You live with 1 other adult

If you are married or in a registered partnership and your partner is not yet receiving an AOW pension, you will get an AIO supplement at the rate for a person living with another adult.

If anyone else aged 27 or over is living at your address, your AIO supplement will be based on the co-resident rule . You can read more about this under the heading ‘You live with a co-resident’ on this page.

If you live with a person aged 27 or over, and this person is not your partner, your AIO supplement will be based on the co-resident rule . This means your AIO supplement will be lower, even if the co-resident does not have an income and does not help pay for household expenses. 

If you live with more than 1 co-resident, the more co-residents you live with, the less you will get in AIO supplement.

A co-resident:

• is a person aged 27 or over who lives at the same address as you
• can be a friend or acquaintance, a child, brother, sister or another relative. Your relationship with the co-resident is not relevant.

A person is not regarded as a co-resident if:

• you rent a room from them or you are a lodger in their house
• they rent a room from you or are a lodger in your house
• they are a student under 30 and qualify for a student grant or loan

If you rent a room from or to someone, you are seen as having a commercial relationship. You must be able to prove that your relationship is commercial by showing a contract and bank statements. You cannot have a commercial relationship with your child, grandchild, father, mother, brother or sister.

If your relationship is commercial, you will get an AIO supplement at the rate for a person living alone. This is higher than the amount for a person living with another person.

If your relationship is not commercial, the other person is seen as your co-resident and you will get an AIO supplement based on the co-resident rule . You can read more about this under ‘You live with a co-resident’.

Commercial relationship: conditions

The conditions for a commercial relationship are:

• you share a house with 1 or more other people, you rent a room to someone or you rent a room yourself, or you have taken in a lodger or are a lodger in someone else’s house
• you and the other people in the house have a strictly commercial (business-like) relationship with each other
• you and the other people have made written agreements about this
• you have a contract and bank statements to prove that your relationship is commercial  

If you live with members of your family:

• you cannot have a commercial relationship with your child, grandchild, father, mother, brother or sister
• you can, however, have a commercial relationship with your uncle, aunt, niece, nephew or cousin

If you rent a room to someone else, your rental income will be deducted from your AIO supplement.

You can use our model tenancy agreement or model agreement for board and lodging. If you want to add arrangements that are not included in our model agreements, you can do so in an appendix. These arrangements could include, for example, specifying how many days you eat together.

If you and your partner live together and one of you has to go into a nursing home, your AIO supplement will stay the same for the first 3 months. After that, the partner who still lives at home will get an AIO supplement at the rate for a person living alone. The partner in the nursing home will receive a lower AIO supplement. If you are both living in a nursing home, you will both get an AIO supplement at the lower rate.

If you go into a nursing home, you will have to pay your personal contribution for long-term care (Wlz ) yourself. As this amount is always more than your AIO supplement, we cannot deduct it from your AIO supplement and pay it for you. We will inform the CAK  that we have not deducted the Wlz contribution. The CAK will then calculate the amount of your personal contribution and contact you.

If you also get an AOW pension

If you also get an AOW pension, we will write to you to explain that when you go into the nursing home, you can choose to receive your AOW pension at the rate for a person living with another adult or at the rate for a person living alone . The letter will also contain a leaflet with more information.

If you are not married or in a registered partnership but you live with another adult and are seen as having ‘a shared household ’ with them, you will get an AOW pension at the rate for a person who is living with another adult. You cannot have a ‘shared household’ with your child or your father or mother.

You live in a shared household if:

• you live in the same house with another person aged 18 or over, and
• you both contribute to the household, either financially or in some other way

You can contribute to the household by caring for each other. People can care for each other in 2 ways:

• by making a financial contribution to household expenses (housing costs, living expenses and other costs) or
• by taking care of each other in some other way (cleaning, shopping, doing paperwork, cooking, caring for each other if you are ill)

The financial contributions or mutual care provided must be significant and not just incidental.

Situations where you are always seen as sharing a household

In the following situations, you are always seen as sharing a household for the purposes of the AIO supplement:

• you were previously married to the other person
• you previously lived with the other person
• you have a child together, or the child of one of you has been acknowledged by the other
• you and the other person have a cohabitation contract that was drawn up by a notary
• your household has already been classed as a shared household under another Act or scheme