'Rent a room' & housing benefits

Trembling_Turnip

No, sorry if that was the impression, it's not about me working how to commit benefit fraud at all, I just want to get it all clear what exactly the situation is with benefits and this rent a room scheme.

Before she moved in I did rent the room out to a friend for around five years but luckily he was working so it was fairly straight forward. We might in the future want to rent the spare room out again if money gets tight and it would be interesting to know if it could be rented by somebody not connected to us who WAS claiming benefits.

It's been a while since I signed on and the last time I tried to do a joint application with a same sex partner they literally did rip up the forms and told us to redo them. So I was not sure whether her application would be linked to my status.

I didn't realise that the law had changed so that's interesting :T

needaspirin

A cohabiting couple is treated as any other couple who are living together when assessing entitlement to means-tested benefits and tax credits. Their resources and requirements are jointly assessed.

Your income will be taken into consideration when assessing your partner's eligibility to Income Based JSA and Housing Benefit. If you work over 24 h/w she cannot normally claim Income Based JSA.

needaspirin

There is a leaflet on the subject here:
http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/f_rights_of_same_sex-couples.pdf