Advice Needed!

clb776

Hi All!

Would really appreciate any advice anyone can give me to help me solve my situation!

I am currently on Maternity Allowance, which is due to run out in January.
My husband is on a spouse visa and therefore has no recourse to public funds.


We married last January, and had our baby in June, as I was no longer working we could no longer afford to pay our rent, so I had to claim housing benefit to help with these costs. As my husband is not entitled to claim any benefits, we decided to move in with my parents (70 miles away from where we were living) to save a bit of money and avoid claiming benefits until I went back to work and we could afford to pay rent again...I do not want my husband to lose his visa because we had to claim benefits for a few months!

My husband has a minimum wage full time job near my Mums, and I am worried!

I have been applying for jobs since November as I figured that there will be more people applying for jobs in January when seasonal work dries up, so far I have applied for about 30 jobs, and havent even got to the interview stage! I can't go back to where I was working before because of the distance/time/extra costs/hours involved in travelling to and from work!

My mum has now told us that we need to move out at the end of Jan as her house is not big enough for us all!

I am stuck! We do not have any savings to cover the cost of a deposit, we can't claim homelessness because of my husbands visa, we can't get a loan as we have poor credit ratings...I really don't know what to do!

Any advice...help....etc would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

AnxiousMum

Are you a British citizen? If so, YOU have the right to apply for assistance. You will have to put your husband on as 'coapplicant', and they will take his earnings into account, you just won't be paid any allowances for him - ie, his income will reduce what you get in benefits, but where a portion might be payable for a couple, you will only get the share for you. Effectively, YOU would be the person claiming hb, ct, child benefit, child tax credits etc., but you do need to declare his income so that they can take this into account.
You claiming benefits should not affect his ability to remain here. What type of visa is he on?
My partner just got his Indefinite Leave to remain a couple of years ago - up until then CTC's were in my name, with his income declared. Was never an issue, and was never questioned as I am a British citizen.

clb776

Thanks, I am a British Citizen.

On the form that came with his Spouse Visa (the 2 year one) it said that he was not entitled to claim any benefits etc, that he could not claim overcrowding as a reason for homelessness in regards to all of these neither could his sponsor (i assume this is me?) I just do not want my husband to have to leave because of all of this!!

We do claim CTC and CB and WTC in my name, and they are paid into our joint account.

LizzieS_2

clb776 wrote: »

Thanks, I am a British Citizen.

On the form that came with his Spouse Visa (the 2 year one) it said that he was not entitled to claim any benefits etc, that he could not claim overcrowding as a reason for homelessness in regards to all of these neither could his sponsor (i assume this is me?) I just do not want my husband to have to leave because of all of this!!

We do claim CTC and CB and WTC in my name, and they are paid into our joint account.

CTC and WTC are effectively benefits of a type. WTC can only be claimed in his name as he is the only one working anyway.

By benefits it could mean anything - the most obvious being Income Support which you wouldn't qualify for due to his earnings.

It is unlikely you would get a council property in the timescale given. That leaves you with the only option of private rental. Check out your local housing allowance & number of rooms you can have as a couple with 1 child. Go onto entitledto.com to work out what the maximum LHA you can get assuming you would qualify to claim as a couple. Phone your local council to explain your situation in greater detail to see if that allowance would still apply.

For the deposit, you can claim a crisis loan from the social fund which is repayable interest free - it is not guaranteed to be accepted, so as you are living with relatives try to put as much of the income you do have aside.

clb776

thanks for advice!

My husband got a phone call this morning and got an extra job over christmas, so will now be working approx 75 hours per week for the next 2 months, hopefully with this extra income we will be able to save up at least part of a deposit for the end of january! Just have to ring tax credits and make sure they know so dont end up with an overpayment bill or something! Least it takes the pressure off for the time being and hopefully come january I will have secured a job!

not ideal tho, feel like pulling my hair out cos of worry!!
I don't want a council house...he isnt allowed to live in one....I was thinking of the rental deposit scheme and go into private rental...we can afford to pay rent just about, its just the £1300 we will need upfront to move in we will not have!

Also looked at a crisis loan however it says cannot be used for housing deposits!