Charging teenagers housekeep

[AngL75]

Currently my daughter still lives at home and works part-time.
Since she turned 18 at the beginning of this year I lost her child benefit.
At my request she has been paying me £25 a week to replace it.
She is now in a long distance relationship.
So I have agreed that her boyfriend can come and live with us so they can be together.
The dilemma that I have is that I don't know how much housekeep to charge them as a couple.
They will be buying their own food and drinks.
The boyfriend has a part-time job too but he will be able to get over time each week as and when needed.
How much should I ask them for ?

£15 each

Don't think so

They are buying their own food and drinks
they’ve got part time jobs
they must be utterly broke -
what do you want from them / actually need from them ???

They should rent a studio flat together and claim housing benefit.
Do you have loads of spare room(s) ?

Twenty quid per week each feels fair. For bills these days!

Where are his parents? Why is he moving in with you?

Do you need the money?

Do you want them just to cover the costs of them being there (e.g. share of utilities) or to pay a higher amount to get them used to budgeting/understanding things cost money?
Why do they only have part time jobs - if it's from choice, that's different to if they are studying on the side?
how much are they earning?

If it helps I charge my teen £400 board, but that includes things like food and toiletries and he works full time.

There is NO WAY on this EARTH I would agree to a long distance 18yr old boyfriend coming to live in my house sorry…no. Why are they both only working part time? Do they not want more from life? Good god!!

£100 a month. £50 each seems fair if they’re buying their own food & drinks

Why is she working part time?

Are they still in education ?
is that why working part time ?
if so - if u don’t need the money, support your daughter to remain in education rather than into low paid work to pay the bills for you ?

At least £50 a week.

Are you going to be doing their laundry meals etc? Please say no. Why cant he move somewhere local rent a room? She is only 18

She's at school or college, I'm guessing?.

i would not let the boyfriend move in. Do you want her to stop striving to accomplish any goals? She needs to be focused on a career.

if your daughter is not in education, she needs to get a full time job and pay her way in the world. If she is still in education, you should not be charging her anything.

If she’s still in education they’d still be getting child benefit.

Far too little detail to be able to offer a considered opinion. Mainly why are they both working part time - lazy or ???? And why on earth have you agreed to this? She’s far too young, particularly as they can’t actually support themselves - they're just playing at being grown ups.

You're basically letting a stranger move in. Do you need a lodger?

Just to note, If you are a single parent and getting any benefit, keep in mind that if her boyfriend applies for anything using your address, it could affect your allowances too. If this applies to you! Make sure also that you can manage any unexpected increase in bills, like if he games all eve or leaves the heat on etc. Maybe a rota for the housework could be a good idea to have up too

I think asking your kid to replace the government benefit you got to help provide for her (not for you, for her) because you decided to have a child is weird.

But if you want them to pay to cover themselves then work out what 1 persons % of the household bills is (so divide the current costs by how many people live there) and then times that by two to cover two people obvs not including food as they’re paying that themselves. As they’re sharing a room I would only charge them the rent % of one person between the two as they’re not taking up any extra room.

If you have a mortgage I wouldn’t charge them any rent just the bills % as that is your asset not theirs.

It's really hard to get a full time job. My own teenager has had no problem getting jobs - retail, fast food etc - but it's always on a part time contact. Sometimes you can get over time but there's no guarantee.

It's normal to have multiple part time jobs though ...

As others have said, too difficult to put a figure on it without other information. The main thing being why she is only working PT.

Completely separately, why are you letting a teenage lodger that you don't really know at all, into your home ??
I do think if he is adult enough to be moving 'long distance' to live with a girlfriend, then he needs to be 'adult' enough to work out how he is going to finance that, as in getting a FT job, and living in a house/ flat share, paying rent and bills.

That's almost impossible in the scenario I'm describing. There's an expectation that you are available for shifts in your part time job on multiple days a week - you couldn't combine two separate jobs.
There will be jobs with regular hours somewhere I'm sure but dc has worked in 4 places so far and all were part time and random shifts.

Don't house the boyfriend, there's no need, and it will pressure your daughter to keep dating him instead of going and enjoying life, university/full time employment she should be striving towards.
If he wants to date your daughter he's perfectly capable of housing himself if he chooses.