I love you. Steady on But thanks for putting my mind at rest. I just think she's incredibly lucky to get away with being so careless, thankfully due to the disability allowance the only thing I should have to repay is council tax, which for us is Band A for 4 months i.e. a mere £300 or so. I am a lucky man. Thanks!

Haha this point is very true... makes me feel a little less worried. Thanks for the help!

Thank you for that. I'm not sure if our house is owned by Manchester City Council or the company who's responsibility it is to apparently fix it 'when it goes wrong' (words of the mother), who are called Eastlands Homes. Which would be responsible for council tax? presumably manchester city council and nothing to do with Eastlands Homes? Do I contact them as well as the Council to inform them I live there?

Thanks Do you know anyone here who's particularly informed on these things? I'll await a few more replies and get onto this tomorrow. If I have to repay something so be it, the main thing is that we avoid any liability or criminal charges for being careless!

Thanks! In terms of council tax (I don't know the full details, will have to speak to the mum tonight), this would presumably go up at least a little because of the change from 50% reduction (when no dependants are present) to 25% (when one or more dependant is present). So would that need to be repaid? Do you know if people who are solely on disability allowance will pay anything towards their council tax? Does this depend on who else lives there?

Thank you can you define monetary benefit? I transferred £50 (once in December) online to help pay for some bills, but could pass this off as a one-off transfer as it could be for anything really! I'm worried that they'll think she's tried to defraud them when really it was just sheer ignorance and carelessness

Hi, Had a huge panic today! I moved in with my girlfriend's mum in September when I started work in Manchester. I naively assumed that the house was owned, when today I find out it's a council house. So now I realise that by not informing the Council that I've moved in (which they require!!) that she may have royally screwed up in terms of the law. To my knowledge, ordinarily you get assessed on each non-dependent living with you and have an amount removed from your housing benefit accordingly. However the house is under the name of someone who receives the disability care component allowance, and counts as an exception to this rule. The mum is a live-in, full-time carer for him. As such, the only benefit they receive is a disability allowance and not housing benefit. As the exception to the rule, even though she didn't inform the Council that I'd moved in, there wouldn't have been any difference to the amount they owed due to non-dependants right? If I inform them this week that I've moved in, are they likely to take criminal action? Fine her? It was simply out of ignorance that she didn't inform them, not any malice or intent to fraudulently let me live there! They haven't approached us about me living there the past four months, but surely it's a matter of time and better to come forward? Any advice? Thanks!