benefits advice please

Limana68

HI there
I am enquiring on behalf of my brother who is in a bit of a pickle at the mo and I wondered if any of you lovely lot could advise on whether he is actually getting all the help he is.
He got laid off in Jan this yr and has not been able to find work despite load of inetrviews.
His wife work 30 hrs and earns approx 550 a mth after tax.
They have no children.
They get approx £60 a wk in tax credits. They pay full rent ( council house)and council tax.
Are they entitled to any help with their rent or council tax? My brother says not and he wont put in for JSA as he keeps thinking he will get a job and dosnt want the hassle and feels they get more with the tax credits, but is he daft for not claiming this?
Thanks for any help

dmg24

It depends on how much the rent is. If you enter the relevant figures into www.entitledto.co.uk, you will be able to get an estimate of any entitlement.

mealone

How old are they?

Your brother may not be eligable for CBJSA because he hasnt paid class one NIs since he was made redundant.

healy

mealone wrote: »

How old are they?

Your brother may not be eligable for CBJSA because he hasnt paid class one NIs since he was made redundant.

The tax years relating to his JSA are 2006/7 and 2007/8 so the fact that he has not paid NI since January would not make a difference.

Limana68

Thanks for your help, my brother is 44, my sister in law is 37- their rent is 230 a mth, I went on the entitled to site you mentioned and it said they should get 87 a wk tax crecits and full housing and council tax benefit, ??
Does this sound right and how accurate is it before I tell him my findings!
Thanks again

Pepzofio

£87/wk is the max wkly WTC for a childless couple working 30+ hrs per wk (rounded up to the nearest £1). Your sister's income is above the WTC threshold, therefore she would not receive the full award.

Also, based on your s-i-l's income, she cannot be working 30+ hrs as this would put her income below minimum wage. Therefore either the income details/working hours you have provided or the entitled to website's WTC estimate is wrong.

Based on £550/mth net income & <30hrs worked, I would estimate £67/68 per week, but as TCs is calculated over the whole tax year, your brother's earnings from April 08 - Jan 08 will be taken into consideration so award will be less than this. (Unless they have based award on an estimate of your s-i-l's earnings alone, but this could cause problems if/when your bro gets back to work.)

Based on £550/mth wages and £60/wk WTC, they might be eligible for a very small amount of HB (about £16/mth) and they would be expected to pay £65-66/mth towards their CT. Your brother should definitely look at claiming cb-JSA, as if entitled, he will also get his NICs paid for him. However, this would likely remove any entitlement to HB, so swings and roundabouts really.

Oldernotwiser

I do think that he's daft not to claim JSA. He'll not only get money they obviously need but he'll get his NICs paid, which may be important for getting his pension.