Live on £4000 for a Year, 2009 Challenge, part 2

Savvy_sewing

Hello, I have asked a quick question earlier, and will be looking into your breakdowns about the totals etc. I have just arranged to move out of this house share with my twins, and will be sharing a cottage with my DS. He is 16 and will be in the middle of his exam tests the week we move (unfortunately). He doesnt plan to go back to school. As I am currently on a very low ESA of £60.50 a week, I have been trying to see what else I may be entitled to. It is not looking good, unless I can actually get DLA, but I was refused that the last time I applied and the Jobcentre have told me to re-apply since I lost my job through the ill health. Apart from housing benefit and council tax benefit, it seams that that is all I am going to have to live on? Can that be right? Isnt that half of the governments recommended income? If so, thats even less then the £4,000 your all living on? I realise that I will be just my son and myself soon, but if his Child Benefit, and tax credits stop then this is going to be impossible to live off of. Surely I wont be able to feed, cloth, insure, heat, etc etc or even dream of paying into my pension plan anymore?

Frugaldom

savingfortravel wrote: »

Nyk-Fluffy chick looks like my hubby! Its uncanny!

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: Does your hubby have a nickname we could borrow to name the chick?

Mooloo - have you tried feeding your details into the website at www.entitledto.org to see what you're entitled to? I'm sure there must be housing benefit, council tax benefit and some form of child tax credit available, otherwise how would anyone expect you to be able to pay rent? If you have twins and a 16 year-old son then you are also entitled to 3 lots of child benefit if they are all in fulltime education. Have you been to the benefits agencies and Citizens Advice and will you be doing anything to earn any sort of income for yourself?

Apologies if I have missed previous posts/questions.

Savvy_sewing

nykmedia wrote: »

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: Does your hubby have a nickname we could borrow to name the chick?

Mooloo - have you tried feeding your details into the website at www.entitledto.org to see what you're entitled to? I'm sure there must be housing benefit, council tax benefit and some form of child tax credit available, otherwise how would anyone expect you to be able to pay rent? If you have twins and a 16 year-old son then you are also entitled to 3 lots of child benefit.
Have you been to the benefits agencies and Citizens Advice?

Hello, nykmedia, the twins are 20 with babies and we have all been living together since SS sent them home with the babies. However I am ill and cannot manage to look after them all, so I have given notice on the place we are renting. SS are supposed to be taking the girls and thier babies into assisted living. This leaves me and my 16 year old son, so we are going to rent a small cottage in a village a few miles away. I will get housing benefit and council tax benefit for some of it. However as soon as DS leaves school, I will loose my child benefit and tax credits that I am currently getting.
For some reason the Entitled to says my ESA should be nearly a£5 more then I am actually getting, and the government have different stages of it. I have to be on ESA for a while before I get extra. Basically its a them against us. Am I really ill or can I actually work? I got more when I was on SSP! Unfortunately my job were not ready to wait for me to get better. If that was ever possible.
Sorry thats a bit long winded. Didnt mean it to be.

sophiesmum_2

mooloo - I would suggest going all out to reapply for the DLA especially since the ill health has meant losing your job, getting that would open up extra disability premiums on top of the ESA.Do you not have a disability advice centre which could help you with the form?
What is DS expecting to live on if he isn't going into more education? At least if he went on to college you would continue to receive tax credits etc for him until he was able to claim in his own right - or does he intend to look for a job immediately.

Savvy_sewing

sophiesmum wrote: »

mooloo - I would suggest going all out to reapply for the DLA especially since the ill health has meant losing your job, getting that would open up extra disability premiums on top of the ESA.Do you not have a disability advice centre which could help you with the form?
What is DS expecting to live on if he isn't going into more education? At least if he went on to college you would continue to receive tax credits etc for him until he was able to claim in his own right - or does he intend to look for a job immediately.

I am trying to get Welfare Rights to help me, but they are either not open or engaged. I will have to fill the form for DLA in again myself soon.
I have been trying to get DS to go on to higher education, but he is about to fail it all, is hard to keep in school due to being behind, but he is hoping to get an apprenticeship with DAF. Problem with Apprenticeships is that the wage is pretty poor.
I have a lot to think about. But I would have had that to think about if I wasnt moving I suppose. although with all of us sharing we pooled our money before!.
I will be reading all the back dated parts of this thread to get some inspiration that is for sure.!
thanks for coming back to me. Things will get worse before they get better apparantly. Thats the story of my life then.
However this time, I am hopeful that I will find the help to survive.
Not planning to live the high life, just to survive with dignity.!!1:o

sophiesmum_2

http://www.lawcentreni.org/EoR/disability_living_allowance.htm

This site gives detailed insights into what types of things the adjudicators may be looking for in your DLA answers. You need to give them as much info as possible. For instance dont just say you have difficulty getting dressed expand it tell them about pain you have reaching or bending, how you have adapted to clothing being things to fasten easily, slip on shoes so you don't have to bend, cardigans instead of pullovers, large buttons instead of small, etc etc. Most people with a disability have adapted their lives so well they don't even realise they are doing it - but think - most normal people won't have to sit whilst peeling a few veg or opening a letter etc,can manage to lift heavy saucepans and open tins without help. Yo need to really think how you dothings differently now than you did before you were ill.

liloandstitch

Mooloo, the reason for the difference in amount is that the benefit rates have gone up with the april increase, so you will get the new amount from the next payment. You will receive a really detailed questionnaire from the ESA and they will use this information to move you into a back to work group or not. you may also get a medical. The rates go up to £89 once you have been off for 13 weeks. Did you ask for income support at the same time? When you put in the original claim, you apply for the contributory based bit ( based on NI contributions) or the income based bit or both. This ensures that you receive extra means tested help on top if you are on a low income. It doesnt sound as if this bit has been looked at - give them a ring and ask as the income you have given is the contribution based amount only that everyone can get (subject to NI). Hope this helps - my info is only based on my own claim - I only get the contributory bit, and this is how my claim is progressed - but I have to say, be prepared for some ridiculous requests - I was invited to a back to work interview when I had just come out of hospital after a major op - and that I would lose benefit if I didnt attend - although they did say that they are all standard letters, and let me defer, it is all a little worrying, as they knew all the treatment dates and they are trying to get me a new job when I already have one, I am just sick at the moment!!!!!!!

Anyway hope this helps - if I can be of any further help please post or pm me.

As to the challenge, I am still motoring on - I am there or there abouts for the first quarter. I claimed on my health insurance for my time in hospital which covered most of my extra expenses on mags, coffees and takeaways. I have managed to keep the grocery costs under control, and am hoping to reduce the dd for electric as I have been overpaying for months. I have reduced money on my BT bill, and shaved £8.00 per month on my DD. So all in all really pleased and am reaping the benefits in money left over at the end of the month.

Lilo

enjoyfinancialchallenges

Hi everyone, I havent been posting for weeks and weeks because I have been ill.....some of you may remember from way back I had very bad sciatica and its only just started to go now.... then I seemed to get all my totals wrong so have struggled a bit over that. Anyway I'm now back and hopefully will be online more often!
My totals for the last quarter were not accurate so have decided not to try and keep a spending diary at all, well the online one, obviously I keep my own records....it was just too much pressure, I only had to miss out on one day and that was it...confusion for me and inaccurate totals!! Anyway my spending has definately gone down and I'm thinking about things much more now before I get my credit card out!!! Unfortunately even though I keep saying I am not going to buy more food until my freezer is empty it just does not seem to happen and so far the freezer is as full as usual, possibly lots can be thrown out also as I probably will never use some bits Ive put by. I did however manage to pay off the bills I started the year/challenge with even though it took three months to do so and I wouldn't have been able to do so if I had carried on spending as I was.

I've been trying to catch up with the postings but have missed lots so I'm afraid I cant congratulate or commiserate with anybody by name but in general most of you seem to be doing quite well, so well done.

looby-loo_2

I thought I should do a quick post to say i am still here - spending on the things I need to save for the things I want.

Been busy, busy in the garden lately, trying to get it back into full production having let things slide when DH was ill.

redglass_2

Phew! Caught up at last. What a lot of good news - congratulations to you lucky people and hugs to those that need them... and Nyk, I just love that teeny little chick.

I'm not as frugal as when I was on the challenge, but I still hang on to the pennies. Have done well out of Freecycle recently - got two things I really needed - and today I sent off an order to Approved Foods. So the 'spirit of £4k' is still very much with me.

I'm trying to order my free seeds from the BBC website but when I follow the link I can't find how to order! Has anyone else had this trouble, or can some kind soul please tell this stupid girl where to click?