Oh, !!!!!! Please help!

Elle00

I'm a bright lady but the whole benefits system totally threw me for the first six months. Mostly because I couldn't grasp why so many obviously illogical and unfair systems were in place - I was sure I must be misunderstanding the whole process!!

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I do feel I should point out that Income Support isn't a good option for you because of your twins age. As from October 2008, all parents with a youngest child of 12yrs or older will have to come off Income Support and claim Job Seekers Allowance as well.

Also, when you claim Income Support, to come off it you need to have been claiming it for 26wks to qualify for assistance to get off it (I don't make these crazy rules just for the record!!!). You won't be eligible for help to get off benefits come October which means that you'd get a job and have hardly any income until your first pay packet came through. Whereas if you'd been on IS for 26wks you'd get an extra 2wks IS while at work plus a 4wk run on of Housing Benefit and a £250 back to work bonus.

So actually you would be better off signing on for Job Seekers Allowance NOW instead of claiming IS just for 2 months. Can someone clarify the regs on JSA in this situation please? I'm not confident to give advice on it but I do strongly suspect that it would be the more sensible option.

Working doesn't mean full time by the way. It just means you have to work a minimum of 16hrs a week while the girls are at school and you could get working tax credits and housing benefit to top up your income.

mumoftwins

Min,

I have pm'd you back xx

mumoftwins

Elle83 wrote: »

I'm a bright lady but the whole benefits system totally threw me for the first six months. Mostly because I couldn't grasp why so many obviously illogical and unfair systems were in place - I was sure I must be misunderstanding the whole process!!

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I do feel I should point out that Income Support isn't a good option for you because of your twins age. As from October 2008, all parents with a youngest child of 12yrs or older will have to come off Income Support and claim Job Seekers Allowance as well.

Also, when you claim Income Support, to come off it you need to have been claiming it for 26wks to qualify for assistance to get off it (I don't make these crazy rules just for the record!!!). You won't be eligible for help to get off benefits come October which means that you'd get a job and have hardly any income until your first pay packet came through. Whereas if you'd been on IS for 26wks you'd get an extra 2wks IS while at work plus a 4wk run on of Housing Benefit and a £250 back to work bonus.

So actually you would be better off signing on for Job Seekers Allowance NOW instead of claiming IS just for 2 months. Can someone clarify the regs on JSA in this situation please? I'm not confident to give advice on it but I do strongly suspect that it would be the more sensible option.

Working doesn't mean full time by the way. It just means you have to work a minimum of 16hrs a week while the girls are at school and you could get working tax credits and housing benefit to top up your income.

Hi Elle,

I am like you , bright and not unintelligent but I just do not understand how the benefits agency come to the decisions they do . For instance the CSA class my ex as now redundant but don't take into account his humungous payoff - why? All that means is that I now have to claim some sort of benefit which is effectively costing the tax payer more money!

It has taken me all year so far to feel up to getting a job and I would like to have a go at NHS bank admin staff, so that I can work school hours and term time only - at least to start with.

I have heard about this change in getting parents back to work but how do they cover things like school hols when you don't want your children left to their own devices? I believe that Mums should be around particularly when the children are growing up into teenagers to provide background support and effectively stop them from being led 'astray'.

getting-sorted-sarah

Hi Mumoftwins,

I totally understand how life can be turned upside down by such an announcement, when you are dependent on someone else to keep life running smoothly - so, HUGS! If I were you I'd try to get a CAB appointment so they can talk things through with you. The time that various benefits take to process varies from area to area, don't panic, it could all be very smooth.

You should be able to see a Single Parent Advisor at the Job Centre if you want to talk about going back to work - you'll be better off that way, even just working 16 hours a week. Somewhere like the NHS should be sympathetic to your childcare responsibilities, and ALL employers are required to look at your suggestions for flexible working. I know that the DWP employ people for term time only, for example, if that fits best with their life, there are options.

Finally, are you on goodish terms with your ex? Obviously it is a difficult time for him too, but maybe he'd be able to make you a lump sum payment out of his redundancy in consideration of the fact that he won't be making contributions until he finds another job? It is worth a chat....

All the best x

mumoftwins

getting-sorted-sarah wrote: »

Hi Mumoftwins,

I totally understand how life can be turned upside down by such an announcement, when you are dependent on someone else to keep life running smoothly - so, HUGS! If I were you I'd try to get a CAB appointment so they can talk things through with you. The time that various benefits take to process varies from area to area, don't panic, it could all be very smooth.

You should be able to see a Single Parent Advisor at the Job Centre if you want to talk about going back to work - you'll be better off than way, even just working 16 hours a week.

Finally, are you on goodish terms with your ex? Obviously it is a difficult time for him too, but maybe he'd be able to make you a lump sum payment out of his redundancy in consideration of the fact that he won't be making contributions until he finds another job? It is worth a chat....

All the best x

Hi Sarah,

Thank you for your post - it did make me smile!

My ex has never been good at conversation and the thought of trying to discuss something like that with him seems improbable, but who knows? It is a good suggestion and I will certainly try and discuss it on Saturday when he comes down. Something to tide us over for a couple of months to cover rent and utilities would be helpful certainly.

I always try to be friendly towards him but he has a strong defensive streak (always has had) so it gets a bit wearing having to pander to him hence we got divorced!

getting-sorted-sarah

Hey,

I know it isn't easy, but you were married to him so you know how to deal with him! I'm a strong believer that we have to take responsibility for the people we had kids with (except in extreme cases of course!) - the relationship is for always even if it isn't the relationship we were expecting! Your ex won't want his kids to suffer, so appeal to his better nature, you have nothing to lose! I know the non communicative, non confrontational type! His redundancy money is to cushion him from the blow he has just suffered in losing his job - you and your children have suffered a similar blow - it is common sense that you need some slack too.

Good luck! You will get through this. It may be a whole new beginning for you. I work 22 hours a week and am so much better off than if I was on IS. I work in school hours so I am there for my son when he gets home from school. In the holidays my employer lets me vary my hours so I work more hours on less days so there is less childcare to pay for.

x

mumoftwins wrote: »

Hi Sarah,

Thank you for your post - it did make me smile!

My ex has never been good at conversation and the thought of trying to discuss something like that with him seems improbable, but who knows? It is a good suggestion and I will certainly try and discuss it on Saturday when he comes down. Something to tide us over for a couple of months to cover rent and utilities would be helpful certainly.

I always try to be friendly towards him but he has a strong defensive streak (always has had) so it gets a bit wearing having to pander to him hence we got divorced!

Elle00

mumoftwins wrote: »

Hi Elle,

I am like you , bright and not unintelligent but I just do not understand how the benefits agency come to the decisions they do . For instance the CSA class my ex as now redundant but don't take into account his humungous payoff - why? All that means is that I now have to claim some sort of benefit which is effectively costing the tax payer more money!

It has taken me all year so far to feel up to getting a job and I would like to have a go at NHS bank admin staff, so that I can work school hours and term time only - at least to start with.

I have heard about this change in getting parents back to work but how do they cover things like school hols when you don't want your children left to their own devices? I believe that Mums should be around particularly when the children are growing up into teenagers to provide background support and effectively stop them from being led 'astray'.

PMSL - now you're getting it!! Very few of the regs make any real economic sense lol.

The bank staff is a brilliant idea because you have to work an AVERAGE of 16hrs a week minimum to qualify for WTC; so if you worked 21hrs a week for 40wks a year - that'd leave you able to take 12wks off when holidays came up. But it's a gamble that the work would come in isn't it?

To be honest I have no idea what you're supposed to do with the kids but hopefully a chat with an LPA might shed some light on what's available in your area regarding playschemes for older children.

When we "discussed" (argued) about this recently, I kept saying to people what were we lone parents supposed to do in the holidays and everyone kept shooting me down saying that it was the same for married parents. But it isn't - we have ONE annual leave entitlement, they have TWO. So they can cover the holidays between them if worst comes to worst, but we can't.

The government did promise us that 70% of schools would have wrap around childcare attached to the schools by 2010 but this doesn't look likely to happen.

I really don't know the answer to this one. I don't think it's been thought through enough. It'd work fine if they either stopped giving children such ridiculously long holidays or attached playschemes to ALL schools for said holidays bar 3 or 4 weeks a year - but they won't listen.

ETA: By the way, my ex-husband sounds very similar...

mumoftwins

Thanks Sarah,

Off to bed now as going to London Zoo tomorrow with the twins courtesy of dear Ampersand and her Mr T's vouchers, so will be back on tomorrow night.

Thank you one and all xx

getting-sorted-sarah

One note - a couple of thousand in 'savings' won't affect your IS or Housing Benefit, (if it is lots more it would though) but if you were to be already claiming IS and HB then get a windfall, they would count it as income and deduct from your IS - at least that is how I understand it, so if you do convinve him to help you out, be careful with the timing.

getting-sorted-sarah

Night! Try not to worry. x