Marriage living separately, will affect benefits?

Hi there, this is my first forum post, so please be gentle!

My partner and I have been together a number of years and have decided we would like to get married.

We are both in receipt of benefits - I receive long term ESA (with disability premium) and have savings.

My partner is also in receipt of ESA as well as DLA.

Due to our circumstances, our illnesses impact on each other too much to be able to live together at the moment. Hope fully this will change if there is an improvement in my/her/both our conditions.

From what I understand, if we live together, OH will lose her benefits, as I have savings over the threshold (we hold separate bank accounts) - though I can't find any information (as yet) about living separately as a married couple.

Many thanks for any help, in advance.

Hi Andy and 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

I'm guessing that 'Andy Zed' is not your real name? If it is, you might want to change it in order to maintain a degree of anonymity.

My full name is showing, how can I stop it?

I must confess that I don't know the answer to this! There are clearly married couples who have separated, so the test has to be more sophisticated than simply 'are you married?'! For couples who are not married I believe the test is whether they are 'living together as man and wife'. I hope that one of the other mod's will have a better understanding of the regulations than me

You are correct in saying that your income will be taken into account once you are living together or judged to be doing so. The state's stance is that partners are expected to support each other.

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