ESA and family staying

I am in the ESA support group. I rent a council home. My husband and I have been separated for 16 years and both our names are still on the rent book. He suffers with COPD and of late we are both living in the same house, I am bipolar and need help leaving the house. He is quite ill and needs someone to keep an eye on him. The rent is split down the middle and we both receive housing benefit based on our income. This didn't affect my ESA. My daughter and son in law are having very bad financial situation and want to move in here with their 5 children until they can get themselves on their feet. It will be very cramped but i'm willing to do this to help them. Since they are non dependents I realise that me and my almost ex will lose our housing benefit - but will I lose my ESA? I had to go to appeal to get it and I just can't go through that again. It was a year of living nightmare. Any help would be much appreciated, thank you

Hi Gail,

Welcome to the forum, you might want to have a look at the following FAQ which explain where everything is

Welcome to Benefits and Work

The only potential problem I can see is if your are on income-related ESA and your ex is also on income-related DWP benefits. The DWP could decide that you and your ex are 'living together as husband and wife', which would be an issue.

The other situation that might change things is if you are receiving an ESA premium because you are living alone.

If either of these apply, I suggest you get face2face advice (from somewhere like CAB) to make sure you will not run into trouble.

If you have any further questions or comments, please reply to this rather than starting a new topic. You will find it easily in future if you bookmark/favourite this on your web browser now

Hiya,

Thank you for answering and I am sorry I posted in the wrong place, I guess I really should read things first!
The ESA know that my almost ex is living here - I had a lady from the ESA come to talk to us about the situation, she was glad that both our names were on the rent book. My rent is around £105 per week so it was divided in half and i receive benefit on one £52.50 and my husband on the other. He is 67 and receives pension and I am 60 and ESA support group. Things are ticking along nicely but now we are considering having another 7 people in the house - 3 of them adults and 4 children I am so worried that my ESA will be affected. I realise we will lose any rent benefit and council tax benefit that we are receiving now, but its my income related ESA I am worried about.
If you or anyone replies and I dont get back quickly its because I am not near internet, I have a very unwell mum, Many thanks

Hi Gail,

I am sorry that your mother is ill, this must be the last thing you need when you are worried about her!

The only thing that might affect your ESA is if you are in receipt of premiums because you live alone.

Hi, Thank you so much for your advice. I promise to find the right place to post next time haha.

p.s. would just like to say that it was this brilliant site that helped me with my appeal. I had no idea whatsoever of how to proceed and when I arrived for the appeal, one of the appeal team came out and said I had been put in the support group without me going into the room for them to assess my situation. I am so thankful that this site with all its information in plain english.
Thank you all!