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jobseekers and rent an room income calculation

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  • 02-11-2020 12:24pm
    #1
    curious minds
    Registered Users Posts: 26 ✭


    Hi,

    I am posting this for a friend who is on jobseekers benefit 203/wk
    he is thinking of renting a room in his house at 430/month (to help with mortgage payments. He would like to know if his jobseekers benefit is going to be affected?

    Once his credits run out and he might have to apply for jobseekers allowance, how much will he be entitled to if he gets 430/month for the room.
    For the means test - he would be getting less than 100 per week for the room. So how would the social welfare calculate his entitlement?

    Is it even worth renting the room?
    Thanks!
    Tagged:


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    #2
    StackSteevens
    Closed Accounts Posts: 873 ✭✭✭StackSteevens


    curious minds wrote: »
    Hi,

    I am posting this for a friend who is on jobseekers benefit 203/wk
    he is thinking of renting a room in his house at 430/month (to help with mortgage payments. He would like to know if his jobseekers benefit is going to be affected?

    Once his credits run out and he might have to apply for jobseekers allowance, how much will he be entitled to if he gets 430/month for the room.
    For the means test - he would be getting less than 100 per week for the room. So how would the social welfare calculate his entitlement?

    Is it even worth renting the room?
    Thanks!


    1. Like all BENEFITS, Jobseekers is a PRSI-based entitlement - so there's no means test.

    2. For Jobseekers Allowance the worst case scenario is that he would have his weekly payment reduced by the fuill value of the rent received, however the Guidelines state as follows:
    "In Jobseeker's Allowance cases, moneys received by an applicant whether as contributions towards the expenses of the household or otherwise are to be included in the assessment of means. These will ordinarily be payments made by members of the household as contributions to household expenses ....

    Where, however, board and lodgings or other benefits in kind are provided by the claimant in return for the contributions referred to, the cost of such benefits is to be deducted from the amount of the contribution."

    https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/11f23e-means-assessment-guidelines/#cash-income

    I don't know how this would be interpreted by the Department but he could certainly argue that he is providing board, cooking facilities, light and heat to the tenant so the whole of his rental income shouldn't be reckonable in the means test.

    Maybe try the Citizens Info. infoline.


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