council claim we are lving together when we are not

yeovilmac

Good for you. You should be congratulated for having a mature,adult outlook on the situation rather than going the opposite way.

Daveboy, of course, would never get into the situation described earlier as with his personality and attitude, nobody would have him!!

mrcow

yeovilmac wrote:

Daveboy, of course, would never get into the situation described earlier as with his personality and attitude, nobody would have him!!

There are 60 million people in this country. He could get lucky lol (Sorry Dave....had to be said!)

Tabbykatt

djhalfbrow wrote:

feel like a sitting duck at present.....

Sounds very much like the rules can be interpreted in anyway that the individual see's fit, so I too feel like a sitting duck!

With regard to being 'seen' as a couple, how ridiculous is that? Just because you are in receipt of benefits, you are not allowed a relationship? I did not realise that getting a boyfriend (and not a live-in partner) constitutes a change of circumstances. Maybe we should be sterilised while we are at it, dont want the DSS 'scroungers' reproducing now do we? :think: (I have a feeling that some Nazi 'wannabes' may agree with this statement!).

I wish you the best of luck djhalfbrow (and GF), and if you do hear anything else then let us know, I for one would like to know what the rules are for this week?:dance:

jellyhead

i don't know if there are any rules as such, not set in stone anyway. when a couple are still living separately their bills don't get any lower - each of them still has their own place to keep etc. so as long as the boyfriend does actually have a place of his own that he pays rent on and gets his post sent to, and isn't just pretending then it should be okay. i hope so. i have a friend in the school playground who has a boyfriend but he doesn't live with her so she keeps her benefits. i asked her about it this morning and she says they were investigated (somebody 'grassed') but because her boyfriend is living at his own address there wasn't a problem. he's paying council tax, rent, water, fuel bills etc. at his own place and doesn't actually live with her.

mrsdee

for example, my husband's ex has to declare if someone lives with her for more than six months, as she then has to repay him 30% of the value of her house (as he gave her all the equity when they divorced, so that she could buy a home for her and the children). Well, what a surprise, a guy HAS been living there for at least six months but she denies it because he has a flat somewhere (although all his furniture is at her place).
Hence we cannot claim for this money which is about £70K!!
Lots of people try and dodge this obviously. It is wrong.
But if you are staying at hers 3 nights a week, who is looking after your children?

mrsdee

djhalfbrow wrote:

Hi I am the g/f and just to point out a few things....when the benefit officer came to my house....he told me that there was no set rules on how many nights you can have your b/f / partner to stay, he said "thats what people assume"...it was made clear to me that if people see us outside i.e holding hands and acting as a couple then thats where they could class us as a couple...so really to me it wasn't about when he stayed here it was how other people see us....I did make him aware of how many nights he was here and also of the few belongings he has...as my b/f said he and I both looked into his staying here and if it would affect my benefits and saw that it didn't say what we could or couldn't do....we have only been together for 6months and we are still at the level of getting to know each other.....I would not have a man move into mine and my girls home just like that...he does not pay any bills here or any food....The benefit officer also made it clear that it was o.k to have friends and family over to stay but b/f was different...which to me is a joke.....in my eyes when you meet someone you become friends and then build up from there into a relationship...I have rang and spoken to income support this morning on the phone and the lady I spoke to said that she did not seeing it affecting my benefits and that my b/f and I should both write letters to verify our situation....she also did say that if income support did reduce or stop my payment then I should appeal against them....so that does put my mind as ease alittle but you just never know whats round the corner and it could be some time before this has been sorted.....feel like a sitting duck at present.....just wish to say thank you for all your reply's..xx

hmmm. so you dont want him livign with you and you are still getting to know eachother but he spends 3 nights a week with you and you also spend every other weekend at his? (with your children too?). I make that 4 nights a week then on average that you are together (although not all at your place). Do you get paid maintenance by your ex (father of your children)? Is that why the pair of you are being suspiciously cautious and playing by the rules? Presumably if you were living with someone else your ex wouldnt have to pay as much to keep you..... Interesting one....

jellyhead

i don't want to be argumentative here but they have only been together for 6 months!! that's far too soon for people to expect them to jump into living together, pooling their finances etc. especially where there are children involved who also need time to get used to the idea of mummy having a boyfriend.

if he did move in i don't think this would affect any maintenance payments she could get anyhow - it's based on the income of the father and the income of the mother isn't taken into account, she could have a live-in boyfriend, even get married and the father would still have to pay towards the upkeep of his children. the only way to reduce his payments would be for him to have the children overnight at least one night a week (reduces payments by a seventh) and i think that having more children of his own would also reduce his payments to the mother of his first set of children.

if the father has equity in the house then perhaps there's an issue there, but really i think 6 months isn't enough to be able to move in together permanently. i'm sorry you feel your husband's ex is misleading you but she might also be playing it safe for a while, getting to know her new boyfriend well enough before making the permanent jump to living together/marrying. keeping up a residence elsewhere isn't cheap, i doubt it would be worth doing if he really was living properly with her, also some people have to keep their old place if they've signed a lease for say a year. if that's the case then they can't afford to move in with a new partner and fully support them and their children in addition to paying the rent and bills on the flat they're leasing.

camper

they've already admitted living together, so why should the tax payer support her on benefits? Why can't she get a job!? With tax credits, payable to everyone, they wouldn't have this 'problem'. Tax credits are increased for more children and ignore maintainance.
And why on earth do they think that "in this day and age, sleeping together is normal"?
Councils DO speak to each other, AND to the Benefits Agency, so these people robbing the system should not be so complacent.

Ted_Hutchinson

camper wrote:

they've already admitted living together, so why should the tax payer support her on benefits? Why can't she get a job!? With tax credits, payable to everyone, they wouldn't have this 'problem'. Tax credits are increased for more children and ignore maintainance.
And why on earth do they think that "in this day and age, sleeping together is normal"?
Councils DO speak to each other, AND to the Benefits Agency, so these people robbing the system should not be so complacent.

The place for discussion is the Discussion forum. The purpose of this forum is to provide accurate legally correct answers to benefit enquiries. If someone needs advice concerning a benefit claim then they should be able to post here without fearing a ticking off or a lecture. If you don't like the ethics underlying the question then the place to raise and debate those ethics is the Discussion forum. The point is that if people with genuine problems are afraid to ask them here or in any of the other advice forums, because of the fear of harrassment from other posters those in greatest need will be discouraged from posting.

Last year over 50% of surgical admissions to Cardiff hospital were suffering from malnutrition while pensioners are underclaiming at the following rates.

• Between one quarter and a third are not claiming the Pension Credit, formerly Minimum Income Guarantee
• One in ten are underclaiming Housing Benefit
• One in three are not claiming Council Tax Benefit.

The main problem underlying crime and health issues in this country is poverty and the extent of underclaiming of benefits far exceeds fraud which itself is dwarfed by the amount of DWP error caused by the complexity of the system.

margaretclare

Ted_Hutchinson wrote:

Last year over 50% of surgical admissions to Cardiff hospital were suffering from malnutrition while pensioners are underclaiming at the following rates.

• Between one quarter and a third are not claiming the Pension Credit, formerly Minimum Income Guarantee
• One in ten are underclaiming Housing Benefit
• One in three are not claiming Council Tax Benefit.

The main problem underlying crime and health issues in this country is poverty and the extent of underclaiming of benefits far exceeds fraud which itself is dwarfed by the amount of DWP error caused by the complexity of the system.

I completely agree that anyone who falls into the categories which are eligible to claim for the benefits you list, should claim them without delay, and to the maximum possible.

However, I think we in this house (2 pensioners) fall into the categories who are not claiming any of those benefits. Reason is simple: our income is too high. We've been 'targeted' numerous times by well-meaning people who think we *should* be claiming - after all, we're pensioners aren't we, and pensioners, by definition, in many people's eyes are poor, malnourished and unable to keep warm in cold weather.

It ain't us! We're not rich but we're a long way from being poor. We did some sums only a few days ago because my husband asked me 'If/when one of us is left alone, can he/she afford to go on living here?' My answer was 'Yes'. Because I would inherit his SERPS which is another £80 a week on top of his basic SRP of £82 a week. He would inherit my (smaller) SERPS and also some of my pension provision from annuities. We might not want to stay here because the memories might be too painful...but that's different from saying we couldn't afford to. At present we live well on both our incomes, and we can still afford to save approx £300 a month between us.

So please don't give the impression that the figures quoted apply to *all* pensioners.

Margaret Clare