Help with mortgage interest payments & other benefits

tightperson

Hi all,

I have never claimed any benefits until this year and wow has it been a lurning curve, I'm still learning and could do with some help please.

I have been off work sick since March this year with several medical problems, some have been diagnosed, others still not. I am likely to have to have at least two operations over the coming months and lots of further treatment. I expect to be off work until at least after Xmas, 9 months or more.

Several weeks after going sick I applied for Council Tax Benefit and Income Support. At first they only gave them to me from the date of applying and wouldn't backdate, after appealing they did backdate. At this time I gave them my mortgage details and I'm on file to receive ISMI from 15/12/08. Since then they stopped my Income Support on 29/04/08 as I stupidly borrowed some money from a credit card which they then classed as SAVINGS!!! Stupid, naieve me had also allowed our Current Account to go £4000 overdrawn which IS counted as having a ZERO balance rather than offsetting all my negatives. They saw me as having £12,000 in savings where as what I actually had was £16,000 of borrowings. I said I would pay back the overdraft and credit cards, they said do that and you are then classed as getting rid of money and I still wouldn't get IS. Also at this time they didn't make any allowances for payments I make to a pension so I have appealed against their decision. It is now going to tribunal the end of Sept., I doubt I'll win but I'll have a good go.

So that's a bit of backround, my first question is will I get paid ISMI on 15/12/08 even though under their rules due to me borrowing money I am not entitled to IS now? How does it work, do they assess your finances on the payment due date ie 15/12/08 to decide if you are still entitled? Do I have to apply for IS again before 15/12 and if I qualify I then get it? I have read they send you a form to fill in 3 weeks before it's due but I know nothing else. I really could have done with the new 13 week rule which applies from April 2009.

I did apply for IS again a couple months ago but had it refused as by then I had started to claim Working & Child Tax Credits which they counted as income. I am still getting SSP from my company, the 28 weeks is up the end of Sept and I know I will have to then claim Incapacity Benefit which I'm fairly confident I'll qualify for. I have also applied for DLA and I'm waiting to hear about that. I am still employed but unable to return to work until I'm fit to do so. Once on Incapacity Benefit as I'm still employed can I still claim Working & Child Tax Credits until the end of the tax year or does it cease once you move to Incapacity? I am also getting Disability premium with my tax credits.

What is the maximum amount of Working Tax credits you can get? My total salary for the tax year may only be £2000 SSP + £2000 Incapacity Benefit, approx £4000. My job if working is over 30 hours.

I am trying to budget & get us through what is an extremely difficult time and coming off SSP onto IB and not knowing if we will finally get help with our mortgage is worrying us. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

dmg24

Firstly, you cannot claim IS and WTC at the same time. If you are in receipt of WTC then you will not be eligible for ISMI.

You must be in receipt of IS for 39 weeks in order to qualify for help with mortgage interest. These periods may be linked if there is a short break in the claim (can't recall how long the link can be), but the total must be 39 weeks.

Does your partner not work?

zappster1966

Your mortgage assistance will be paid through the Income Support scheme, so yes you still need to qualify for Income Support on 15/12/08 in order to get anything towards your mortgage.

No matter where you got the money from, that £12,000 is still yours. Their logic is that you don't need to pay back the credit card company or the bank back in one go, all you need do is make the minimum payment required ... and that over time your "savings" will reduce to the point where you do qualify for Income Support.

If you deliberately pay it off in one go they might decide that you're intentionally depriving yourself of capital in order to qualify for benefit that you're not entitled to. Be very careful how you play that. You could end up paying your debts off & yet still not qualifying for Income Support, leaving yourself in an even worse predicament. They could time bar you from re-applying too.

When you re-apply in December there's every chance the £12,000 will have reduced simply because of normal day to day expenditure ... your mortgage, for example. "Reasonable" expenditure might bring you within the Income Support limits. So keep receipts for the things that you buy over the next few months, they'll ask for them anyway to ensure that you're not wasting your money on non essentials.

In theory they're supposed to invite you to re-claim Income Support (and help with your mortgage) a couple of weeks before your mortgage interest qualifying date. They seldom remember to do so, unfortunately. I would re-apply last week of November, early December & emphasise to the adviser you need to claim for help with your mortgage. They'll send you out your Income Support forms plus an "MI12" form for mortgage assistance ... you fill the first parts out yourself, nothing complex, name & address & lender details ... then pass it to your lender, they'll fill out the rest then send it directly back to the Job Centre offices.

As to them not taking into account your pension contributions, well, they don't really consider your own voluntary expenditure, if they had to do that the social security system would become quickly unaffordable overnight.

Not knowing much about tax credits I'll pass on that. Someone will be along shortly, no doubt

Good luck with your appeal.

tightperson

dmg24 wrote: »

Firstly, you cannot claim IS and WTC at the same time. If you are in receipt of WTC then you will not be eligible for ISMI.

You must be in receipt of IS for 39 weeks in order to qualify for help with mortgage interest. These periods may be linked if there is a short break in the claim (can't recall how long the link can be), but the total must be 39 weeks.

Does your partner not work?

Thanks, thats what I thought. Can you still claim WTC though if still employed but sick when I move from SSP after the 28 weeks to IB?

My wife gave up work when we had kids partly to become a housewife and partly due to scoliosis which she's had since a teenager. The scoliosis has got progressively worse and now the kids are 10 and 13 she would love to go back to work but is unable to due to pain and mobility problems. She has never claimed DLA, partly because of the stigma, she felt she didn't want to be classed as disabled. Now because of my problems we could really do with it so we have both applied and are waiting to hear. She will probably only get Lower rate mobility and her day is now spent caring for me. If I successfully get DLA we are going to apply for her to be a carer for me, even if it's short term until I get better, hopefully I will.

tightperson

zappster1966 wrote: »

Your mortgage assistance will be paid through the Income Support scheme, so yes you still need to qualify for Income Support on 15/12/08 in order to get anything towards your mortgage.

No matter where you got the money from, that £12,000 is still yours. Their logic is that you don't need to pay back the credit card company or the bank back in one go, all you need do is make the minimum payment required ... and that over time your "savings" will reduce to the point where you do qualify for Income Support.

If you deliberately pay it off in one go they might decide that you're intentionally depriving yourself of capital in order to qualify for benefit that you're not entitled to. Be very careful how you play that. You could end up paying your debts off & yet still not qualifying for Income Support, leaving yourself in an even worse predicament. They could time bar you from re-applying too.

When you re-apply in December there's every chance the £12,000 will have reduced simply because of normal day to day expenditure ... your mortgage, for example. "Reasonable" expenditure might bring you within the Income Support limits. So keep receipts for the things that you buy over the next few months, they'll ask for them anyway to ensure that you're not wasting your money on non essentials.

In theory they're supposed to invite you to re-claim Income Support (and help with your mortgage) a couple of weeks before your mortgage interest qualifying date. They seldom remember to do so, unfortunately. I would re-apply last week of November, early December & emphasise to the adviser you need to claim for help with your mortgage. They'll send you out your Income Support forms plus an "MI12" form for mortgage assistance ... you fill the first parts out yourself, nothing complex, name & address & lender details ... then pass it to your lender, they'll fill out the rest then send it directly back to the Job Centre offices.

As to them not taking into account your pension contributions, well, they don't really consider your own voluntary expenditure, if they had to do that the social security system would become quickly unaffordable overnight.

Not knowing much about tax credits I'll pass on that. Someone will be along shortly, no doubt

Good luck with your appeal.

Thanks. Like you say, they said to me now I've borrowed the money I only need to make the minimum payment to the credit card and if I pay more they class it as depriving myself.

Regarding pensions unless I'm reading it wrong I think payments do count, see link and extract from Schedule 9 'SUMS TO BE DISREGARDED IN THE CALCULATION OF INCOME OTHER THAN EARNINGS'

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1987/Uksi_19871967_en_23.htm#sdiv9

4.& emsp;In the case of a payment of statutory sick pay under Part I of the Social Security and Housing Benefits Act 1982 or statutory maternity pay under Part V of the Act or any remuneration paid by or on behalf of an employer to the claimant who for the time being is unable to work due to illness or maternity—

• (a) any amount deducted by way of primary Class 1 contributions under the Social Security Act;

• (b) one-half of any sum paid by the claimant by way of a contribution towards an occupational or personal pension scheme.

I pay £155 per month to a personal pension so I read it as they should take half that sum per month (roughly £17.88 weekly) off my £75 SSP I get per week which leaves me an income of £57.12 and should use this figure NOT £75 as my income before working out any IS entitlement. Now I'm claiming WTC I appreciate this alters things as they count that as income but when I was first off sick and not claiming WTC they ignored my pension payments. It even mentions pension payments in the little booklet they ive you when you apply for IS.

Thanks for you help.

zappster1966

"pay under Part V of the Act or any remuneration paid by or on behalf of an employer to the claimant"

Sorry, I took your original post to mean you were paying your personal pension yourself from your own funds & not through your employer. If that's not the case (and if you're paying your pension through your employer) then I don't see what the problem is. The disregards here are well known.

bigbill

How come you have WTC only now and more importantly how did you get the disability element?

When did you take out the mortgage?

tightperson

bigbill wrote: »

How come you have WTC only now and more importantly how did you get the disability element?

When did you take out the mortgage?

I am qualifying for WTC as I still have a job open and availabe to me when I am hopefully eventually able to return to it. I qualified for the WTC disability element on the points below.

CONDITION 1

1) Usually work more than 16 hours (60 hours)

CODITION 2

2) Cannot walk 100m without severe pain.
3) Cannot sustain a 8 hour 5 day week due to several medical problems and continuous 24/7 severe pain.

CONDITION 3 'Fast Track'

4) I have been receiving SSP for more than 20 weeks.
My disability is likely to last for 6 months or the rest of my life.
My earnings are more than 20% less since the disability.
My earnings are more than £15 a week less since the disability.

I qualified on the points above but I will also qualify if my DLA is awarded which was applied for on 27/07/08.

I have just re-read my Tax Credit award statements and they haven't given me any disability payment even though they said I qualified. I shall ring them later today to discuss.

I have just read that once my 28 weeks of SSP run out and I go onto Incapacity Benefit I am no longer able to claim WTC or DWTC only CTC. Is this correct even though my employer is holding a job open for me to return to when I'm eventually fit enough t do so?

Reference my mortgage the current one was taken out March 1998 as we moved house and went up the ladder.

The benefits I get currently are SSP for me, just about to go onto IB short term higher rate, WTC + disability premium, CTC, Council Tax Benefit.

They won't give me IS due to WTC, I am waiting to hear about DLA.

My wife just gets Child Benefit. She can't get IB as she's not worked for 13 years and hasn't paid enough NI. She can't claim Jobseekers as she is not fit enough to work due to her problems. She is now applying for DLA as she had never bothered before. She may get lower mobility.

My wife is caring for me so if I get DLA middle care she will apply as a carer. If she gets DLA lower mobility can she still qualify for Carers Allowance??