Benefits / Housing Benefit for married couple

Monty_Zoomer

My wife and I are in our early forties and have worked continuously since we left high school. Last year my wife's business of 8 years collapsed - in the middle of 2008, she lost 90% of her sales overnight and they never recovered so the business failed.

We have always been prudent and had payment protection plans in place for everything and my own wage of about £1200 per month gross has been enough to keep us going without sinking further into debt.

However, our payment protection policies are coming to an end and my wife has been unable to find a job (currently signing on for NI credits), so we are having to sell our house which will, hopefully, pay off the debts and stave off her personal bankruptcy. We have rented accomodation to move into but, having never claimed benefits in our life, need to know what the best way is to maximise what we are entitled to. Before anyone asks, we have both paid tax and NI contributions for the best part of 25 years so I do feel entitled to a little help until we find or feet again.

Would it be more beneficial to put the new rented property in my name, with a view to possibly claiming housing benefit and working tax credits etc or my wife's name (she is the one currently out of work anyway)?

We have not, as yet claimed any benefits and I have been told that I should have applied for council tax credit and working families tax credit - are these able to be back dated do you know?

Sorry for the long post - I have never had to consider this situation before. We have lost everything including our life savings during this recession and have no buffer upon which to survive any longer.

alwaysonthego_2

It would not matter whose name was on the rent agreement as any claim would have to be a joint claim.

Your entitlement to LHA/CTB is dependent on your income and savings.

Do you have children? If not it is unlikey you will be entitled to working tax credits.


Try www.entitledto.co.uk for a rough guide.

edit. When you sell your house and pay off your debts, you may be classed as intentionally depriving yourself of capital in order to claim welfare benefits and maybe treated as still having the capital by the LA/TCO. It is important you go and get advice from the CAB before you consider doing this.

Monty_Zoomer

We have two children under ten years old.

alwaysonthego_2

You should be entitled to CTC and possibly WTC but you need to give tax credits an estimated income for this current tax year, but make sure you over estimate to avoid an overpayment.

NEH

Monty_Zoomer wrote: »

My wife and I are in our early forties and have worked continuously since we left high school. Last year my wife's business of 8 years collapsed - in the middle of 2008, she lost 90% of her sales overnight and they never recovered so the business failed.

We have always been prudent and had payment protection plans in place for everything and my own wage of about £1200 per month gross has been enough to keep us going without sinking further into debt.

However, our payment protection policies are coming to an end and my wife has been unable to find a job (currently signing on for NI credits), so we are having to sell our house which will, hopefully, pay off the debts and stave off her personal bankruptcy. We have rented accomodation to move into but, having never claimed benefits in our life, need to know what the best way is to maximise what we are entitled to. Before anyone asks, we have both paid tax and NI contributions for the best part of 25 years so I do feel entitled to a little help until we find or feet again.

Would it be more beneficial to put the new rented property in my name, with a view to possibly claiming housing benefit and working tax credits etc or my wife's name (she is the one currently out of work anyway)?

We have not, as yet claimed any benefits and I have been told that I should have applied for council tax credit and working families tax credit - are these able to be back dated do you know?

Sorry for the long post - I have never had to consider this situation before. We have lost everything including our life savings during this recession and have no buffer upon which to survive any longer.

With regards to council tax and housing benefit if you have any savings left over from the house sale then no you won't get that....We enquired as we had to move out of our flat due to my deteriorating health but because we have the flat still even though it won't sell we still can't claim it as technically we have money. They also don't take into account what you may have to pay off for the mortgage for example or how much money you would have left once everything is paid after a house sale.

As for tax credits it will count from the day they get the form i think and only gets backdated if you have made a previous claim and the assessment was incorrect. We didn't realise we were entitled but we applied, were turned down and then the CAB convinced us to call them again and tell them our earnings would be much less and they did award us them. You also have to make a joint claim, you can't claim for one person when you are in a partnership and living together. Same for council tax benefit and housing benefit, has to be in both names and both your financial situations have to be taken into account.

I can sympathise with you, we have a similar situation, my husband runs his own business and the recession hit us very hard and I can't work due to my ill health. We can't sell our old flat and all our savings have long gone and we're trying to survive on benefits and a small pension which was awarded after my dad died because of my ill health. We're also facing having to move in with relatives as our rental home is getting too expensive for us and yet the recession, for us anyway, continues.

The CAB (Citizens Advice Bureau) are very good at helping out. Give them a call to make an appointment for a benefits check.

Monty_Zoomer

Thanks for taking the time to reply, NEH. Sounds like your situation is much sadder than ours - so sorry to hear of your loss.

NEH

Monty_Zoomer wrote: »

Thanks for taking the time to reply, NEH. Sounds like your situation is much sadder than ours - so sorry to hear of your loss.

Thanks though, sorry should have written that better, my dad died 7 years ago but his pension keeps going for the moment, we didn't lose him recently though the grief is ongoing and we can't believe that 7 years have passed.

People always query why I am on a pension at such a young age hence why i always explain it. It is funny when the tax office writes to me and calls me a Pensioner! :rotfl: When i have been able to work part time it always causes confusion as I always have to tick the box marked pension for the tax thing and they always do a double take.

I am hoping that we have some money coming in before December though and the recession eases before then as my pension is up for renewal and i doubt it'll be renewed due to getting married last year.

Hope things look up for you too, i really know how hard it is....As much I like my family moving in with them at 31 isn't exactly something i am looking forward to....:eek: and like you you're probably desperately hoping something happens to preventive it getting any worst...

Best of luck...