housing /council tax benefit!!!

Oldernotwiser

charmy25 wrote: »

im living with my parents at the moment
im a part time student with the OU and i work less than 16 hours a week and i claim
£12 a week jobseekers allowance
unfortunatly i cannot afford to contribute anything toward my keep.
so i was wondering if i can claim housing benefit and if so would my parents have to draw up a contract

You can't claim HB when living with your parents but any earnings should enable you to pay something for your keep. It should be your first outcoing to come off your income.

PasturesNew

charmy25 wrote: »

im living with my parents at the moment
im a part time student with the OU and i work less than 16 hours a week and i claim
£12 a week jobseekers allowance
unfortunatly i cannot afford to contribute anything toward my keep.
so i was wondering if i can claim housing benefit and if so would my parents have to draw up a contract

Is there a reason you aren't working full-time/doing more than 1 job to make it full-time? The OU part-time degree is expected to be done on the side of a full-time job, so it's not like it gets in the way.

You won't be able to get benefits to pay to your parents that you are living with.

If you can't get another job and can't afford to contribute, perhaps you could take on all housekeeping duties and do all the cleaning, cooking, sorting out the house that needs to be done, so your parents don't need to do any of this.

rumbongo

i think your parents may be able to claim housing benefit for having you there, as opposed to you claiming housing benefit to live with your parents. ask at the job centre

Oldernotwiser

rumbongo wrote: »

i think your parents may be able to claim housing benefit for having you there, as opposed to you claiming housing benefit to live with your parents. ask at the job centre

What on earth have you read into these posts that leads you to assume that the parents might be eligible for HB?

Drimmer

Will keep it short otherwise I will raise my blood pressure. Basically, all I want is someone to explain in lamen terms during a 'one to one' meeting why I cannot claim any Ctax or Housing benefit but all I get is standard letters with calculations with no explanations. My local office are sick of me going in but as I stated, I will accept their decision if they took the time to explain it and the fact they all provide conflicting advice.
I live with my partner in a self contained, two bedrom flat, with no dependents. She has a full time job whereas I was on Incapcity Benefit but failed to get anything so gave up. Then, after passing a medical which I asked to have, was put onto contributionary JSeekers allowance and was informed informally that I should be entitled to some support. They told me to fill in a change of circumstances form, which I did, and then once again was declined any assistance. All is based on the fact my partner is in full time employment and take into account her full monthly salary. Due to the fact she has other fincial committments that is not the final net figure and they always assume we share everything 50/50. Everytime I do the calculation online, it seems to jump a few sections and then shows figures of around £93 for HB and £20 councitl tax benefit due.
I really am sick of it, I get £60ish a week, (alone Ctax is £122 per mnth), just gone bankrupt, trying to find suitable work, her salary is not massive (20k gross), and up until 3 years ago worked every day since leaving university. So, as they only look at my last 2 years contributions, everything else is not recognised.
It just seems that the benefit systems encourages individuals to be choice with the truth, have children and live alone. Well at this rate I will be on my own soon as my partner is so down as to why she is being penalised for my position. So, we split up (so much for government wanting to keep family/love ones together), I get more benefits and cost the public more, she gets her own place, her council tax is reduced due to single occupancy, both unhappy and possibly get sick again because of the strain.

Enough! I am off to bed as this gets me so angry and will check any helpful replies tomorrow but thanks in advance.

One more thing, we are holding back (37 both of us) having a child as we want to wait until we have good foundations with me back at work, is that worth anything, no....

Goodnight

real1314

Ok,

I think the main issue you seem to have is that they use your partner's wage in full within the calculation of your claim for housing / council tax benefit.

There's a very simple reason for this:- the state does not dicriminate between married couples and unmarried couples.

i.e an unmarried couple should not be entitled to more money/benefits/support than a married couple.

So, what would you expect with a married couple? Well, they've committed to love, honour and cherish each other (or similar wording / commitment), so the cherish bit means that if one member of a couple is short of money, the other would provide support to them.
So, your partners wage is used in the calculation.

btw, there are no allowances for "other commitments", just tax, national insurance and pension contributions. this applies to anyone who claims HB / CTB.

lilisave

Good morning Everyone,

could you please help me with that i am actually trying very hard to sort my finances out however more i tried more debt coming toward my way. debt of 3 year ago it seems very much a vicious cycle. i

seven-day-weekend

lilisave wrote: »

Good morning Everyone,

could you please help me with that i am actually trying very hard to sort my finances out however more i tried more debt coming toward my way. debt of 3 year ago it seems very much a vicious cycle. i

Hello Lilisave

You would be better off posting your enquiry on the Debt-Free-Wannabee page as they are experts there who will be able to help you. Start by posting a Statement of Affairs (there is a sticky post at the top of the DFW board that tells you how to do this). Then they will have LOADS of advice for you I am sure!!

Good luck!

lilisave

sorry i just did not finish to explain.

in 2005 i was on housing benefit and this week i receive a letter talking about overpayment back to 2005 the lady told me the debt was £135 and now he is
279 now my question is does housing benefit work like bank with interest also??? i call the housing benefit section and try to make an arrangement for repayment. however i wanted you opinion on the matter on waht to do about this if anything at all.

thanks in advance for your help

viktory

I do wish all these posters would start their own threads - when I read this all I could hear was a cacophany of voices. Most disconcerting - and hard for people to see where they have been given advice.