Jobseekers Benefit + Sharing with Rent Allowance person

dublindiehard

I appear to have got myself into a pretty dire situation through no fault of my own because the person I am sharing with is pretty much most likely breaking the system and I am having to lose out because of it and I am really stressed about it.

Basically myself and my ex broke up approx 10 months ago and she stole a lot of my money. She moved abroad but because the money is outside Ireland, the courts could not do a thing about it since it would be a civil matter because of the way it was done.

Because of this I had to move out of the place we were renting after a while because the rent €1,400 was crippling me on my own but I entered in a few contracts that I had to see out, so two months after she left I left the place to move in with a friend who offered me a room at mates rates and I gave my landlord notice and a few days before I was due to move my friend backed out.

To cut a long story short, the friend was relocated outside Ireland and the move with them fell through. I then looked on daft and moved in with a Polish girl who seemed nice and had a young child. Now I know this maybe wasn't the smartest idea, but the problem was, that because of my friend backing out at last moment I had to find somewhere, and this person offered me a place quickly.

5 weeks ago I was made redundant and given a decent pay out and my flatmate told me that she was claiming rent allowance for the rent of the full place and not declaring the rent that I was paying to her and she is getting €1250 rent allowance paid to her on top of her social welfare benefits for jobseekers. I had no idea she was claiming it in this way since when I moved in I understood everything was being declared.

Anyway, now she has informed me if I do claim social welfare, this will alert the Welfare office and taxman that there is someone else living at this address and they will likely they cut her rent allowance because I am also paying her rent on top of this. She essentially told me that if I claimed social welfare I would have no choice but to move out because it would vastly reduce her income. Essentially this appears to be an ultimatum to me to not claim or I will be kicked out.

Now I feel like I am between a rock and a hard place. I have to either claim nothing and hope I get a job by the end of November when my redundancy pay runs out or claim and be getting social welfare but being kicked out at any moments notice.

Any advice?

Tigger

In the old days people used to use friends addresses to get around this sorta thing but the department got wise and used to want to call out to see where you live which became hassel that was before mobile phones so people sometimes pretended to be out
Donno how it works now , ideally you rent a room from someone that's working I suppose. Hope you get sorted
Ask if you can pay less rent while you are looking as you can't claim because of her setup and money is tight

The Raptor

You're unemployed, you have to claim. How will you live. As far as I know, if you don't claim, questions will be asked if you sign on at a later date. So there's no question about it, you have to claim.

Start looking for a new place and move out. Do you really want to pay half the rent when they're also getting rent allowance on top. I'm sure they'll get someone in after you but rat them out. That is completely unfair.

dublindiehard

Tigger wrote: »

In the old days people used to use friends addresses to get around this sorta thing but the department got wise and used to want to call out to see where you live which became hassel that was before mobile phones so people sometimes pretended to be out

Donno how it works now , ideally you rent a room from someone that's working I suppose. Hope you get sorted.

Ask if you can pay less rent while you are looking as you can't claim because of her setup and money is tight

Yes - normally I would not have took this room, but since I was in a difficult position I had no real option, my plan long term was to find my feet again this year and move to a place of my own next year once I dealt with all the crappy debt and problems my ex left behind but the redundancy has fixed my short term financial problems and allowed me to clear the debts that my ex left me with but pretty much put a timebomb above my head because I can't claim SW.

The thing is someone told me that if I claim jobseekers they probably won't even notice that someone in the house is claiming rent allowance as well as they won't even check, but if they do essentially she says she will get a much lower rate of rent allowance and she will not be able to cope with that so I will have no choice but to push me out and obviously finding a new place whilst unemployed is not going to be easy to say the least.

Essentially she is double claiming, claiming for a full amount of rent allowance as a sole occupier and getting rent from me on top.

dublindiehard

The Raptor wrote: »

You're unemployed, you have to claim. How will you live. As far as I know, if you don't claim, questions will be asked if you sign on at a later date. So there's no question about it, you have to claim.

Start looking for a new place and move out. Do you really want to pay half the rent when they're also getting rent allowance on top. I'm sure they'll get someone in after you but rat them out. That is completely unfair.

I'm well aware of the fact that there will be questions if I don't claim. But if I do claim the chances are I will be evicted at a moments notice. That is not something I can risk and the trouble is nobody is going to take me on at a new place when I don't have a job that is pretty much obvious.

I have been paying half the rent when they are getting allowance on top for a good few months now! The only reason I realised it was in conversation a few days ago. I agree that it is totally unfair but I have to look after myself as well and right now I can't risk being evicted until I have something else lined up.

In short, I agree with what you are saying, but not so simple.

Gatling

dublindiehard wrote: »

Essentially she is double claiming, claiming for a full amount of rent allowance as a sole occupier and getting rent from me on top.

She's committing fraud basically .
She's certainly not getting 1200+ in rent allowance not for a single person ,
If your paying her the equivalent of the same rent chances are the tax isn't getting paid from her extra income either,

Id walk away as fast as I could then inform social welfare and the tax office

dublindiehard

Gatling wrote: »

She's committing fraud basically .
She's certainly not getting 1200+ in rent allowance not for a single person ,
If your paying her the equivalent of the same rent chances are the tax isn't getting paid from her extra income either,

Id walk away as fast as I could

She has a son which enables her to do that.

It's all very well saying walk away as fast as I can, however at the same time that's not practical until a new place is lined up and being out of work makes that harder.

mp22

Sign on straight away,get back on daft and move.
Report fraud

Thread closed