advice re having lodgers and claiming benefits

finessejoe

OK,
this is my first post so be gentle!
Here's my predicament.
My partner and I have a joint mortgage.
We are both self employed creatives and are currently going thru a dry spell.

We have 2 lodgers who pay a total of £800 a month everything included.
Our mortgage is about £1170 p/m (£950 or so is interest)

We are applying for jobseekers allowance, interview is on Monday,
as we are very close to the end of our savings and have big debts.
Will we be able to get JSA?
Or is it another type of benefit i should apply for?

I'm V Confused in case you hadn't noticed!!

Can anyone offer me some advice? - anything at all would be great
Should I break the lodgers rent down so it's not fully inclusive,
ie: make 25percent of their rent into "bills"??

Thanks in advance

Scarlett1

The rental money will be treated as income for a means tested benefit, JSA for a couple is £90 odd so you wont get anything (unless anyone else knows different), do you have a valid tenancy agreement for your lodgers to show the benefits people ?

finessejoe

Thanks for the reply, I feared that was the case...
so I'm thinking we might be better off getting rid of one of the lodgers
so we would then only have £84 a week income.
Would that make a difference?

I'm assuming that would be better, as:
a. my house would be less full, we'd get back our living room, and
b. we'd be below the income threshold to recieve benefits

can anyone shed some light on this??

seven-day-weekend

I still don't think you will get much in the way of JSA because your income will be £84 and JSA is only £90 so AFAIK they will deduct your £84 from your £90 (assuming this is income-based JSA we are talking about).

Someone will correct me if I am wrong.

I think you need to take advice from a Welfare Rights advisor at the CAB.

blue-kat

these might be informative:

http://www.disabilityalliance.org/ - look up 'mortgage interest'

http://www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk/JCP/Partners/Allowancesandbenefits/Dev_010056.xml.html

http://northernireland.shelter.org.uk/advice/advice-3543.cfm

look throught he archieves of http://www.lasa.org.uk/

good luck !

terryw

Hope you get an authoritative answer here. If not try the newsgroup uk.gov.social-security as there are helpful experts there.

good luck

Conor_3

You'd do better claiming Working Tax Credits, than JSA.

firesidemaid

can you not just get 'any' job for the time being -go through an agency if necessary. i would expect you can earn at least £1500 between you that way - much more than claiming benefits and then you get to keep both lodgers money too. approx £2300 income in total before extra income, ebay etc etc

lil_me

Loosing £800 a month to have under £400 a month to me would seem a little silly, your income is currently higher than JSA rates by over double so keeping the lodgers can only be beneficial to try to keep paying your bills.

vix2000

have you checked out the governments ''rent a room'' scheme? I know its tax free and doesnt affect tax credit, but not sure about benefits.

calleyw

vix2000 wrote: »

have you checked out the governments ''rent a room'' scheme? I know its tax free and doesnt affect tax credit, but not sure about benefits.

It is only tax free up to £4,250 per year which is £354 month so tax should be paid on the other £446. And the rest declared as income so it would effect tax credits.

More info here

Yours

Calley