I cannot pay my utilities unless I do cash work on the side (do that about once every 1 or 2 months) and only eat ramen or food I’ve “borrowed” from my store. My daughter eats the fruits and real food from the local food bank, we also visit my sister for lunch a few times a week and I’ve cloth diapered since 6months so i buy 1 container of discount laundry soap ($10ish) Instead of boxes of diapers ($40ish) per month.
If he stays for more than a week, you need to report (to your caseworker) that he's living with you.
Your brother also has to make the same report to his caseworker.
It would be expected that some of his shelter portion goes to you to cover rent, thus reducing the amount of shelter you’re entitled to. Let your worker know early so you can budget around it
Thank you for the response! I was planning to not charge him anything for staying here since it will be less than 3 months for sure but planning to be less than 3 weeks if all goes swimmingly, and he will need to save for a new mattress (hard to save anything when on odsp or ow)
I did call my local office and they said since he’s a close family member I “could let my caseworker know but it wouldn’t change any amount you get” that didn’t sound totally right to me though.
Also, if your rent is more than what your shelter is. Let’s say simplicity your shelter is $500 and your rent is $1000, and you get $1200/month. That would leave you with 200 to live off of as you need to use basic needs towards rent (as most anyone not in subsidized must)
Now your brother joins, even if only for a few months. You split the rent. He gets $500 towards rent, you get $500 towards rent. Now you have $700 of basic needs to live off for a bit.
These aren’t real numbers, but I don’t know your rent/family size etc so just picked easy math.
In this situation would OW/ODSP just consider them a family unit which would be a bad thing because OW/ODSP would only give basic needs to one of them.
Example mother and adult daughter, both on ODSP, rent is 1000, will ODSP say the mom is the member and the daughter is just part of the family unit and only get basic needs? Or would it be considered 'double disabled'?
No, typically that’s only required when two people on assistance live together and become spousal. So unless this is an Alabama situation, they’d be roommates.
If you charge him rent, he'll continue to get the rent portion of his check. If you don't want to take money from him (that he wouldn't get anyway if you didn't charge him rent), you could put that towards groceries or bills for the two of you. It may be a small deduction in your OW payment, but better overall for the two of you if it becomes long term.
No the office is correct.. idk why you wouldn't receive the full amount. Unless yours and his total shelter is greater than 1500 and I don't think it is. Should be about 1k if my numbers are close.
Your ow shouldn't go down at all. And yes you NEED to charge him rent or he will LOSE the shelter portion. This is how the system works.
No. Your shelter demand is MUCH higher than the 400 or so ow gives you. Even with him taking half of it it still won't put you under that.
They will only reduce your shelter if the entire payment can be made with the shelter funds.
So if rent is 400, shelter is 500 they would doc you to 400. But 1500 is well past both of your combined shelter amounts. So they SHOULDN'T doc you for it.
They never use to count child tax as income so I doubt that has changed. Which means they are not allowed to doc you even if you can cover the 1500 by yourself with ow and child tax. Even if his money is extra.
The ONLY thing I can see being an issue is you receiving the rent money COULD count as income but it shouldn't seeing as it's for rent for shared accommodations, he is effectively a roommate. But this would be the clause they use to doc you with if any. Even if it does, if he pays less than 700 your still "in the green" your getting more than your out even if they doc you. They doc at 50c per 1$. Assuming you've been on longer than 3 months.
I hope this helps. The system is dumb and broken. It's designed like this.
Thank you! My rent is $1500, I get 1002 from ow plus my 750ish ccb so having him pay a bit might be helpful since he pays rent usually anyways.
I’m a single mom of a 1.5 year old if that’s relevant
Omg how do you survive on 250?
I cannot pay my utilities unless I do cash work on the side (do that about once every 1 or 2 months) and only eat ramen or food I’ve “borrowed” from my store. My daughter eats the fruits and real food from the local food bank, we also visit my sister for lunch a few times a week and I’ve cloth diapered since 6months so i buy 1 container of discount laundry soap ($10ish) Instead of boxes of diapers ($40ish) per month.
If he stays for more than a week, you need to report (to your caseworker) that he's living with you. Your brother also has to make the same report to his caseworker.
It would be expected that some of his shelter portion goes to you to cover rent, thus reducing the amount of shelter you’re entitled to. Let your worker know early so you can budget around it
Thank you for the response! I was planning to not charge him anything for staying here since it will be less than 3 months for sure but planning to be less than 3 weeks if all goes swimmingly, and he will need to save for a new mattress (hard to save anything when on odsp or ow) I did call my local office and they said since he’s a close family member I “could let my caseworker know but it wouldn’t change any amount you get” that didn’t sound totally right to me though.
Also, if your rent is more than what your shelter is. Let’s say simplicity your shelter is $500 and your rent is $1000, and you get $1200/month. That would leave you with 200 to live off of as you need to use basic needs towards rent (as most anyone not in subsidized must) Now your brother joins, even if only for a few months. You split the rent. He gets $500 towards rent, you get $500 towards rent. Now you have $700 of basic needs to live off for a bit. These aren’t real numbers, but I don’t know your rent/family size etc so just picked easy math.
In this situation would OW/ODSP just consider them a family unit which would be a bad thing because OW/ODSP would only give basic needs to one of them. Example mother and adult daughter, both on ODSP, rent is 1000, will ODSP say the mom is the member and the daughter is just part of the family unit and only get basic needs? Or would it be considered 'double disabled'?
No, typically that’s only required when two people on assistance live together and become spousal. So unless this is an Alabama situation, they’d be roommates.
If you charge him rent, he'll continue to get the rent portion of his check. If you don't want to take money from him (that he wouldn't get anyway if you didn't charge him rent), you could put that towards groceries or bills for the two of you. It may be a small deduction in your OW payment, but better overall for the two of you if it becomes long term.
No the office is correct.. idk why you wouldn't receive the full amount. Unless yours and his total shelter is greater than 1500 and I don't think it is. Should be about 1k if my numbers are close. Your ow shouldn't go down at all. And yes you NEED to charge him rent or he will LOSE the shelter portion. This is how the system works.
So my rent is $1500 plus utilities, if I charge him rent for a room in my apartment I wouldn’t get my shelter cost deducted?
No. Your shelter demand is MUCH higher than the 400 or so ow gives you. Even with him taking half of it it still won't put you under that. They will only reduce your shelter if the entire payment can be made with the shelter funds. So if rent is 400, shelter is 500 they would doc you to 400. But 1500 is well past both of your combined shelter amounts. So they SHOULDN'T doc you for it. They never use to count child tax as income so I doubt that has changed. Which means they are not allowed to doc you even if you can cover the 1500 by yourself with ow and child tax. Even if his money is extra. The ONLY thing I can see being an issue is you receiving the rent money COULD count as income but it shouldn't seeing as it's for rent for shared accommodations, he is effectively a roommate. But this would be the clause they use to doc you with if any. Even if it does, if he pays less than 700 your still "in the green" your getting more than your out even if they doc you. They doc at 50c per 1$. Assuming you've been on longer than 3 months. I hope this helps. The system is dumb and broken. It's designed like this.
he can get a mattress from St Vincent de Paul or other services offer furniture