My mum has asked me to post here, please help!

Dman2010

Hi everyone, so here is the problem..

My mum works in sainsburys and earns £825 per month after tax & N.I.
She made a claim to Housing benefits to see if she could get any help, she took in 2 wage slips, both saying £825 per month. They photocopied them and kept them for their records.
She was then told she could have £300 a month benefits to help with the rent and council tax.

She was contacted by the housing benefits people last week to say there was a small error but when she contacted them, they had her down as earning £525 per month and she shouldn't have been getting £300 a month benefits.
She went down there and was told that somebody in the office made a mistake but she has to pay £100 a month back to them because she was overpayed. Even though it is their fault!

She has no problems at all paying it back as even though it was their fault, she still owes it. But her problem is the £100 a month they want back! They will not budge on this figure!

She earns £825 per month after tax & N.I:

Rent is £525 per month
Council Tax is £100 per month
Gas is £40 per month
Electric is £40 per month
Water Rates is £60 per month

She doesn't smoke, drink, have sky/virgin, she doesn't have the internet. The only other outgoing she has is £40 a month on her bus pass to get to work as she dosen't drive.

From the amounts above i have worked out she would have £60 a month left, if she walked to work which she will have to do then she will still need to find an extra £40 from somewhere just to pay bills, then she can't afford to eat!!

Sorry for the really long post but i am really worried about her and nobody seems to be able to help her with some advice or anything that will give her a glimmer of hope.

Thanks for reading and i hope somebody has some suggestions/advice.

dmg24

Has she submitted an Income and Expenditure form? If not, ask the LA to send you one.

Dman2010

dmg24 wrote: »

Has she submitted an Income and Expenditure form? If not, ask the LA to send you one.

No she hasn't, i just rang her and told her to request one. Thank you

KiKi

Hi there

It may also be worth her checking whether or not she has a water meter, and looking at https://www.moneysupermarket.com to compare her gas and electric bills. Assuming she lives alone then she's paying an awful lot for one person per month. I live alone (and work at home) in a 2 bed flat and pay £24 a month for gas and electric (in total) and £14 a month for water.

She might benefit from a water meter to only pay what she's using, and changing gas and elec supplier (if she can, I don't know if landlords allow that) to one much cheaper.

That might free up some more spare cash for her each month for herself, anyway.

Hope it works out for her.
KiKi

Dman2010

Thank you Kiki, i will talk to her about it.

Oldernotwiser

Has your mother thought about applying for working tax credit?

Dman2010

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Has your mother thought about applying for working tax credit?

Yes, but they told her she earns too much.

hazeysky

Hi KiKi
I also live alone in a 2 bed flat but my utility bills are a lot higher than yours,
£20 a month Gas
£40 a month Electric
and £24 a month for water
I try and save money anyway I can on the above but don't seem to be able to get it any lower.

KiKi

hazeysky wrote: »

Hi KiKi
I also live alone in a 2 bed flat but my utility bills are a lot higher than yours,
£20 a month Gas
£40 a month Electric
and £24 a month for water
I try and save money anyway I can on the above but don't seem to be able to get it any lower.

Ouch! Have you checked different suppliers? I'm with Scottish Power, online saver 7. My records show I use 3 units of electricity a day over the year, and 18 of gas (most of the gas in Winter). And I'm currently £140 in credit!

So have a look at your record; either you're using more or you're being charged for more. Might help you see whether it's worth changing supplier.

Even though I never leave lights on if I'm not in the room, my elec bill shot down when I put energy saving light bulbs in.

Sorry, OP, slightly off topic!

KiKi