Classing girlfriend as a lodger so she can keep her ESA

poppy12345

I've been a member of slimming world since 2016 and food doesn't have to be expensive at all. If you buy fresh food then of course it will cost more but frozen food is much cheaper.

She needs to ring DWP to ask exactly what her ESA claim is, if it's Contributions based with an Income related top up then she'll keep £113.55 per week, even with you working. If it's definitely all income related then yes, she'll lose all of it.

calcotti

cooners said:

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).

On ESA she can do permitted work which is work for less than 16 hours/week and less than £140/week.

calcotti

poppy12345 said:

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.

It’s going to depend on whether those savings will be reduced to below £16,000 by the house purchase.

calcotti

I know that this isn’t helpful but I note that in a few places you've said that your girlfriend doesn’t like talk about things. Leaving aside any issues of what that means for your relationship it’s worth noting that in order to claim means tested benefits there has to be full disclosure because they are based on joint circumstances. Unfortunately I have come across couples who are likely to be entitled to benefits but who will not disclose information to each other so it’s impossible to find out.

elsien

There may be the option of permitted work with her ESA to bring a bit more in,if she wants to look into that. Any other work would probably lose her her ESA. 

She may have issues around confidence, or not wanting to work for some reason. Perhaps that’s a conversation to have in more depth. 

https://www.turn2us.org.uk/Benefit-guides/Employment-and-Support-Allowance-Permitted-Work/What-is-permitted-work-Employment-and-Support-All

But the people on the old style board here are very good at stretching the food budget while staying healthy and cooking from scratch if that would help, even in a small way.

But if she wants this to work with you as a couple, she may need to be a bit more forthcoming about her circumstances so you both have the full picture and can work together. 

oh_really

cooners said:

I just don't know what I can do

New girlfriend.

cooners

Her CPN has told her she's not ready to work. I think it would do her the world of good but I'm no expert.
And yeah I plan to keep about £5-10k back but put everything else onto a house deposit so that won't be an issue.

poppy12345

I agree with others you really should talk about things otherwise it's not a good start to any relationship.

calcotti

cooners said: I plan to keep about £5-10k back but put everything else onto a house deposit so that won't be an issue.

Anything over £6,000 will reduce benefit entitlement slightly (but I don’t think that should be your major consideration). 

Mrsn

OP I think deep down you know what you have suggested isn’t the right thing to do. What does concern me though is you are planning on building this life to accommodate her but communication between you isn’t what it should be. I’m assuming you both currently live separately? Could it not be that you carry on with your plans for the house and she moves in at a later date when it is more financially viable....

You have otherwise been given good advice from others about checking out entitlements based on your new circumstances and other ways to try and make the pennies stretch further. I do agree with poppy slimming world doesn’t have to be expensive, there are ways to adapt it to make it still work for you both health and financially.