Income from lodgers & SMI

My client is in receipt of ESA but is still in the waiting period for SMI. My question is whether any income from a lodger would affect her ESA, given that she has mortgage payments of £660 per month, for which she currently has no help.

This thread should help.

Does anyone know case CIS/13059/1996 well?  Need clarification on the treatment of income from lodgers.

Thanks for this but I think it is not quite answering my problem as housing costs not currently included in my client’s ESA as she is still in the 39 week waiting period. Or have I misread this?

It’s about the treatment of income from the lodger, and the rules vary depending on whether they are a lodger (no meals) or a boarder (at least one meal a day).

Forner, has £20 disregard with remainder potentially taken into account as income.

Latter, has first £20 disregarded and half of balance potentially taken into account as income.

If you let part of your home, any income left after applying the above which is intended to be used to meet any housing costs of your own which are not met by IS, JSA, ESA or HB may also be disregarded.