Q2A
Got a quick question asking......
I am staying with my girlfriend who is a student in a shared house in a town away from my
hometown in lancashire. I am 21 as is she- can I sign on here as I am staying here
looking for work? Shared house with her mates - im not registered here yet
This is our reply.......a bit longer than normal because its not straightforward, and there is a fuller answer in the Answer Bank with local contacts because the question was asked in both parts of q2a....
Hi, although you've asked us an apparently straightforward question, nothing about the
welfare benefit system is simple! Here's what we've found out.
Yes, you can sign on for your Jobseekers Allowance where you're living now, or if you
already have a claim running you can ask for it to be transferred to the office where you're
living now.
As you are a couple, you and your girlfriend would normally have to make a joint claim for
Jobseekers Allowance, but as your girlfriend is a student you can ask for her to be exempt
from the joint claim rules.
You may not receive the full amount of Jobseekers Allowance because again, as you are
part of a couple, they will take into account your girlfriend's Student Loan for Maintenance
and any Maintenance Grant she receives when calculating your entitlement to Jobseekers
Allowance. You may also be entitled to Housing Benefit to help pay for your share of the
rent but her Student Loan for Maintenance and Maintenance Grant will be taken into
account when calculating this as well so again you may not get the full amount.
There might also be complications with the Council Tax on the property where your
girlfriend is living. If all the people your girlfriend is sharing the house with are students,
and the house has been exempted from Council Tax as student accommodation, they
may lose their full exemption and have to pay 75% of the Council Tax rate for the house.
This is because the exemption from paying Council Tax only applies to property which is
wholly occupied by students.
If you need more advice about this you can go to your nearest Citizens Advice Bureau.
You can find it in the Phone Book under 'Citizens Advice' or on the Internet at
http://www.adviceguide.org.uk. Your girlfriend can go to Student Services for advice about
this as well.
Q2A does our best to ensure that all answers are correct when they are posted. If this answer is more than 2 months old please ask us it again so we can check it.Expert advice and every precaution has been taken to ensure that the information in this answer is trustworthy and reliable, but the publishers do not hold themselves responsible for any inaccuracy as information can go out of date very quickly. This page gives general guidance only and should not be treated as a complete and authoritative statement of the law. With regard to suggested weblinks given in this reply please note that Lancashire County Council is not responsible for the content of external internet sites. |
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