Housing/Council Tax Benefit

clb776

Hi, hope someone can help!

I am currently on JSA cont, my husband works full time (30+ hours per week) and usually brings home about £600 every 4 weeks after tax...(he works minimum wage...£5.84 ph)
We have a baby so we also get;
£80 every 4 weeks child benefit
£247 WTC (4 weekly) and
£235 CTC (4 weekly).

We have recently (after much hassle etc!!!) found somewhere to live, at a rental of £700pcm (lha in my area is £675), I applied for housing benefit/council tax benefit the other day, and have got my entitlement sent to me today, this is :

£73.18 a week Housing benefit,
£0.35p per week council tax benefit.

(total income including all these becomes £1700 approx (will obviously go down in about 6 months..due to no longer getting jsa, but according to entitled to that wont make a difference.)

My main question is do I not get a 25% discount on the CT as I am not working? We have to pay £145 per month (10months) council tax, this is after the benefit. After rent and council tax that will leave us with £850 a month

I know the Govt says that 2 adults need £100.95 a week to live on (not including rent) is this the same when you have a child?

Hopefully I will get a job soon, but until then I really need some advice because I have no idea how this is going to work!

Also, would I get the same amount of hb if we lived in a property that was around £400 a month (1 bed flat)

Fiver29

You only get a 25 % discount if there is only one adult in the house, it doesn't matter whether the other adults are working or not. Yes you'd only get the same HB if you rent a 1 bed flat for £400. If you're only entitled to £73, it's £73 on what ever property.

viktory

You actually have £152 plus your JSA of £60 a week, so over £200 a week available after rent and council tax, that is hardly starvation level. You are getting a lot in WTC and CTC (nearly as much as your OH earns), plus HB. I think you are getting everything that is available and would suggest you head over to the Old Style Board - they are great at cutting costs.

clb776

thank you fiver! If we can't manage this way, especially if i don't get a job, i'll move into a one bed or studio til i sort my debt out! Thanks for your advice!

hippy-chicy

If debts are the problem then you need to get over to the Debt Free Wanabe Board.

sunnyone

clb776 wrote: »

thank you fiver! If we can't manage this way, especially if i don't get a job, i'll move into a one bed or studio til i sort my debt out! Thanks for your advice!

Another one who has debts and expects benefits to pay for them and if they dont?

We`ll just commit fraud by pretending to live apart.


You ran up the debt but expect everyone else to pay for your extravigances.

dktreesea

sunnyone wrote: »

Another one who has debts and expects benefits to pay for them and if they dont?

We`ll just commit fraud by pretending to live apart.


You ran up the debt but expect everyone else to pay for your extravigances.

I know you are entitled to your opinion, but that's such an unreasonable attitude. "Minimum wage" ought to mean enough to be able to support a wife and baby, without resorting to child care, AND be able to pay the council tax and rent. Rent affordability used to mean no more than 25% of your after tax income.

Why is it the OP's fault if government policy means, rather than forcing employers to pay a decent days pay for a decent day's work, that other taxpayers have to top up the short fall? Sure, that's other indivuidual tax payers. The corporations tax collected each year isn't even enough to cover the country's yearly interest bill, let alone any repayment of the principal.

As for debt, are you really suggesting it it okay for the middle class, on their £60K family income a year, to go into debt, but not the working class? Or that we should all look into our crystal balls and see that we could be losing our jobs sometime in the future, so shouldn't go into debt now? Yes, it's easy to be judgemental, but how about you try to get by on very little money, week in week out, and see if you don't get into debt now and then.

Wee_Willy_Harris

sunnyone wrote: »

Another one who has debts and expects benefits to pay for them and if they dont?

We`ll just commit fraud by pretending to live apart.


You ran up the debt but expect everyone else to pay for your extravigances.

How do you figure that one out?

clb776

thankyou for your comments. In relation to commiting fraud, i never said i would lie about splitting up with my husband! We could live there together, wouldn't say that would be lying. I do not expect the goverment to pay my debts either. I was made redundant from a job in which i used to bring home 2000 odd a month 1 week before i found out i was in the early stages of pregnancy, my debt was affordable then, my husbands wages on top meant we had nothing from the taxpayer. I found a new job, went on maternity leave, got ma because i hadn't been in my current job long enough. When it came time to go back to work, they would only offer me 4 4 hour shifts. I had moved to a different town, so adding on a hour and 15 minute journey 2 times a day and 15 in travel expenses a day meant this was not plausable with childcare costs etc. Although we may have 200 pounds a week left after we pay our rent and council tax, this is only 40 a week more than a single mother with one child on income support assuming that they get no child support. But we have 2 adults to clothe,feed and get to and from work. My husband gets a bus to and from work, which costs 20 a week, although he does walk the 45 min journey in good weather, which now summer is approaching will save us some money! Added to this we get nothing like milk tokens, discounts on our utilities etc. I do not expect to be well off, i was simply trying to discover if we were entitled to a 25 percent discounts off our council tax bill, which if i was single i would get even if i earnt alot of money. I am not work shy and apply for any job regardless of what it is. Even mcdonalds or kfc won't employ me for whatever reason! Thanks everyone for your comments and i used to feel the same about benefit scroungers as some of you! Getting my come uppance now ha ha! Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Deepmistrust

Wee_Willy_Harris wrote: »

How do you figure that one out?

I think he read it as she would move OUT of the family home (alone) - I had to read it a few times, before I realised that's what he must have done! The rest he just added on for effect. She never even suggested at any point that she would pretend to be apart.

I guess some people are just too quick to think the worst of others.

LuckyBiscuit

Hi don't feel like you should have to explain yourself to anyone on here, we are all suppost to be non-jugdemental and after all your the one that has to live with yourself, not them.........
Good Luck......