what is a fair proportion for a grandson, who works and has to travel quite a way to work and only earns net about £139/week

What do you thnk he ought to contribute? My son is at Uni and pays £70 a week for his room, which includes bills but he then has to pay for his own food, toiletries etc as well as cook and clean for himself. He has always had to pay for his own mobile phone since he's been about 15. So I would have thought £75 a week at least would not be unreasonable. That still leaves him £64 disposable income a week which isn't bad at all. However, if his travel expenses to work are quite high you may wish to take that into account as you wouldn't want to make working difficult for him.
If, however, you think £50 a week would be a comfortable contribution from him for you then everyone should be very happy with that.

I think around £35/£40 a week would be a reasonable amount as he does have his travelling expenses which probably takes quite a lot of his money. As he helps around the house doing a lot of chores it shows he realises what you do for him. I think he should pay his own 'phone bill though and perhaps he will cut the calls to shorter ones when he has to pay the bill. Also he could help you with the shopping.

I'd make sure he was at least paying his costs:

Food - split the bill 50/50 unless your diets are different enough to work it out more exactly.

Electricity and gas - split 50/50 unless one of you is in significantly more than the other in which case work it out proportionally. Say you are in 24/7 (other than nipping to the shops) and he is in for 14/5 + 24/2 then you can split the bill as you paying £bill * 24*7/(24*7+24*2+14*5) and he pays £bill * (24*2+14*5)/(24*7+24*2+14*5)

Water - 50/50

Telephone, broadband, tv licence (and sky etc.) - 50/50 on line rental and other fixed charges, then itemise the phone / ppv bill and pay the correct amounts.

Council tax - 50/50

Contents and buildings insurance (and boiler/plumbing/etc) - 50/50

I'd suggest he does all the housework for you or pays an additional amount (say £25 a week) as a nod that he's not paying rent.

Hi tigger73 and welcome to the forum.

This is indeed an old chestnut but personally I think it has never been so important that working non dependents contribute realistically to the household budget as financial pressures have escalated many fold since I was living at home up to 1980 and contributing. In the seventies, I paid my mum £40/week plus something towards telephone and gas bills as I actively used both.

You have to kick emotion into touch here and just accept that even simple living is hard on the pocket and you cannot carry passengers, family or otherwise, on your fixed pension. In fact, it is grossly unfair for him to expect that. Granted, he doesn't earn that much but what alternative does he have to living with you? Probably none.

MY simple assessment of this would be £50/week would be admirable but no less than £40 a week. And it should be reviewed in line with any income increase he gets.

It's a hard lesson for the youth of today but a very important one and it's absolutely wrong for you to strecth your pension to accommodate him, regardless of how you feel emotionally about this.