Help My son is leaving full time education

jennie65

My son will be leaving full time education next June and quite frankly I am worried sick about it.
I am a lone parent I work full time and get 17K p/a however as I do not qualify for social housing I have to rent privately at £750 per month this is four fifths of my salary.
I have 2 children jack 17 and laura 15. Once he leaves college I will lose his child benefit, whatever is deemed his % of tax credits, council tax will go up by 25% and do I lose any housing benefit. If he gets a job do i charge him rent, but then I have to tell Housing benefit, is this income so do tax credits need to know. If he doesnt get a job am I expected to keep him and somehow make do without the shortfall in my income.
There is no way without the money I get for him that I can stay in our current house, as I just will not be able to afford the rent.
My daughter is worried that she will not be able to go to college if we are homeless and west oxford district council have said that if we become homeless all they will do is put us in a homeless hostel in the city, which is 12 miles from where we are now.
The council wont give me advice, and no-one knows about each others areas so there is no one person I can talk to for advice.
All i know for certain is that there is no way I can stay in this house once my son leaves college as with the anticipated loss in income I just will not be able to afford.
I have no loans - no credit cards - no debts of anykind, so cannot cut back any further

thorsoak

What about Jack and Laura's father? Does he not make any contribution towards them? Have you approached CSA?

If Jack gets a job then yes, you MUST charge him rent - albeit a small amount if he is on minimum wages - but you will do him no favours at all if he does not learn that first thing to pay is rent/board & lodging. This will not be classed as "income" - it goes towards his keep.

Have you put your details into entitledto.co.uk? Would be worth it!

Chin up - you are looking at this problem from the right end - before it becomes a problem - I'm sure that you'll find a solution.

Oldernotwiser

Why is your son leaving education at 17; has his course finished at this point?

If he'll be 18 when he leaves he'll need to pay for his keep, either out of his earnings or out of his JSA. He won't be actually paying rent, so there's no need to worry about the effect on your HB, although you'll lose your 25% discount on the council tax when he reaches 18.

I don't necessarily agree that he should only be paying a small amount; in your situation he really needs to be covering all his expenses. If he is claiming JSA then this will mean paying nearly all of this to you and you'll need to explain that to him. He might then think it a good idea to stay in education while he can!

Vader123

You don't mention your other childrens father, where is this income.

Even he is on JSA, you need to charge him a rent, as he has a choice about what he does.

As already stated, if he is 18, he needs to live to his income which means paying his fair share, you can't subsdise him.

Vader

Kimberley

As the others have said he will need to give you money for his keep. Whatever money you lose in Child Benefit etc on his part you will need to find won't you? Even if he went onto JSA do not let him get away with not paying anything just because he will be getting £60 a week. It may make him think before he leaves College early or make him get a job instead of some teens on JSA who sleep in bed all day not bothering to find a job

jennie65

Jack is due to leave college in June 2010 at the end of his course, he will then be just 18. He is aware he will have to pay me, but if he cant get a job then he wont have any money to pay me, and i dont know how much tax credits or housing will deduct ,

Their dad left in 2000 he paid maintenance for 2 years then stopped when divorce came through, it took 3 years of constant stress contacting csa trying to get them to chase him, then when they finally bothered he moved to spain so they could not touch him.

I wish there was one person who could just say this is what you get now, this is what you will lose when son leaves college, this is the help you can get. But from where I sit all i can see is that i will lose more money than jack can possibly earn and we will not be able to continue to pay private rent. I pray daily for west oxfordshire district council to have a change of heart and house us but they wont so we will be homeless.

Sorry i am very doom and gloom about it right now.

DX2

jennie65 wrote: »

Jack is due to leave college in June 2010 at the end of his course, he will then be just 18. He is aware he will have to pay me, but if he cant get a job then he wont have any money to pay me, and i dont know how much tax credits or housing will deduct ,

Their dad left in 2000 he paid maintenance for 2 years then stopped when divorce came through, it took 3 years of constant stress contacting csa trying to get them to chase him, then when they finally bothered he moved to spain so they could not touch him.

I wish there was one person who could just say this is what you get now, this is what you will lose when son leaves college, this is the help you can get. But from where I sit all i can see is that i will lose more money than jack can possibly earn and we will not be able to continue to pay private rent. I pray daily for west oxfordshire district council to have a change of heart and house us but they wont so we will be homeless.

Sorry i am very doom and gloom about it right now.

Part in bold untrue.
Reciprocal Enforcement of Maintenance Orders or REMO is the process by which maintenance orders made by UK courts on behalf of UK residents can be registered and enforced by courts or other authorities in other countries against people resident there.
This is a reciprocal arrangement governed by international conventions, which means that foreign maintenance orders in favour of individuals abroad can likewise be registered and enforced by UK courts against UK residents. The precise nature of reciprocity available between the UK and another jurisdiction depends on the convention or agreement to which the other country is a signatory.

How to apply

A UK resident who wishes to apply to obtain maintenance from a person overseas should approach

• their local magistrates' court (or county court where the order was made) if they have an existing court order for maintenance; or
• their local magistrates' court if there is no existing order

They may apply for their order to be enforced in the country where the payer resides. Procedures also exist to enable an applicant to ask the foreign authorities to create an order for maintenance on their behalf. There is no need for the applicant to engage a solicitor. Court staff will help the applicant and will forward the application to the relevant authority. The authority will check that the application is in order and send it to the foreign authority or court for registration and enforcement against the person living there.

Spain is on their list.

Oldernotwiser

jennie65 wrote: »

Jack is due to leave college in June 2010 at the end of his course, he will then be just 18. He is aware he will have to pay me, but if he cant get a job then he wont have any money to pay me, and i dont know how much tax credits or housing will deduct ,

Their dad left in 2000 he paid maintenance for 2 years then stopped when divorce came through, it took 3 years of constant stress contacting csa trying to get them to chase him, then when they finally bothered he moved to spain so they could not touch him.

I wish there was one person who could just say this is what you get now, this is what you will lose when son leaves college, this is the help you can get. But from where I sit all i can see is that i will lose more money than jack can possibly earn and we will not be able to continue to pay private rent. I pray daily for west oxfordshire district council to have a change of heart and house us but they wont so we will be homeless.

Sorry i am very doom and gloom about it right now.

If he's unemployed he'll be eligible to claim JSA of £50 which he should use to pay for his keep; obviously if he gets a job he'll be able to pay more than this if necessary. If your daughter will be 16 then, she'll be able to claim EMA which will take off some of the burden of spending money and she'll be able to get a part time job as well.

You will lose your child benefit, child tax credit and 25% council tax discount which should be quite easy for you to calculate - do you know how much you receive for these?

I do feel that you're worrying unnecessarily about losing the house although a bit of belt tightening may be needed for a while.

jennie65

I enquired about doing a REMO but unless I could tell them his address in spain they said there was nothing they could do and he was hardly likely to give it to me was he.

Now it is a bit of a mute point, i would not get any monies back dated as CSA closed case when he moved to spain, and really dont have the time for them to take another 3 years to process claim, Jack is 18 in may and Laura is 16 in Feb. He doesnt work in spain, he sponges of older married women

DX2

jennie65 wrote: »

I enquired about doing a REMO but unless I could tell them his address in spain they said there was nothing they could do and he was hardly likely to give it to me was he.

Now it is a bit of a mute point, i would not get any monies back dated as CSA closed case when he moved to spain, and really dont have the time for them to take another 3 years to process claim, Jack is 18 in may and Laura is 16 in Feb. He doesnt work in spain, he sponges of older married women

Not having a go or nothing I just wanted to correct your post, that it is possible to claim even if a NRP has tried to disappear to another country. I appreciate it won't help you now but maybe it will help others.

exitroute?

Not sure why you are not eligible for social housing.