Friend in need of some fast advice.

creased-leach

Hi guys, I hope you can help. My friend is currently on the phone seeing if she can get a benefits adviser to see her sometime before 2012, so I thought I'd ask in the next best place. The urgency attached is that she's just been for an interview, and is expecting a call back soon and needs to know if she can make positive noises about accepting a job.

Outline of the current situation:
family of 4, two kids aged 10/15. Hubby on long term Incapacity (unlikely to change in the near future) and she's been a housewife- I believe there's an income support element for her. Council house, so full rent & CT paid.

If she's offered the job, it will be full time, 50+ hours a week, gross salary of £14,275 (iirc) I don't know the system, but have just run the figures through the entitled to thing, to come up with some guide figures, but would be hugely grateful if someone could double check as they seem a tad unrealistic to me.

Questions I was hoping someone could help with:

Am I right in thinking that her hubby would still get Incap.benefit, and how does this impact on anything else? WTC etc?

Apart from the following, what other things would they "lose?" she really wants to be out working, but we don't want any nasty shocks- forewarned is forearmed after all.

Free school meals
Prescriptions
Dentistry

An added complication is that there is a bonus scheme- employees get an extra £200 *most* months- what/how/etc impact does this have?

This has all happened a bit fast- she dipped her toe into the waters, sent her first job app letter- expecting it to almost be an exercise in coping with rejection...and is now flapping like a headless chicken...:rotfl:

Thanks in advance guys

sunnyone

creased-leach wrote: »

Hi guys, I hope you can help. My friend is currently on the phone seeing if she can get a benefits adviser to see her sometime before 2012, so I thought I'd ask in the next best place. The urgency attached is that she's just been for an interview, and is expecting a call back soon and needs to know if she can make positive noises about accepting a job.

Outline of the current situation:
family of 4, two kids aged 10/15. Hubby on long term Incapacity (unlikely to change in the near future) and she's been a housewife- I believe there's an income support element for her. Council house, so full rent & CT paid.

If she's offered the job, it will be full time, 50+ hours a week, gross salary of £14,275 (iirc) I don't know the system, but have just run the figures through the entitled to thing, to come up with some guide figures, but would be hugely grateful if someone could double check as they seem a tad unrealistic to me.

Questions I was hoping someone could help with:

Am I right in thinking that her hubby would still get Incap.benefit, and how does this impact on anything else? WTC etc?

Apart from the following, what other things would they "lose?" she really wants to be out working, but we don't want any nasty shocks- forewarned is forearmed after all.

Free school meals
Prescriptions
Dentistry

An added complication is that there is a bonus scheme- employees get an extra £200 *most* months- what/how/etc impact does this have?

This has all happened a bit fast- she dipped her toe into the waters, sent her first job app letter- expecting it to almost be an exercise in coping with rejection...and is now flapping like a headless chicken...:rotfl:

Thanks in advance guys

He should still recieve IB if its based on his contributions and not IS because he couldnt claim IB due to lack of contributions and depending on how long hes been on IB it may be ignored for TCs.

Kimitatsu

She will still be entitled to free school meals if the household income does not exceed £16040 (due to rise in April 2010)

If she is in receipt of WTC she will be eligible for free prescriptions and dentistry - if not then she will be eligible for both free for the children anyway, and hubbie I think. She can always get a prepaid prescription form if she has regular prescriptions which will save her money.

If she gets a bonus she needs to update HMRC for tax credits every few months so that she will not have a large arrears amount in the first year - she will have some arrears due to the way they are worked out, but they will be deducted from the following years.

She should be pleased she has done so well even if it is a bit of a shock :T

missmontana

50+ hrs a week?? whats she going to be doing?

creased-leach

Parts delivery driving. Thank you for the responses guys, just about to drag her off to do the school run (if we can find her head!) but will be back later. We're both hugely grateful- and she is pleased, just daunted!

There are so many tales of tax credit B**ls ups- I can see where she's coming from.

bestpud

Kimitatsu wrote: »

She will still be entitled to free school meals if the household income does not exceed £16040 (due to rise in April 2010)

If she is in receipt of WTC she will be eligible for free prescriptions and dentistry - if not then she will be eligible for both free for the children anyway, and hubbie I think. She can always get a prepaid prescription form if she has regular prescriptions which will save her money.

If she gets a bonus she needs to update HMRC for tax credits every few months so that she will not have a large arrears amount in the first year - she will have some arrears due to the way they are worked out, but they will be deducted from the following years.

She should be pleased she has done so well even if it is a bit of a shock :T

She will only get free school meals if she lives in one of the participating areas.

In most places, she won't as she will be receiving WTC.

They will still be exempt from NHS charges though.

creased-leach

Thanks guys, would you believe the job center tried to get her in on a "new deal for partners" appointment- on the 8th of April! She stomped her feet & got an appt. eventually for Monday afternoon- she should know the outcome of the interview monday too.

More questions though for anyone in the know- does anyone know how long-ish it takes to sort out tax credits?

Also, I was reading something about HB and CT "run on"- and a back to work clothes grant. Does anyone know if these can be claimed as she's the partner of the claimant, or not? The initial transition could be quite tough financially.

karenx

If the job supplies a uniform then they won't be entitled to money for clothes, also need to take in proof that you have to wear your own suit to work.
The run on of housing benefit depends on how long have been on jsa.
Tax credits should only take a few weeks to get sorted out

creased-leach

Right, friend had her meeting with the JC adviser, who was lovely- but a complete JC phone system crash meant she came away with things as clear as mud. She had a call from her prospective employer saying that head office wouldn't be telling them if they were allowed to create the position until the end of the month- but within that call there were very positive vibes about her prospects if they did. So, back here for some more questions...

The JC computer came up with figures for if she was working, and said they would still get his IB. However, the adviser didn't think that was right- so went away & spoke with a manager. He too doubted it, but the phone system death meant it couldn't be clarified. Can anyone here shed some light?

Their IB claim has not yet had the child element switched over to tax credits. The adviser gave them the forms, and suggested they get them switched so that they were already in place which would speed up the WTC process if she got the job. Question- are there any drawbacks/likely problems in doing this?

One last question for now, if she had fairly regular bonuses, would this all be deducted from WTC, or would she get to keep a proportion?

Thanks again for the help

cyclonebri1

missmontana wrote: »

50+ hrs a week?? whats she going to be doing?

Disgusting post, what the hell does it have to do with you what she will be doing, working would be my guess.:mad::mad: