How will renting out a spare room affect benefits (UK)?

Question

My my is disabled and claims incapasity benifit, income support as well as housing and council tax benifit, she is thinking of renting out her spare room, does anyone know how this will affect her benifits or where i can find out? Thanks

Answer 1

Different benefits are affected in different ways.

For council tax, single occupants get a 25% discount, which would disappear once more than 1 person lives at a property. The income would largely be classified as income, for council tax assessment purposes, and so she will have to contribue more towards council tax.Similarly with housing benefit, she will have her income reassessed to include the bulk of the rent paid. This would then mean she would lose some of her housing benefit.

Income support allows you to earn £5 per week, before deduction of every penny above this. Though she can claim the expenses of accomodating her lodger from the rent she gets, before deductions are calculated. She could claim decorating costs, repairs etc included with day to day costs.

Hope this helps. From a similar situation. Good luck! Rob

Answer 2

Hope this helps

Payments from the claimant’s tenants, sub-tenants or boarders
Tenants and sub-tenants (where accommodation only is provided) – disregard £4 plus £9.25 if heating is included in the charge. This is applied to each tenant or sub-tenant. So if your daughter charges £85 rent she would only be able to keep £13.25

Boarders (where both accommodation and meals are provided) – disregard the first £20 plus 50% of any balance. This is applied to each boarder. If you daughter charges £85 rent and provides Breakfast and a couple of cooked meals a week she would keep £32.50 of her benefits (85-20= 65 divided by 2 = 32.50)

She could take a tenant/boarder who is on benefits if she wants to they could claim Housing benefit to help with their rent.

She can get a rent book from W H Smiths for about £1.50.

Just as an after thought you did not mention that you mum gets Disability Living Allowance or Attendance Allownace (depends on her age) I would look into this if she is disabled and then she may not need a lodger.

Hope that helps

Answer 3

Taking in a lodger will probably affect the amount of benefits your Mum can get. For example, if she is receiving housing benefit and she takes in a lodger, the amount she gets will almost certainly be reduced as they'll assume the lodger is paying rent. This will be the case even if your lodger is living rent-free. If she simply doesn't tell them, she may end up having to repay an overpayment, or be prosecuted for fraud.

This also applies to income support (IS) and job seekers' allowance (JSA), and the amount of council tax she has to pay may increase.

Your mother would be best to get advice from the CAB about the impact of a lodger on her benefits.

Answer 4

It will be classed as income and housing benefits for one, and possibly council tax, will be affected to begin with. You must also be careful ; if this is a council or housing association property, then there are strict rules about sub letting oif any part of the property

Answer 5

You need to ask permission from a landlord where you will be renting if it's OK to rent the room out. The landlord will need to approve of who they allow to move in & will expect a security deposit & good credit. If you own the home you can rent the room out; however, you need to stipulate who pays for what & what the basic rules are to live there. Giving up the privacy sometimes really isn't worth the extra money you can get. Once someone is living there it isn't that easy to get them out.

Answer 6

The first answerer is wrong.

Your best and most accurate and reliable source of info is Citizens Advice. I worked in one for 18 years, but have been left too long to risk giving you any info that may be wrong and/or out of date.

Answer 7

The Citizens Advice Bureau can tell you exactly what will happen and what benefits will be affected. Their advice is free.

Answer 8

its an income, so she will lose means tested benefits

Answer 9

u lose it