Benefits causing extreme hardship

OrkneyStar

I would say, as others have, visit the CAB and get some help checking ALL your benefits over.

welshmoneylover wrote: »

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.

I don't agree with this statement at all. Yes maybe some parents can support their kids, but perhaps their parents are not surviving on state funded benefits as the OP here is! If the child wants to leave education and get a job then it has to be one where they can pay their way (even if it is only a small amount this also teaches them that you need to contribute). I presume working is out of the question for you with the children and your husband needing care so thats not a sensible suggestion right now. On another note have you ever applied for any sort of respite to give you a break away from the children/husband caring role ? CAB should be able to help with that too.

wilks1_2

Thank you to everyone for your advice and support. To clarify a few things...

My daughter loved school, is very bright, and does want to go to Uni. Because she is 17 (18 in August) she is now too old to get into another school/6 th form. She only left school because she was being bullied and her life was hell. She gives us £10 a week out of her income of £60. She was still at 6th form when she got her job working 8 hours a week and also getting EMA. Now she no longer gets EMA and she could only get another 4 hours work on top of what she was already doing. In the current climate, she is very lucky to have a job at all. I know many other teenagers who are very happy to be on IS or live off there parents, but my daughter wants her own income.

She toughed out school for 6 months and she made herself ill. She is very happy now. She had hoped to go to college in September but the course she wants to do only accepts students over the age of 19 so she will have to wait until next September now.

The reason we are having to pay so much rent is because after the law changed recently for HB and how much they were willing to pay depending on the amount of bedrooms you have, our landlord put our rent up from £420 a month to £840. The HB will only pay £692 a month which leaves us paying £158 plus we now have to pay an additional amount due to my daughter being classed as a non-dep.

creased-leach

Well done to your eldest for finding something in the current climate. :T
Hopefully something else will come along for a few more hours for her soon.

anniecave

do you have more bedrooms than you need then? or could you manage on less bedrooms?

have you considered moving to a cheaper property/area if the rent is the main problem? rental prices are coming down...

Js_Other_Half

anniecave wrote: »

do you have more bedrooms than you need then? or could you manage on less bedrooms?

have you considered moving to a cheaper property/area if the rent is the main problem? rental prices are coming down...

Whilst I agree that this would be a possiblity for some people, with autistic children it could be an absolute nightmare...

I would agree with the others to take all of this to a welfare benefits adviser or CAB. There may be some room to manoeuvre about extra help with the rent due to your children's disabilities.

Js_Other_Half

Oh, and here is proof that there should not be non-dependent deduction for an under 18 :

http://www.tameside.gov.uk/housingbenefit/nondependentdeductions

Stardust

wilks1 wrote: »

She toughed out school for 6 months and she made herself ill. She is very happy now. She had hoped to go to college in September but the course she wants to do only accepts students over the age of 19 so she will have to wait until next September now.
.

Some colleges have discretion on their courses with age limits, if she did well at GCSE I suggest she makes an appointment with student services / student admission and see if she can persuade them to accept her.

Js_Other_Half

http://www.turn2us.org.uk/grants_search/search_by_topic.aspx?PageNumber=1?PageNumber=1 lists some charities for teachers that may be of some help.

wilks1_2

This is a great site with great members. Thanks again for all your advice. I have an appointment with our local resourse centre. Hopefully they will help. Our 2 autistic children have to have their own rooms and as the other 2 are a boy and a girl, they have their own rooms too. We have 5 bedrooms (for the past12 years) but now the HB say we only need 4 bedrooms, which we are disputing at the moment. However, they are currently paying the same rent for both 4 and 5 bedrooms so it really makes no difference at the moment.

welshmoneylover

I take my hat off to you for coping with 4 children - two of which are autistic.

Personally, I think I'd have stopped after the first autistic child as that would have been enough for me to put up with.

As it is, I have to work long hours to provide a comfortable 4 bedroom house for my lot.

I never knew HB paid rent on 5 bedroom houses, that is most fantastic for you!