Council say me paying parents back is income?

Nigel_Carron

OK my Parents live in Swindon and local council say that the £15 I send them every week to repay a debt is an income & hence reduces their rent by an amount. This seems unfair - the debt was £1500 approx and was consolidated with some other debts of theirs and is still being repaid. I only found out this recently by accident when discussing the amount left (£375 approx).

So are the council allowed to decide the £15 is income rather than what it really is.. Obviously if I had known I would have tried to avoid this situation by paying direct or another method.

Any advice is appreciated..

dag_2

That surprises me. I think that movements of money within the family are not usually considered income. If anything, they're usually considered a capital transaction.

If you paid it all off in one go, then I'm sure the council would consider it a capital transaction - however, you still need to be careful about an extended family living in each other's pockets. Sometimes, money that is being held by members of the extended family is counted as though it were your own savings.

Making small but frequent payments does make it look like you're living in each other's pockets - so it might be better to pay them larger amounts less frequently.

Ted_Hutchinson

I think there is room for appeal.

We had another instance a few months ago where a father was paying his son's car loan as the son had lost his job. In that case even though the money was going into the son's bank account and appeared as regular income, the decision maker allowed the claim and ignored this regular payment.