Spouse Visa PIP ESA Council Tax Benefit for adequate maintenance
 

Hi everyone,
I am new in this forum..me and my husband are totally running out of options. An agency we paid applied a wrong visa (visitor instead of spouse) and now ofc its denied. Now, me and my husband want to start fresh and with the right visa, i have read everything, until one hing confuses me.. my husband is receiving PIP ESA and Council Tax benefit, I am aware that PIP is a qualified benefit for adequate maintenance but my question is are ESA and Council Tax benefit will also be included as income? Will they count it also as income with PIP for the adequate maintenance? How much do we need to have weekly basis? Just me and him, we do not have kids. He is renting a house on his name.
These are what he is getting:
498 PIP every month
396 ESA every 2 weeks
182 Council Tax Benefit every 2 weeks

Will all these be enough for adequate maintenance? Please help, we already lost a lot of money to the wrong people :(

Re: Spouse Visa PIP ESA Council Tax Benefit for adequate maintenance
 

Page 9 onwards of this should help you calculate it - https://assets.publishing.service.go...7a-v7.0ext.pdf


Sorry to hear about the refusal, I hope you can get all your money back.

Best of luck.

Re: Spouse Visa PIP ESA Council Tax Benefit for adequate maintenance
 

Thanks for the reply,
I have read that too but still confusing,
so will ESA and Council Tax benefit be counted as income also?

Re: Spouse Visa PIP ESA Council Tax Benefit for adequate maintenance
 

Hi Abby, the migrate.org.uk (a UK not for profit organisation) explanation here might be a bit more digestible than the UK government site
https://www.migrate.org.uk/adequate-...ance-uk-visas/

As I understand it, both PIP and ESA are counted as income that can be used towards meeting the adequate maintenance requirement. Council tax benefit cannot be used as income. However, as part of the adequate maintenance calculation you also need to calculate your housing costs, which include Council tax. Your Council tax will be lower than the usual rate because you receive Council tax benefit, so this means that the income you have left after deducting your housing costs will be more than it would have been if you'd paid the full rate of Council tax. In other words, getting Council tax benefit helps your application because you don't have to spend so much on Council tax so you end up with a higher income. I hope that makes sense!

Re: Spouse Visa PIP ESA Council Tax Benefit for adequate maintenance
 

Thanks for this one, I have read it all, and yes definitely easier to understand than the Home Office website.
Now my question is will we have enough for adequate maintenance if Council tax benefit won't be added as income?

PIP is 489 monthly
ESA is 397 every 2 weeks

Rent is 415 a month
Council tax is 12 a month

will it be enough?
sorry im losing it :(

Re: Spouse Visa PIP ESA Council Tax Benefit for adequate maintenance
 

Don't lose it, it's hard to get back ;) If you can give me a few minutes I'll run through the migrate.org.uk steps and get some calculations together for you.

Re: Spouse Visa PIP ESA Council Tax Benefit for adequate maintenance
 

awwwwww bless you, thank you so much

Now I have another question, some people say ESA is not counted as income because it is a separate benefit? what can you say about this one?

Re: Spouse Visa PIP ESA Council Tax Benefit for adequate maintenance
 

WEEKLY INCOME
PIP
489 per month
489 multiplied by 12 months = 5,868 PIP income per year
5,868 divided by 52 weeks = 112.84 per week

ESA
397 every 2 weeks
397 divided by 2 weeks = 198.50 ESA per week

TOTAL WEEKLY INCOME
112.84 plus 198.50 = 311.34 total weekly income

WEEKLY HOUSING COSTS
Rent
415 per month
415 multiplied by 12 months = 4,980 rent per year
4,980 divided by 52 weeks = 95.76 rent per week

Council tax
12 per month
12 multiplied by 12 months = 144 Council tax per year
144 divided by 52 weeks = 2.76 Council tax per week

TOTAL WEEKLY HOUSING COSTS
95.76 plus 2.76 = 98.52 total weekly housing costs

Ok, so the above shows that after deducting the weekly housing costs from his weekly income, your husband's net weekly income is 212.82

Does this meet the 'Adequate Maintenance Requirement', which migrate.org.uk specifies as a weekly amount that is equal to or greater than
the amount of “Income Support an equivalent British family of that size can receive
The UK government's definition adds that
The Immigration Rules do not specify the level of income or amount of funds sufficient for ‘adequate’ maintenance. This will be case specific and depend on the number of dependants in the family unit. If dependants of the main applicant are going to accompany them to, or remain with them in, the UK, then sufficient resources must be available for the whole family unit to be adequately maintained, regardless of their nationality or immigration status.
https://assets.publishing.service.go...7a-v7.0ext.pdf

So the question seems to be - what level of Income Support would your family (ie you and your husband) receive if you were both British and living in the UK, and is your husband's weekly income equal to or greater than that amount (as it would need to be in order for your application to be successful)? The migrate.org.uk web site gives various links to assist with working out this magical figure of how much a British family (in your case, couple) would receive in Income Support but I'm afraid I don't have sufficient knowledge to calculate what such a couple would or wouldn't be eligible for.

I'm hoping that another poster may be able to assist further Abby, sorry I couldn't be of more help and best of luck.

Re: Spouse Visa PIP ESA Council Tax Benefit for adequate maintenance
 

I'm assuming that your husband has been receiving ESA for quite some time? I'm asking because ESA is now included in Universal Credit payments (for those eligible), and since universal credit is an income-based benefit and income based benefits qualify for inclusion in the adequate maintenance income (for those who also receive a qualifying payment such as PIP), then it's my understanding that it 'counts'.

Do remember that I'm not a professional migration agent though Abby, I can only give you my understanding of the rules.

Re: Spouse Visa PIP ESA Council Tax Benefit for adequate maintenance
 

This is more than enough :) I am very thankful for helping me on this one :)
Please do not be sorry, This is so much and I really appreciate it. Virtual hugs for you where ever you are :) Please keep me posted if there are more info's you know regarding this one as me and my husband are very hesitant into applying again until we have concrete knowledge or requirements to do this. Thank you . and Godbless you :)

Re: Spouse Visa PIP ESA Council Tax Benefit for adequate maintenance
 

You're very welcome Abby, we all have to try to help each other :)

I'm hoping that others will be able to provide more guidance, Brit in Paris and SanDiegogirl in particular are very knowledgeable.

Best wishes from Australia, I hope it all works out for you and your husband.

Re: Spouse Visa PIP ESA Council Tax Benefit for adequate maintenance
 

spouse of scouse Hi there how are you?
Sorry to bother you again, I have another question, my husband asked his landlord for a copy of his tenancy agreement.
Now they are saying that they need to put my name on the tenancy agreement, or else my husband would be subletting but how is this possible? I didn't even live there.. will this affect the application? or is it ok to send this tenancy agreement anyway? won't it be questioned as why is my name in that tenancy agreement already even if i didn't even live there? Please help, and sorry to bother you again.

Re: Spouse Visa PIP ESA Council Tax Benefit for adequate maintenance
 

Hi Abby. Your husband's landlord sounds a bit confused. Legally a landlord is not permitted to issue a tenancy agreement to anyone without proof that they have the right to live in the UK, which you don't (yet) https://www.gov.uk/check-tenant-right-to-rent-documents

Your husband could ask the landlord to write the letter so that it states that he/she will add you to the tenancy agreement once he/she has proof that you have the right to live in the UK (your biometric residence permit is sufficient proof). Wording the letter this way will both protect the landlord (which they should be grateful to your husband for), and will also provide the necessary proof that the accommodation requirement for your application is met (you'll need to include both the letter and the tenancy agreement).

Re: Spouse Visa PIP ESA Council Tax Benefit for adequate maintenance
 

Thank you, you reply very fast I was worried its too late for you in there..
Yeah, that's what I thought also. So i will ask hubby to call them again and explain more regarding what you told me...
Thank you so much, sorry to disturb you

Re: Spouse Visa PIP ESA Council Tax Benefit for adequate maintenance
 

It's no bother Abby, we're here to help. Plus I'm a night owl!