Daughter building a credit rating

[baileybrosbuildingandloan]

I am wondering if it's still the same now as it used to be? Years ago, you couldn't get credit if you hadn't had credit. And you had a low credit rating if you'd no credit shown as cleared responsibly, even if you've never had any.
My DD26 is disabled. We share a home, and she has her UC coming in, and will be applying for PIP. She is not required to look for work.
She contributes proportionately to the bills which come out of my account. She had her own account but has little to do with managing her money. I do it for her when needed.
I want to add her to my account as a joint account holder, so that if anything happens to me the account just carries on. I just want to make sure that she doesn't have a low credit rating that is then linked to me. Obvs we will check her credit rating, but before I speak to her about this, I wanted some idea of how it works these days. Anyone know? TIA!

I wouldn't worry - when people talk about needing to build a credit rating through credit cards etc they usually mean for a mortgage or a big personal loan or similar - to be added to your joint account with a presumably quite low overdraft facility it's highly unlikely to be a problem. So long as she hasn't got CCJs against her or anything like that it's fine, she won't have a low credit rating (just not a super high one either but that's fine) - TBH even if she had been in some kind of debt before it won't stop her getting a bank account or basic/high interest credit, my brother who sounds not dissimilar to your DD in terms of disability and income but because he doesn't have a helpful mum managing for him regularly totally fails to pay his bills and runs up debts that get enforced through balliffs much to the distress of everyone somehow seems to still be allowed to get overdrafts and take out high interest credit or store cards under his own steam (I wish he wasn't but I can't stop him!) so I doubt your DD will have an issue.

It might be quite helpful if you do think she might need credit in the future for her to have a very small/manageable facility such as an overdraft on her own account that she never uses or a small credit card paid off in full every month, plus some direct debits regularly coming out of her account but really beyond this you're creating more problems that you're solving, I bet her credit rating is just fine as it is for her needs.

I took my DS for an appointment with a mortgage broker recently and she said to maximise his chances of getting a mortgage application approved he should get a credit card and spend a small amount on it every month but make sure he always paid it off in full each month. That way he was demonstrating he was able to manage credit effectively.

This is pretty much the identical advice I was given 30 years ago so I don't think much has changed!

My DS has a lot of savings and until recently no CC so he’s just got one and is using it each month and paying it off to help his credit rating.

Thank you so much for your detailed reply! It's much appreciated. 😊

Thank you so much! This was the lines o was thinking along. 😊

Thank you so much! I this this is what she needs to do.

My son, who is disabled and gets PIP got a credit card. He uses it for holidays and the odd big ticket item and paid it off in full. Meant he has a good cc when he applied for a mortgage.

He does work as well so that may have helped.