Housing Benefit isn't enough!!

seven-day-weekend

ladykhan wrote: »

:j also ive made an appointment to quit smoking! yay! so that should cut the budget a bit!

Great news, well done!

kingfisherblue

With United Utilities (in the North West), you can move from ratable value to a water meter without any cost, and revert back to ratable value within a year if that is your preferredd option. They also have a programme for people with disabilites that require lots of water, meaning that people do not pay more than a certain amount, even if they use more water. My water bills (based on ratable value) are about £600 a year (!!!) so I am currently researching moving to a water meter and the programme mentioned above (my son is disabled andd we usse a lot of water as a result).

Also, as another poster stated, the OP's posts are quite difficult to read. There are spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. If the OP is serious about wanting to teach, the first step would be to improve basic skills. Community centres often have free courses for this - and your illness can be accommodated if you explain to the tutor. As the other poster said (and I'm sorry, I can't remember who it was), this is not a criticism; I view good written English as essential for teachers. When you are at university, you will be expected to have a reasonable level of ability in your written work, which you are not currently showing.

Having said that, many young people use 'text talk' when contributing to forums, and are perfectly capable of using the correct grammar, punctuation and spelling in other situations. If this is the case, though, it would be polite to use good English so that all posters can read clearly.

elfen

Scripts will be £10 a MONTH, not week. (well, just over)

And people on IB don't get free scripts the same as JSA (CB) doesn't, as it's based on NI contributions from certain tax years. It's only if you (used to) go onto IS in place of IncapB (income assessed) and JSA (IB) where it is based on the amount of money coming inthat you get them. It's also because you can get IB whilst another partner is working as it is based on contributions NOT how much you have coming in., as is DLA, although DLA isn't counted as income by a lot of people as anyone can get it.

djc_2005

my GF phoned her gas/electric company and water supplier and told them she was on Housing Benefit and ESA and they sent her a form out to fill in to put her on a 20% reduced rate tariff. The form was aimed at anyone on benefits etc. They had to fit a meter though which was fine but shes saving quite a bit over all 3 - worth phoning them up to see if there is anything they can do.

have you done an insurance quote to see if you could get your car insurance down at all? have you also tried a discretionary payment from your local council - i knew someone that got one after their LHA was for a 1 bed and they was in a 2 bedroom house - this gave them a 2 bed LHA rate - not sure if they can for someone in council but always worth a phone call!

Good luck

savingcaz

ladykhan wrote: »

I cant afford a ppc, its like £102 or more, the £35 is just council tax I have to pay, the rent is £70.20 I have to pay a month. I have just moved into a council flat (1 bedroom first floor, tiny garden, tiny flat) as I have Crohn's Disease I cannot live in shared accomodation as I pick up viruses and bacteria easily so sharing a bathroom with someone or the kitchen, I would have to scrub everything before using it as I don't trust anyone else's germs (a bit OCD) and when you have Crohn's and need the loo, you don't have time to wash it! It explained I get £27 more than the government says I need to live on but it just can't be done. I sat down and worked out everything that needs to be payed and I'm only estimating water as its a water meter and god knows how much that will actually cost when the bill arrives. It goes like this a fortnight because that's when I get payed:
£20 electric
£20 gas
£20 water
£5 TV
£30 Insurance
£30 (sometimes more) prescrition
£20 petrol (maybe more)
£40-£50 shopping (have to eat a special diet)
£13 on tabacco

Thats about £210 ish, I'le maybe get a tiny bit of play there because sometimes i will spend more or less on shopping. Its soo hard and it's annoying as I am being counted as average non working under 25 year old person but I have special circumstances which no one seems to understand!!

What i don't understand and not sure if anyone else has noticed this, if you get £105 a WEEK and your Bills are £210 a MONTH then you should have at least £210 if not more a month left.

I understand it's hard but like a few ppl have said, try having a 3 bedroom, house, mortgage and everything else and having less than that to live on! - Another thing to point out is that on incapacity benefit i'm 99.9% certain you get free perscriptions as my mum is on incapacity and doesn't pay for hers!

viktory

savingcaz wrote: »

What i don't understand and not sure if anyone else has noticed this, if you get £105 a WEEK and your Bills are £210 a MONTH then you should have at least £210 if not more a month left.

The OP calculated it on a fortnightly basis.

seven-day-weekend

savingcaz wrote: »

What i don't understand and not sure if anyone else has noticed this, if you get £105 a WEEK and your Bills are £210 a MONTH then you should have at least £210 if not more a month left.

I understand it's hard but like a few ppl have said, try having a 3 bedroom, house, mortgage and everything else and having less than that to live on! - Another thing to point out is that on incapacity benefit i'm 99.9% certain you get free perscriptions as my mum is on incapacity and doesn't pay for hers!

It depends what the rest of your income is whether you pay for prescriptions or not, for example my husband is on IB and a Teachers' Pension so he has to pay for prescriptions as his income is too high to get them free.

mealone

You only get free prescriptions if you are on IS by way of incapacity or have IB+IS because you get DLA or via a HC1(?) card where you get free prescription due to low income savingcaz, most people on IB pay for there prescriptions.

dodger1

MrsE wrote: »

Huge mortgages are not always of peoples own making, in the south its a huge mortgage to get a tiny home.

True but technically it's still of your own making.

Fly_Baby

Dodger1, technically it is, but the other alternative is to have a huge rent on a tiny home.

Where I live (not London), £550-600 pcm will get you a studio. That's what people have to live with - at their own expense of course.