Help pls

[pinkhairmum]

If my partner who doesn’t live with me offered to start paying me like half of my bills for the 3-4 nights he stays here cos it’s closer to work, would UC have a problem with this? He doesn’t live with me and we won’t for a while because there’s no room but he wants to pay his bit for the time he is here, is this an issue or not?

14:52

And you know what. Do what you want. Nobody said you ARE living with him - they VERY CORRECTLY said that IF he lived with you 3 or 4 nights a week the DWP and the council will almost certainly consider that co-habitation and fraud.

You are very rude and offensive. But you do you. I'm out.

Dunno, UC don’t have rules anymore on how many nights it is and I don’t think they ever have I think that was just something someone said and everyone believed it.

and 14.52, apologies, I physically can’t see everything on this thread through my phone it just isn’t working properly.

Probably best to just let them know the situation and they can decide. If, as you say, it’s clear that he’s not living with you then nothing will change.
If you don’t tell them you risk a massive bill and a potential fraud conviction if they decide to investigate.

I am going to try this once more. You are correct - there is no "rule" and never has been. But I can absolutely guarantee you that 3 or 4 nights a week will do a lot more than raise questions. They will not give you the benefit of the doubt. This is the real world and right now they are on a mission to reduce benefit claims. The thing is that they can literallky decide you have a partner who should be supporting you if her NEVER stays over. I admit that isn't common - bit it is possible. They are rules unto themselves, they can decide pretty much anyting they want and more often than not they will succeed in it.

You actually got treated rather gently on this thread, which surprised me. Very few people insinuated that you were scrounging. But the world as it currently is is looking to blame everyone else for the shit it is in - frauds on benefits, people in small boats, the shading of the moon... This is not a friendly or understanding world, and being absolutely fair, people do have some justification for being annoyed when people claim benefits that they are not entitled to. If you just calm down a little and hear what you said neutrally, you want your partner (not a casual bf, your partner) to move in for half of the week or more and give you money. That money might help you out, but it is INCOME and must be declared. Equally, he may not be there all week but if he is sleeping over, day after day, how different is that from a partner who lives there and goes to work? Maybe even works away a bit?

You are trying to fit this into a narrative that suits you, and I can see why. But it is very risky, and I honestly think that you either don't do it, or you formally ask the DWP (and probably the council too) and get an answer in writing. Don't take risks because this has a very high probability of going very wrong.

Sorry only just managed to see this, yeah, i had a google and it said no so i just wanted to see if anyone had been in the same situation because it’s so hard to find an answer and for some reason it takes ages to get answers back on my journal and whenever I ring they say use the journal lol. I also never meant he was going to do it every month he just wanted to sometimes help me out like say if I get paid 5 times in a month sometimes it leaves me a bit short the next month on bills so he was just gonna pitch in to help me out so I didn’t fall further into debt than I am now, he lives at home and I’d rather him save but if it means one day I can actually be debt free and never have to worry about this shit again then I’d take the help if it’s allowed but if not then idk just gotta live init

And also, I think someone said I’m trying to do fraud because how can he sleep here if there’s no room, what I meant was, he can’t move in until there is space for any of his stuff, which after 5 years of stuff building up in my house and there not even being space for my own clothes he would find it very hard to have anything of his here considering I haven’t even got the space to breath sometimes

I just literally wanted to check before I went to them that anyone else had been in the same situation, that’s all before I even talk to them about it, I always try to research things before I do anything and Google wasn’t helpful and I’ve only found one comment in the whole thread that was helpful so yeah I’ll speak to them next week

How extremely rude after multiple people helped you. You only found helpful the answer that you wanted to get.

How can you have so much stuff if you're in crippling, stressful debt?

This is a really frustrating thread to read. You've been given good, accurate, honest advice and you've responded with rudeness. Benefits are not there to fix your debt mistakes. They are there to give you and your child/ren a basic standard of living. If your boyfriend is willing to do that, then why should the rest of us continue?

I imagine buying all the stuff is what put her in debt!

How is there not room for him but he can stay 3/4 nights