which benefits??? ESA, housing?? pls. help

jazzconfused

my friend works as a nurse and have been off sick for more than a year due to back pain. she hurt her back from work. she is now on nil pay from work. we, her friends have urged her to apply for benefits. last May her gp has signed her as 'can go back to work on light duty' which is impossible to our unit. she is awaiting redeployment but has to apply like any person aplying for a job whenever there is vacancy. she did went for interview but was unsuccessful. her confidence is really low and we think she is depressed. union and HR doesnt seem to care when she told them she doesnt have any means of paying her monthly dues. she has been dipping from her savings since she went half pay more than 6 months ago and now nil pay. What benefits are she entitled to? Is there any department who can help her? we need advise pls..

catz1ct

She might be entitled to some Housing/Council Tax Benefit, but she needs to put a claim in so they can assess her income.

richard9991

jazzconfused wrote: »

my friend works as a nurse and have been off sick for more than a year due to back pain. she hurt her back from work. she is now on nil pay from work. we, her friends have urged her to apply for benefits. last May her gp has signed her as 'can go back to work on light duty' which is impossible to our unit. she is awaiting redeployment but has to apply like any person aplying for a job whenever there is vacancy. she did went for interview but was unsuccessful. her confidence is really low and we think she is depressed. union and HR doesnt seem to care when she told them she doesnt have any means of paying her monthly dues. she has been dipping from her savings since she went half pay more than 6 months ago and now nil pay. What benefits are she entitled to? Is there any department who can help her? we need advise pls..

She should apply fpr esa /hb/ctb

Jowo_2

Get her to work through the 'Entitled To' website which will give an idea of her entitlements.

jazzconfused

Thank you all for your replies.

Work payroll sent her SSP form and she then went to jobcentre to hand it in but was given a envelope to post it to stratford which I assumed is the head office. Her form was sent back to her and she was advised to ring another number which she did only to be told by the person on the other line that he will send her a form to fill in since they have much information of her...

housing benefits form and requirements were submitted and she was advised that it normally take 22 days b4 she hears from them. Not very good since she has to pay for rent this month (july).

when she put a claim for housing benefit, does she automatically qualify for council tax? or does she need to put a separate claim for that. she rents to a private landlord with 3 other people. they rent the house as a whole.

catz1ct

Theres usually a box that you tick for council tax benefit on the claim form. But they should assess her on that as well.

jazzconfused

does anyone know any number for CAB pls. been trying to get through to them for the last 2 days but always engaged even early in the morning! it says on their website that they only honour appointments so it would be useless for us to go to their office. pls help.