PIP, ESA and 28 day rule

[RadAim]

Hello guys,

I have a question regarding Appendix 2, in the Maintenance section for being exempt from the financial requirement:
"Do you have any income or savings that will still be available to you once you come to the UK?"

If you don't want to include savings in your application part of being exempt from the financial requirement, should you still write that you will have savings or not?

[ariamus]

If you don't wish to show your savings then you can possibly just tick No.

However, if you have savings, why wouldnt you want to show them to further prove you can support yourselves?

If you are on some benefits you aren't allowed to have much savings and if you showed your savings, it might bring up other issues for you...

[RadAim]

I ask due to my bank statements being in a foreign language and I don't know how I'd go about having them translated when we already meet the adequate maintenance without that so it was just to reduce hassle, but I can definitely get my bank statements sorted if it's needed.

You mention some benefits that are the sponsors are affected by the applicants savings?
My fiance is on ESA, i am aware that once I marry her, my savings affect her benefit, but does my savings affect her benefit whilst I am on a fiance visa staying with her for 6 months? I can't seem to find anything about that anywhere.

[RadAim]

Hi,

My fiance is on PIP and ESA and lives with her parents in a council house. The tenancy agreement is in her parents name. Her parents receive housing benefit and council tax reduction. On her parents housing benefit and council tax form it says they receive deductions due to my fiance living there as a non-dependant who is on ESA. My fiance pays her parents the difference in what the deduction is due to her living there. She doesn't pay her parents any rent or bills.

My question is, in the adequate maintenance question it asks how much rent and council tax the sponsor pays, is this money that she pays for council tax and housing benefit reduction to her parents due to her being a non-dependant, classed as the rent and council tax she pays, or is it not counted and she is classed as paying zero rent and council tax as the deductions are in her parents claims (and states they must pay it whether she pays them any rent or not) due to her living in their council house?

[CR001]

Topics Merged (click to read)

[RadAim]

Thank you for correcting the post. Could anyone please help with the question I posted?

[RadAim]

Anyone? Bump

[RadAim]

Bump.. Anyone Help?
I need someone's opinion based on experience or knowledge at least, or common sense perhaps? Just trying to make sure we are doing the right thing.

[Londoner007]

Keep it simple - just show your sponsors financial details only if they meet the requirement.

There is absolutely no reason to show you have more than the required financial means as indicated by ariamus. This can confuse the case worker.

[ariamus]

Keep it simple - just show your sponsors financial details only if they meet the requirement.

There is absolutely no reason to show you have more than the required financial means as indicated by ariamus. This can confuse the case worker.

I agree with Londoner007. I was under the impression the sponsor is on benefits and they were relying on only that income to meet the financial requirement - in which case personally I would have showed the savings so to not solely relying on the State to support both.

[RadAim]

Thank you for answering the first question. Would you be able to answer the second question I posted above?
I'll quote it again

Hi,

My fiance is on PIP and ESA and lives with her parents in a council house. The tenancy agreement is in her parents name. Her parents receive housing benefit and council tax reduction. On her parents housing benefit and council tax form it says they receive deductions due to my fiance living there as a non-dependant who is on ESA. My fiance pays her parents the difference in what the deduction is due to her living there. She doesn't pay her parents any rent or bills.

My question is, in the adequate maintenance question it asks how much rent and council tax the sponsor pays, is this money that she pays for council tax and housing benefit reduction to her parents due to her being a non-dependant, classed as the rent and council tax she pays, or is it not counted and she is classed as paying zero rent and council tax as the deductions are in her parents claims (and states they must pay it whether she pays them any rent or not) due to her living in their council house?

[Londoner007]

£0

[RadAim]

£0

Despite the fact that my fiance pays her mum the deduction made by the housing benefit and council tax deduction as a non-dependent? which adds up to 81 pounds a month, however, it is not rent it's contribution. I just am wondering as how to word it to the immigration officer, since my fiance does not actually pay any rent, it's only contributing what is being deducted by housing benefit from her parents. I would appreciate your advice!

[Londoner007]

Your confusing the words rent and contribution. If your partner pay £81 pounds contribution towards the rent then it is rent, in which case it would be £81 you write. They calculating your partners income (from PIP etc) against outgoing to come to total of adequate maintenance.

So (net income) - (rent + council tax) needs to be greater than 114.85 per week

[RadAim]

Your confusing the words rent and contribution. If your partner pay £81 pounds contribution towards the rent then it is rent, in which case it would be £81 you write. They calculating your partners income (from PIP etc) against outgoing to come to total of adequate maintenance.

So (net income) - (rent + council tax) needs to be greater than 114.85 per week

Okay, I understand.

The situation though is that because my fiance's mum is her carer, my fiance sends her mum about 500 pounds a month, while keeping 500 pounds to herself. The reason for that is because my fiance needs her money managed by her mum as her carer due to medical reasons, so her mum buys her food, her clothes, her medicine and all her living costs, while 81 pounds of that 500 pounds given to her, is towards rent contribution (making up for the housing benefit deduction). My question is, how would we be able to prove in that situation that only 81 pounds of that money is paid towards rent on my fiance's part? Because I have seen a question on the Appendix 2 form asking the following:

How much of your sponsor’s total monthly income is given to their family members and other dependents?

She DOES NOT give them it in the sense of support, she gives her mum 500 pounds so that she as her carer would pay for her food and her living costs. It is not SUPPORT in any sense whatsoever. Would the answer to that question be £0? and could you also tell me how we would be able to say that 81 pounds of that money is paid towards rent? It's a little bit of a difficult situation but I could use a bit of advice or opinion.

[Londoner007]

I would personally put £0 as all rent is paid by the mother who is responsible for paying the housing rent. In terms of what is spent out of pocket looking after the mother its not an obligation so its also a £0.

Have you actually worked out the total of your Adequate Maintenance?

Surely if your wife's only source of income is from PIP etc then as a non-dependant they will not be paying more than £10 per month for rent.

[RadAim]

I would personally put £0 as all rent is paid by the mother who is responsible for paying the housing rent. In terms of what is spent out of pocket looking after the mother its not an obligation so its also a £0.

Have you actually worked out the total of your Adequate Maintenance?

Surely if your wife's only source of income is from PIP etc then as a non-dependant they will not be paying more than £10 per month for rent.

Basically, she receives £137 a week from PIP and £114 in ESA a week, a total of £1004 a month, which half of it is given to my fiance's mother so that my fiance's mother would take care of my disabled fiance. The tricky part is that once I do get the fiance visa, my fiance would most likely have to go off of ESA due to my savings being £15k plus hers £8k (a total of £23k savings which is above the £16k savings requirement for benefits in ESA). I was wondering if this would cause any issues for FLR after we do get married.

[RadAim]

1. In the Adequate Maintenance section question:

"4.14 How much does your sponsor spend each month on living costs?"

What is the purpose of that question and what do they mean by living costs? I thought that immigration is mainly concerned with "housing costs" aka rent and tax when checking whether we can accommodate ourselves adequately, so I am wondering as to what that question means and what is its purpose?

[RadAim]

Can anyone help me with the last question?

[RadAim]

Anyone?

[RadAim]

Could anyone please help?

[RadAim]

Hello,

My fiancee is exempt from the financial requirement and receives ESA and PIP.

My question is, does the 28 day rule apply to the benefit award letters for both, and bank statements?

Also, what is the 28 day rule for at all? Is it for all documents, or just financial? and when is considered the date of application if you're applying online, the date you attend biometrics appointment or day you PAY for the application? So confusing.

I need some clarification, thank you!

[Londoner007]

28 day rule is for employment and financial documents,
As you are on pip you are required to submit an up to date award letter. So call PIP get them to send you one through the post and then submit that.

For bank statements it shouldn't be older than 28 day, so that it shows your latest pip payments going in and any other money that you are relying on. |InshaAllah that clears it for you and you have a positive decision.

[RadAim]

28 day rule is for employment and financial documents,
As you are on pip you are required to submit an up to date award letter. So call PIP get them to send you one through the post and then submit that.

For bank statements it shouldn't be older than 28 day, so that it shows your latest pip payments going in and any other money that you are relying on. |InshaAllah that clears it for you and you have a positive decision.

Thank you so much for your reply, its helpful.

We have a PIP award letter stating that the benefit will be paid without any further assessments until 2020, the letter is not going to be 28 days before the application, is that going to be a problem?

Also, what is considered the date of the application?

[Londoner007]

No problem. I know original one will be older. Home Office just want to see an "up to date" award letter so something dated within 3 months i'd say. So ask DWP to send you award letter which confirms award. You can then submit it with both original and new letter together.

Date of application is when you submit application online.