Living with an acquaintance, my contract expired and I have no job - rent allowance

Hello everybody,

I am currently sharing the apartment with an opposite sex aquaintance. We are not a couple and never were.

I just lost my job and I am thinking of appling for jobseekers benefit and rent allowance, as I don't think I can manage without these and I will have to move back with my parents.

He has a full-time job and is paying only for half of the rent, can I apply for rent allowance or will he be considered a "cohabitant"? Should I ask him to move before I apply?

Firstly apply for Jobseekers Benefit immediately, and make sure to state clearly on the application form that you are a house sharer (NOT a co-habitant).

Have you been renting this apartment for some time or are you the owner?

Not to be em indelicate but you are sharing a two bed flat?

vandriver said:

Not to be em indelicate but you are sharing a two bed flat?

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Our living room is a separate room (it's not connected with the kitchen) and he sleeps there, on the extensible couch. I do not use his room.


I am not the owner of the apartment, but I am the one who signed the lease. We had an agreement that if I ever ask him to move out, he will.

You may have a job to convince them you are not a couple. They will certainly assume you are.