Confused

Rayta

I am a single mum with two children, 4 and 6. I have a new partner and he has asked us to move in with him. He has three children to someone else and gets his kids when he is at home form work. He works away more than half the year. 

There is no shared finances at all and it is very much two separate households given the amount of kids we have everything must be kept separate. 

The question i have, is will Universal credit stop my benefits i am currently getting? Other than address change there is no actual change to finances. Myself and my two kids won't be able to live off my part time wage alone without the help from the government. their father does not contribute. i  will not have access to my partners income at all. I buy my own food for my kids. 

Appreciate any assistance 

peteuk

You’re moving in with him, regardless of how long he is home or away, you will be classed as a couple there for he is expected to help maintain you and your two children.

Any financle agreement you have with him is purely up to you and in the eyes of the government irrelevant to your UC claim.

Your UC will be recalculated with your new partners wage taken into consideration, therefore depending on his wage your UC may well stop.  Run it through a benefit calculator.

Although I am not sure, this may also mean a change in circumstances which may affect any Transition protection you may be receive
ing if you transitioned from TC.

So what happens when he is home? Do you buy separate food?  Personally if I was him Id be wanting to help you.

FlorayG

The only way this will work is if you move in as a lodger and pay rent; but you may have to prove to authorities that you are different households ( and you and your kids will require at least two bedrooms separate to his)
What about where you live now? Is that free or rented? You could exchange one rental for another
Personally I can't see how you can keep food shopping separate if you are in a relationship, but each to their own

kaMelo

Pretty much as @peteuk said, if you move in with your partner, living together as a married couple, any UC calculations will be based upon the household income and savings/capital of both you and your partner.  Whether you share finances with your partner or you don't is not a relevant factor in that calculation. 

@FlorayG, what you are suggesting would be benefit fraud.

Rubyroobs

FlorayG said:

The only way this will work is if you move in as a lodger and pay rent; but you may have to prove to authorities that you are different households ( and you and your kids will require at least two bedrooms separate to his)
What about where you live now? Is that free or rented? You could exchange one rental for another
Personally I can't see how you can keep food shopping separate if you are in a relationship, but each to their own

If they are a couple then they need to claim as a couple. 

peteuk

Rayta said:

 There is no shared finances at all and it is very much two separate households given the amount of kids we have everything must be kept separate. 

Appreciate any assistance 

There is nothing to say your households MUST be kept separate, thats a decission you and he make.  Personally IMHO this is not a relationship.   If you’re going to keep separate lives then why move in? 

Where are you living now?  Is it rented, if so where is he living, is that rented?  Would you be added to the tenancy?  If your renting and move to his you’ll loose any housing aspect of your UC, 

The suggestion of you lodging (as noted would be fraud) would mean you'd need a separate room to his, then theres the kids rooms…

Rayta said:

Myself and my two kids won't be able to live off my part time wage alone without the help from the government. their father does not contribute. i  will not have access to my partners income at all. I buy my own food for my kids. 

Appreciate any assistance 

Once you move in the government wont support you, you will be in a relationship so therefore expected to support each other.  It’s commendable that you dont want to relay on your partners help, but in reality you will need to do so.   You will be classed just the same as my wife and I.  I earn twice as her, so therefore as a couple I pay more than she does to the running of the house.  Even before we were married and she moved in with me, I paid the whole mortgage. 

I really dont see this as a good option for you.  How far would you be moving?  What else are you giving up.  Where do you see the relationship going?  I know this is going to be negative, but Im trying to help by asking the awkward questions you’re naturally going to avoid.  If loosing your UC means you cant afford to move in with him then the simple answer is don't.  I get that many others would see this differently, but youve said it yourself you cant live alone without the help of the government.  Moving in you wont be alone, other than through choice. 

Muttleythefrog

FlorayG said:

The only way this will work is if you move in as a lodger and pay rent; but you may have to prove to authorities that you are different households ( and you and your kids will require at least two bedrooms separate to his)
What about where you live now? Is that free or rented? You could exchange one rental for another
Personally I can't see how you can keep food shopping separate if you are in a relationship, but each to their own

As above this would be fraud. The op has indicated this is a scenario of a couple moving in together and so they would need to have a joined claim... the op can describe it as two separate households but that's not the reality for Universal Credit unless there is deception or they later break up when living together and so do operate as separate households..

Op.... eligibility will come down to whether you and your partner with linked claims are entitled. Benefits calculators like EntitledTo can be used to find that out by plugging in the details and numbers but it is possible you would lose UC. How you and your partner decide to arrange finances thereafter is up to you both and beyond the interest of UC. Ultimately the state would expect that as a couple living together you support each other.

Alice_Holt

FlorayG said:

The only way this will work is if you move in as a lodger and pay rent; but you may have to prove to authorities that you are different households ( and you and your kids will require at least two bedrooms separate to his)
What about where you live now? Is that free or rented? You could exchange one rental for another
Personally I can't see how you can keep food shopping separate if you are in a relationship, but each to their own

    OP -   Please don't do this - it's a really bad idea.

  Tax credits some years back had a blitz on couples living together but claiming TC as a single person. 
Huge overpayment demands resulted.

 UC will be looking at a similar process, through their fraud detection.
TC linked addresses using credit agency data. 
You will likely end up with a huge bill to pay back to UC.

ripplyuk

I thought the DWP define a couple as ‘living together as if they were married’ and this doesn’t sound like that at all. I’ve never heard of a married couple who keep their food separate. It seems more like a friends with benefits scenario to me. 

Muttleythefrog

ripplyuk said:

I thought the DWP define a couple as ‘living together as if they were married’ and this doesn’t sound like that at all. I’ve never heard of a married couple who keep their food separate. It seems more like a friends with benefits scenario to me. 

"I have a new partner and he has asked us to move in with him" - this fits the bill of a couple living together as if married to me and surely UC. The financial arrangements set out are not because they intend to live as separate people but for some convenience of dealing with the complexity of having a blended situation of family. She would be moving in to be with her new partner.

Spoonie_Turtle

The guidance used for determining LTAMC for UC claims, for reference:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7575a740f0b6397f35e96f/adme4.pdf

Although frankly, any argument against it counting as LTAMC is undermined by the fact OP refers to it as moving in with her partner.  Not a friend or housemate.