FLR(M) : shared financial responsibilities
 

Hello,

While filling the online form, we are asked whether my husband and I have shared financial responsibilities. (please see text below). Now, while we do pay for all the costs mentioned, we pay from one joint account and do not each contribute separately from our individual accounts. Based on this my answer would be no. However, I am wondering if i should select yes as we do pay for these costs, but write that we pay from a joint account and do not split costs. Appreciate any advice. Do you and your partner have any shared financial responsibilities?(Required)
For example, council tax, utility bills, mortgage or rent, childcare costs, loan payments
Yes

No
Please list your shared financial responsibilities and how much you each pay each month
Maximum of 500 characters

Re: FLR(M) : shared financial responsibilities
 

If you pay from a joint account don't you both input monies to this account?

If so you have joint responsibilities.

Even if not the fact you both pay for the bills (even from individual accounts) means you have joint responsibilities.

Re: FLR(M) : shared financial responsibilities
 

If you live at the same address and pay for services/ utilities at that address, then you should surely be able to show that between your two incomes that one or other of you are paying for things that are billed to the address that you share, and therefore become shared responsibilities. The purpose of the question is to ask you to demonstrate that your lives are financially intertwined, which can mean a lot more than just "we are both paid into a joint account and that account is used to pay for utilities" because that is not how everyone manages their household budget.

Re: FLR(M) : shared financial responsibilities
 

I looked at my wife's FLR application in September 2018 (I think the question is still the same now), she answered "yes" to the question about shared financial responsibilities and she replied to the next question (asking for details) as follows, I have copied from her application form:

"We are joint tenants of our rented apartment and the council tax is in our joint names. The monthly rent is £*** and council tax £***. My husband pays the full amounts himself."

This illustrates the point that Pulaski has made above.

Re: FLR(M) : shared financial responsibilities
 

Thank you everyone for your feedback. This is very helpful.

Does the fact that I am not working or that we are paying for our expenses from savings make a difference? My husband has been employed twice on short projects during our 2 years in the UK, so we have been primarily been living off savings we brought with us when we moved here, which has been supplemented when husband was earning.

Re: FLR(M) : shared financial responsibilities
 

The fact that either applicant or sponsor is not working will come into play depending on what category you are applying under; savings?

Re: FLR(M) : shared financial responsibilities
 

yes. we are using the savings route to meet financial requirement.

Re: FLR(M) : shared financial responsibilities
 

Thank you DV for sharing what you put in.

In our case, as we have a joint account, I was planning on wording the answer as follows:
We are joint tenants of our rented apartment and the council tax is in our joint names. The monthly rent is £xxx and monthly council tax £xxx. Our utility bills are in my name and I pay for all of our expenses from my partner and my joint bank account.

I (sponsor) do not work. We have paid for our expenses over the last 2 years + from savings we brought with us when we moved and from income my husband earned from two projects he worked on. Currently he is unemployed. We are using the savings route to meet financial responsibility, showing savings across 3 accounts - savings account in UK, current account in UK and savings account in another country where we lived before moving to the UK ( we hold this account as we own a property there).

We used a lawyer for our the initial visa application and are doing it on our own this time. It is quite stressful to be unsure at every step of the way :confused: :unsure:

Re: FLR(M) : shared financial responsibilities
 

That wording looks fine. Don't worry, this forum was a big help for us at the FLR and ILR stage, so don't worry! We did it all ourselves, initial leave to enter (using savings), FLR (salary) and ILR (savings), so it can be done !!!

Re: FLR(M) : shared financial responsibilities
 

Thank you so much DV for the encouragement!