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ESA and help towards rent if living with parent

JoM

Hi there. My adult son is on ESA and living with us. We had never charged him anything towards his housing. However our circumstances have changed and we are struggling to pay our mortgage. I have been told conflicting advice about whether we can charge him rent, and whether he would be able to claim housing benefit. Does anyone have any advice? Many thanks

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Comments

Kimi87

Generally the answer is no as your son has no formal liability to pay rent. So no entitlement to UC Housing Element (housing benefit replacement for those of working age).

What lots of families do is charge "keep" which your son would need to pay from his ESA income.

JoM

Thank you. That’s helpful to know and depressing to hear!

poppy123456

See link for confirmation. Scroll to "renting from a close relative you live with." https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/benefits/claiming_benefits_if_you_rent_from_family This doesn't mean you can't charge him rent. It would still be cheaper for him than if he lived elsewhere.

JoM

thanks so much for these replies. I’m new to the forum and this is really helpful. It’s a tricky one for us as if our son wasn’t living with us we would definitely have to rent the room out, as my partner has been unemployed for a significant amount of time. So in truth, charging him rent instead would have been really helpful. But it looks like this isn’t a possibility. We do need to look at whether he’s claiming all of the benefits he’s entitled to. He’s on ESA support group if that means anything to you… thanks again.

poppy123456

Why isn't it possible to charge your son rent? (board) although he can't claim for help with any rent, this doesn't mean he shouldn't pay you some money for living in the house.

As for benefits, the only other benefit possible to claim now will be Universal Credit. If he claims UC any Income Related ESA he's claiming will end after 2 weeks. Does he claim a disability benefit such as PIP/ADP or DLA?

As your partner is now out of work have you used a benefits calculator to check entitlement to Universal Credit (assuming you are under state pension age) for yourselves? It's a means tested benefit so you will need to claim as a couple and your joint circumstances will be taken into consideration.

You won't be able to claim help for any housing costs. You can look at Support For mortgage Interest. (SMI) but this is a loan and needs to be repaid back in the future if you sell your home. You need to be claiming a qualifying means tested benefit for this. https://www.gov.uk/support-for-mortgage-interest/eligibility

JoM

thanks so much. Yes he does contribute a bit from his ESA for food, utilities etc but not for any housing related stuff. Yes we’ll look into wider family entitlement

66Mustang

I agree that I don't think it's unreasonable to charge him rent out of his ESA, I pay quite a lot of rent to my family out of my ESA and PIP, about £100 a week, but I don't begrudge it because it's cheaper than having my own house

That said, I don't agree that wanting some help is wrong. The DWP have decided you don't deserve of a couple of hundred quid a month to keep a roof over your head, so, is it an alternative for him to move out and claim several hundred pounds per month in housing benefit, as that seems to be what the DWP would prefer you to do??

That way, it would reduce your costs and you could also rent his room out like you say

Jimm_Alumni

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/886577#Comment_886577

I think woodbine that they are just looking for any options to help with their mortgage payments so they don't lose their home. He contributes towards food and utilities but not towards the house itself.

@JoM I haven't seen you mention PIP at all, Poppy asked about it too I saw. If your son isn't receiving it have you looked into it?

JoM

hi thanks all. He doesn’t claim PIP at the moment. I’ll look in to that with him.