Budgeting on £100 benefit every 2 weeks

Emmie-Lu

My sister's partner got made redundant just before christmas last year. He got just over £2000 redundancy money & stupidly spent it on a van & a brand new phone which cost £500. He is now on job seekers allowence. They have a 2 year old & another new baby on the way. My sister's maternity allowence hasnt come through yet because something on a form was invalid although im not sure what exactly. She only worked for a company for around 4-6 months. She claims she has rung the benefits people & asked what she's entitled to & they told her nothing. She also has 1 of her cars which she is selling this weekend and she has a bmw. Her partner has a Land Rover & a bmw which is modified and not being used because it has no engine. They live in the middle of literally no where and with the new baby being born next month, how can i help her budget her money with a new baby on the way so soon?

Simon11

Maybe get rid of the BMW and Land rover as a start?

Get a car that is cheaper to run?

Produce a budget with them on Excel, going through all income streams and all areas where you currently spend money.

Then try to stick with it!

jamespir

Simon11 wrote: »

Maybe get rid of the BMW and Land rover as a start?

Get a car that is cheaper to run?

Produce a budgey with them on Excel, going through all income streams and all areas where you currently spend money.

Then try to stick with it!

how helpful are you ? :mad:

Simon11

Well more helpful than your post! lol

countingthepennies

I agree with Simon. It sounds like they have 3 cars and a landrover? And possibly a van? Keep the landrover if they live somewhere pretty remote. One of the cars is up for sale but definately sell the other one as well. You might be better off looking on the Debt Free forum or the Old Style boards. There is loads of helpful information over there. Good luck x

snugglepet20

If your sister and her partner have less than £6000 in savings then they should be able to claim full benefit. The value of the cars doesn't make any difference in this because they are stuff they own not actual money.

Your sisiter can claim child tax credit for the children which will be about £105 a week once the baby is born if you ring up the helpline and tell them the financial circumstnces they can adjust her money within a few weeks. Also they will get child benefit I think it is £137 a month for 2 children. If you sister does not get the maternity money she can claim employment support allowance instead which is about £64.50 a week.

There is also a sure start maternity grant of £500 for families on low incomes who are having a baby (it must be claimed before the baby is 3 months old) and healthy start vouchers for milk and vegetables of £9.30 a week for a baby and an under 5. You need to apply for these and get a midwife or health visitor to sign the form.

Also there is housing benefit if they are in rented accomodation or the interest on the mortgage can be paid after they have been unemployed for a certain length of time (13 weeks I think) this is subject to certain conditions but it is on the direct gov website. Hope this helps it should certainly up their income quite a bit.

Try to get some professional advice about benefits, the midwife can often set up someone to talk to quickly as pregnant women are considered a priority group for a lot of help. Sometimes I have heard that people are better off not claiming maternity money and going straight onto full benefits so they are not excluded from certain help but I am not sure about this so ask someone who knows what they are talking about!