Jobseekers allowance and rental income

[Brendan Burgess]

A friend of mine was on Jobseekers' Benefit which has now run out.

He has been told that his Jobseekers' Allowance will be reduced by his rental income of €75 a week through letting a room in his house to help him pay the mortgage.

They stopped paying him anything in Mid December while they are assessing him.

He has a mortgage repayments of €350 a month so, say €80 a week.

He is arguing that the €75 rent pays the cost of the mortgage.

As it happens he has a split tracker so the interest element is very small - around €16 a week.

There is no financial benefit in him having a tenant I presume?

And there is no help with mortgage payments since the MIS was discontinued.

Brendan

 

[Bronte]

It is irrelavant what the rent is used for. It's an income he has. He might as well get rid of the tenant, or let him stay there rent free and help with bills!

 

[gipimann]

Brendan,

This is an excerpt from the Means Assessment guideline which applies in your friend's case -

(e) Property partly occupied by the claimant.
Any cash income from the portion of a house that is not personally used or enjoyed, is assessable against the claimant as income.

If he has already declared the rent as income and then finishes the tenancy, it might be argued by the Department that he has deprived himself of an income, and assess the "lost" income as means anyway. I'm not sure how strictly this might be applied where a room is rented - it's not the same as signing over property/farm, etc.

Deprivation of income
(This provision relates to all schemes. See also section on "Property Transferred" above.)

In any case where a person or his/her spouse, civil partner or cohabitant has deliberately, either directly or indirectly, deprived himself/herself of income in order to qualify for a pension or allowance, that income shall be assessed as means as if the person or couple had not deprived themselves of same.

Link to means assessment guideline:


If the guy has no income at present, he should apply for Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) while he waits on the outcome of the jobseeker's assessment. The rental income will be assessed the same way for SWA, but at least he'll have something to live on. Any SWA paid will be deducted from arrears of jobseeker's when it is sorted.

 

[theo67]

It should not be reduced by 75.I think mortgage interest and 20% allowed off gross rent.See (e) of Property Personally Used.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Hi gipimann

Thanks for that. It's fairly clear so.

theo - (e) is fairly clear. Are you saying that the practice is different? Or is it your opinion on what you think would be a good idea?

Brendan

 

[Brendan Burgess]

He has now got the results of his assessment.

They have deemed his means as €57 a week. So that is about 80% of rent.

Brendan

 

[gipimann]

Brendan,

theo could be right - this paragraph follows on from the one I quoted in the means assessment guideline: The underlined bit (my underline) may apply in this case.

If a portion of the house is being let or is being used for business purposes the following should apply. Deductions from profits should be allowed in respect of ground rent and mortgage interest (not the full amount of the loan repayment) in proportion to the area used for business purposes. If rooms are let furnished, 5% of the gross amount received is allowed for wear and tear and 15% of the gross receipts maybe allowed for voids (i.e. periods when the accommodation is vacant between lettings).

I misread the paragraph as applying only to letting for business purposes - apologies (and thanks to theo).
The wear and tear and void allowance may already have been applied in the assessment of your friend's Jobseeker's Allowance payment.