bills on my own but also enough to wipe out her benefits but not enough for me to give her a decent amount to live on.
She spends a lot on food so need her to help with the food bills but other than that I can pay the mortgage, council tax, electric etc.
A few people have suggested moving her in as a lodger so she keeps her ESA and I simply won't charge her any rent, can this work because I can't see anyway else to make this work and it's getting depressing

calcotti

It’s fraud.

poppy12345

cooners said:

I'm looking at buying a house soon so me and my girlfriend can live together. Whilst looking into it I've now worked out her ESA is income based so even though she'll keep her PIP she'll loose her ESA leaving her extremely short of money. I earn about £20k a year so enough to pay the bills on my own but also enough to wipe out her benefits but not enough for me to give her a decent amount to live on.
She spends a lot on food so need her to help with the food bills but other than that I can pay the mortgage, council tax, electric etc.
A few people have suggested moving her in as a lodger so she keeps her ESA and I simply won't charge her any rent, can this work because I can't see anyway else to make this work and it's getting depressing

This isn't right and not something you should even think of doing because it will be classed as benefit fraud. She's your partner, if you live together you're classed as a couple for benefits. You are meant to support her.

elsien

What’s the reason she’s spending so much on food - perhaps addressing that would help the situation. 

calcotti

Are you sure her ESA isentirely Income based, is there any possibilitythatitiscontribution based with an income based top up?

Use a benefits calculator to check whether there will be any remaining ESA entitlement (or alternatively UC). https://www.gov.uk/benefits-calculators

On UC, assuming you will have less than £16,000 of savings after buying the house, you would have a standard allowance, LCWRA element if girlfriend is in ESA Support Group and the carer element if you look after her (if her PIP includes Daily Living). If at least one of you is aged 25 or over and all these elements apply this amounts to £1,098.88/month. Because the first £512 of your earnings will be ignored this means that there will only be no entitlement to UC if you earn more than £2,256/month. (Note however that UC allowances are set to reduce in April next year unless the government relents).

calcotti

elsien said:

What’s the reason she’s spending so much on food - perhaps addressing that would help the situation. 

I assumed it might be related to her health condition.

Mnoee

Are you certain it's just income based, and not contributions based with an income based top up? If she worked in the two years before starting to claim ESA, there's a possibility that's the case - to my knowledge it doesn't say on annual statements that you're actually on contributions based with an income based top up.

I was in a similar position, moved in with my partner regardless and expected to have to switch to universal credit and have a severely reduced income - however because I was in fact was on contributions based with an income top up, I was still entitled to the majority of my ESA (well, probably about half, but much better than the £70 a month I was expecting!) 

As others have advised, don't try to cheat the system - it's not worth the stress of worrying about getting caught, if nothing else! 

poppy12345

In another thread here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6189648/buying-house-decent-deposit-but-low-income#latest You mention soon having rather a lot of savings over £16,000. This will exclude you from claiming all means tested benefits.

elsien

calcotti said:

elsien said:

What’s the reason she’s spending so much on food - perhaps addressing that would help the situation. 

I assumed it was related to her health condition.

Might be. Or she could be having takeaways every night. But if it is for her health condition, the helpful people on OS might be able to suggest cheaper alternatives, which is why I asked. 

cooners

I do support her, I'll be paying all the bills but we've both got to have a life too, she can't live off her PIP and I won't have enough on top of paying all the bills to give her a lot whilst maintaining my own life.
As for food she needs to loose weight to have a hip op so she's doing slimming world and buying fresh food and making everything from scratch, it's working for her as she's lost 4 stone in a year but has another 2 to go so there's no way I'm stopping her doing that.
I've asked her if she could get a little 16 hour job but she says she's not allowed to (won't go into why).
I just don't know what I can do, it's driving me mad trying to find a solution and the only thing that everyone suggests seems to be an issue 😟

calcotti

elsien said:

calcotti said:

elsien said:

What’s the reason she’s spending so much on food - perhaps addressing that would help the situation. 

I assumed it was related to her health condition.

Might be. Or she could be having takeaways every night. But if it is for her health condition, the helpful people on OS might be able to suggest cheaper alternatives, which is why I asked. 

Was editing to ‘might be’ when you posted!