2 bed housing allowance entitlement when living with a flatmate

[ChilliGlaze]

Hi all, I can not find the answer to this question on the gov site or internet.

I am a single mum of one child, I work but also receive universal credit. As such I am eligible for the two bed housing allowance. £750 for my area, which doesn't get you far.

I would like to move into a three bedroom property with a friend so we can all enjoy a garden. Will I still receive the 2 bed housing allowance if there is another adult on the tenancy agreement? Will they just assume that they are a live in partner and cut my benefits?

One option is a friend who is also a single mother and and also receives £750. Could we combine our £750's and rent a property together?

Thanks for any insight!

I've never done this so don't know if there are pitfalls but I know that the rules are that a partner is someone "to whom you are married or live with as if you were married" and certainly unmarried housemates who aren't parents and aren't in a relationship don't affect each other's benefit claims, so theoretically it should work. You'd need to make sure that your lives are sufficiently separate and independent that you aren't effectively living as a married couple, as you may need to prove this - eg the kitchen cupboards and fridge divided between you, which you wouldn't see in a marriage-type relationship. Locks on bedroom doors and clear divisions of what spaces are yours, theirs or communal. There are probably other ways you can draw firm boundaries between you too. The thing that would ring alarm bells is that you specify a 3 bed house in your OP - are you imagining that the kids from both families share a bedroom? That's unlikely to work out well, so I think you would need 4 bedrooms.

My daughter lives in a 4 bed house with 3 other housemates. Their tenancy is joint and several and each get the 1 bedroom shared property allowance.