Benefits causing extreme hardship

wilks1_2

I have 4 children, two of which are autistic. My husband had a car accident and also needs care. I had to give up my teaching job 2 years ago to care for them. My oldest child has just left full time education and has a part time job, working 12 hours and earning £60 a week. My benefits have been cut by £83 a week and I now have to start paying rent and council tax. We have been finding it extremely difficult to cope and are barely able to buy food. Is this right? Is there anything we can do?

madhouse

Have you applied for Disability living allowance and carers allowance as these give you an allowance towards housing and council tax benefit?

dmg24

wilks1 wrote: »

I have 4 children, two of which are autistic. My husband had a car accident and also needs care. I had to give up my teaching job 2 years ago to care for them. My oldest child has just left full time education and has a part time job, working 12 hours and earning £60 a week. My benefits have been cut by £83 a week and I now have to start paying rent and council tax. We have been finding it extremely difficult to cope and are barely able to buy food. Is this right? Is there anything we can do?

You need to give more information.

How old are your children?

Are you/ your family in receipt of IB/ ESA/ DLA/ CTC?

Are you in receipt of any HB/ LHA/ CTB at all?

wilks1_2

My children are aged between 11 and 17. We receive DLA for the 2 children, we also receive Income support, HB and Council TB and child tax benefit. We are losing £70 child tax and £13 family allowance. We were told NOT to apply for carers allowance as it would mean we would have to pay more rent. Our rent is £840 a month but now that our daughter is working (12 hours a week - earning £60) we now have to pay £167 a month rent and £9 a month council tax. I just don't understand how we can lose so much money and be expected to pay more out of less income. My daughter has to pay for her lunches and bus fares out of her earnings and has barely any left. She is planning on returning to college full time but was unhappy with the course she was doing.

sunnyone

Who ever told you that applying for carers allowance or the underlying carers primium, if you recieve IS would effect your HB was wrong.

I would advise you to make an appointment with CAB or similar organisations asap.

If your husband has care or mobility needs then he could also claim DLA.

sunnyone

Oldernotwiser

It would really have been far more sensible, both for herself and the family, if your daughter had stayed in education.

bestpud

How many days is your dd working?

I think, given it was her choice to leave FT education, she should pay you money towards her keep.

Tell her to make herself a packed lunch on the days she is working and contribute to the household instead - even £20 a week will help!

Bogof_Babe

Why is your daughter only working 12 hours a week? She really needs a full time job now that her earnings are being counted towards the family income.

welshmoneylover

In all honesty, I don't think its fair for a young teen starting out in her first job to be contributing towards household finances.
Parents usually have to support the fledglings!

It is a shock to lose so much income, you will also lose the CB when the others reach adulthood.

Preparation is the key but that is easier said than done sometimes.

There are families working who are struggling, so how people on benefits are managing I'll never know.

PhlangePhace

wilks1 wrote: »

My children are aged between 11 and 17. ........we also receive Income support, HB and Council TB and child tax benefit. We are losing £70 child tax and £13 family allowance. We were told NOT to apply for carers allowance as it would mean we would have to pay more rent.

As sunnyone said, this is wrong. If you are in receipt of IncSup your HB/CTB wouldn't be affected by CA.

Our rent is £840 a month but now that our daughter is working (12 hours a week - earning £60) we now have to pay £167 a month rent and £9 a month council tax........

This also looks wrong to me....firstly there shouldn't be a non-dep deduction for HB nor CTB if your working daughter is 17.
Secondly, when she reaches 18 years old, working less than 16hrs would only attract the lowest non-dep deduction.....£7.40pw for HB which is about £32pcm (£2.30pw for CTB which is £9.97 pcm)

As bestpud said....the non-dep deduction really equates to what your daughter, theoretically, should be contributing to the rent/CT....once she's 18, that is.....by my reckoning £9.70 pw.

s1h

Its the system its a joke. The ones who claim straight out of school and have never worked and have no intention of working get everything, the ones who actually try and do something with their lives and work get !!!!ed over. You pay into it for years and then when you need some help back you get treated like scum and penalised for trying to better yourself.