Can you be on tenancy agreement and still be non dependant? Disabled dd, UC PLEASE HELP

[Lele101]

dd recently became disabled and lost her job.

family member and I on low income, we get uc

universal credit splits rent into 3

someone advised us to change daughter to as non dependant as she doesn’t pay rent. So I’d be split into 2 and not 3

but she is on the tenancy agreement?

they said it doesn’t matter if she is, she can be on tenancy agreement and still be considered non dependant. We just have to explain to uc

is this true? Can anyone advise?

Where did I say she is dependant???

I can't see any reason why you can't take her off the tenancy but I guess UC may see that you have intentionally increased your rent liability and therefore they will have to pay you and your partner more rent element although it is capped anyway I would work out what UC would pay you for a two bed rate, you may find they won't actually pay you much more than you are already getting. Local allowance rates often don't cover full rent.. Not sure how that would be viewed by UC to be honest. It would be different obviously if she had never been on the tenancy in the first place. IS there any reason she doesn't want to claim benefits ?

I’m in a rush writing so I must have made mistakes

I do not consider my daughter dependant. She was never considered dependant. I never ever told them or planning on telling them she is dependant

they currently consider her as joint tenant paying rent

i wanted to change her from that to “non dependant” status which is just adult who lives at home but doesn’t pay rent which she is.

Nooooo I asked if I could change her to non dependant

from tenant

You are getting some very ill informed comments on here op.

You say she is named on your tenancy. I'm assuming you mean that she is named as a joint tenant and has her own liability to pay rent to the landlord. In that case, for UC purposes she is a joint tenant.

For UC purposes a joint tenant cannot be a non dependent

Is she getting housing element in her own UC claim? She should be.

Look up the two bed local housing allowance rate. That is the max they will pay you as your UC rent element. So even if you have full liability for the rent they may not pay you any more than what you currently receive getting 2/3 of it.

Op is asking if she can come off the joint tenancy and become a non dependent instead.

Yes this

It is likely to be better if all three of you are considered joint tenants and all get your own share of the rent in your housing element of UC

She isn't; she's asking can she be classed as non dependant while being a joint tenant and I'm not sure she can.

If you want her to be a non dependent you would need her off the tenancy first. But I presume there's a reason she was on the tenancy in the first place. And it's unlikely to be financially beneficial for your household as a whole to have her as a non dependent

I saw in one of your updates that she isn't claiming anything at the moment. You might need to talk to her about her making a claim because I can't imagine it's easy supporting another adult when you're on a low income and getting some UC yourself

I don’t think you can just take her off the tenancy agreement. You can only end it and hope the landlord is happy to issue a new tenancy agreement for the remaining 2 tenants. If it’s a council tenancy they will look at any arrears and whether you are over occupying. Check it out with an advice centre first

This.

She's not a dependent because of her age, it's got nothing to do with her circumstances? How can she be a dependent if she's of working age? She not a child any more then.

She needs to claim UC herself as a jobseeker, if she's been made redundant. Yes they'll expect that she's paying the rent if she's on the tenancy. So yes, your and your partner's UC claim payment is reduced because you two aren't liable for the full rent. Your DD is liable for some of it. If she's paying rent she'll get housing costs as part of her claim.

If she's not paying rent because you don't want her to, then that's upto you, but that means you're basically giving her a gift of not having to pay her share of the rent. You can't expect UC to give you extra money because you decided to give someone a gift. You'd have to give that gift out of your own pocket. In this case it means UC only paying part of the property's rent, the part you and your partner are liable for, and you then having to pay all the rent because you've chosen not to charge DD her portion of that rent.

So by that token two flatmates flatsharing with a joint tenancy, one would be the other one's dependent? It doesn't make sense.

Why would the DD want to do that though? It means she'd be giving up her right to live there. If she's on the tenancy it's her home, she's an adult sharing with two other adults (who happen to be her parents) and she has a right to live there. Why give that up and put herself at risk of being thrown out without notice? Which could happen if she's not on the tenancy and her relationship with her parents ever breaks down because they're not getting along. She should only come off the tenancy if she's moving out.

These two terms aren't the opposite of each other.

She is a non-dependent whether she is a tenant or not.

If she has a disability she should try to claim PIP. If she's unemployed, which it sounds like she is, she could claim UC job seekers allowance. Why isn't she claiming benefits, at 28 surely she can't expect you to fund her?

Yes exactly. It's not advisable.

I never said i think she’s dependant. Or that I’m planning to say she is dependant.

I'm a LL and as it's a private LL they will have to dissolve current tenancy agreement if you want to take DD off and make you a new one for just the 2 of you and you'd likely to have to do another affordability assessment. I've had to do this for a tenant before.

Yes if you/your partner AND your landlord AND your DD all agree to her coming off the tenancy then you can do this.

But - there's no benefit financially to you doing it. You're entitled to a one bedroom property for you and your partner. That is the case whether DD is on the tenancy agreement or not.

If it's a private rental, Local Housing Allowance for a one bedroom property is the maximum UC will pay you for housing costs. They don't care if you have other people who you'd like to live with or whether those people are actually living with you. As the only people you're responsible for housing, apart from yourself, is DC under 18. DC under 18 are dependents. Nobody else is a dependent, no matter how hard their circumstances are or how much you'd like to help them out.

So if you currently live in a 2 bedroom property and your income is low enough, then you're entitled to have part of the rent paid by UC. Because you don't need 2 bedrooms, you need one.

Although you muddy it by saying UC will pay two thirds of the rent. So do you live in a 3 bedroom property and have a dependent DC who is under 18? If so, then you're entitled to a 2 bedroom property and the 2bed LHA rate would apply to you and be the maximum UC would pay.

There's no benefit to DD from doing it, in terms of rights to live there. There's a benefit to her financially in that she won't be expected to pay rent by the landlord. This makes no real difference to her if she wouldn't be paying the rent anyway, UC would, because she's unemployed.

The other tenant is not my partner. It’s my cousin.

Well saying "can I change her to non-dependent" implies you currently consider her a dependent. She is not a dependent.

How about you bothering to read the rest of the post and take on board the advice I've given you? Instead of getting bogged down on the term non-dependent, which doesn't mean what you appear to think it means.