Please can somebody help re benefits entitlement?

headcrash27

Sorry this is a bit long and confusing but i would really appreciate any help with this. My husband at the moment works very long shifts and he has been offered the chance to work 9-5 for his company but it would mean taking a pay cut. At the moment he earns £25,000 a year before tax but with the pay cut he would earn £18,617 a year pre tax. I have been on the turn2us website to see if we would be entitled to anything extra and apparently we would be entitled to:

£58.93 tax credits a week
£57.16 housing benefit a week
£1.52 council tax benefit a week
Total: £117.61

I thought that this sounded rather a lot so i put in the same details but with his income at £25k and it said we were entitled to the following:

£93.80 housing benefit a week
£11.20 council tax a week
£10.50 child tax credit a week
Total: £115.50

Now surely this can't be right?! I can't believe that we would be entitled to anything on the income he is currently on and in fact we did apply for housing benefit several years ago based on the entitledto site telling us we were eligible but we were turned down and offered nothing. Have things changed since then or is the website incorrect? Does anyone know how i can find out for definite what we are likely to receive? If he changes his shift pattern he will not be allowed to change it back again so i really don't want to do this unless it is going to be financially viable for us.

Duncombe

Hmm. Those figures definitly sound wrong.

Do you have any children? If so, how many? Are either of you disabled? Do you rent or have a mortgage?

babyblooz

sounds a lot to me too

Rain_is_Insane

God i wish my figures added up to that. OH wage is £13,340 per year. I have had my JSA stopped after 6 months and can't claim anything else because OH works over 25 hours a week.
We get..
£21.40 WTC
£41.12 CTC (stops in 4 weeks as he's joined the army, as does CB)

Have thrown in a claim for HB but the systems are being changed over at Blackpool Borough Council so i've been waiting 7 weeks so far. Rent is £600 pm so with that and council tax, water rates, tv lic, etc, thats his wages gone. Gas, elec, and shopping i do out of our WTC and CTC. Given me laddo is off in 4 weeks the food bill will go down, but, then i'll have to do utilities and shop for me and OH on £21 a week after losing the CTC. I'm desperately praying HB will award me something !!

And yes i'm desperately looking for work, but, living in a seasonal town most jobs are only available till end of october and are all filled already.

I'd be inclined to phone the relevant departments concerned, they might be able to give you a more accurate figure.

Also there is some great ideas for cheap meals and a good budget planner available on this site. You may be able to cut costs and survive quite happily on the lower wage if you use them. It's certainly saved my a$$ a fair few times.

Rain_is_Insane

Red_Shoes_No_Knickers wrote: »

Goodness me Rain, I don't think Blackpool Council will allow you £600 housing benefit if there are only two of you living there!

LOL not looking for £600, just a little help would be appreciated so the dog and the fish don't starve

The £21 i'll be left with on WTC will just about feed the gas meter in the winter months never mind the rest of us. Might have to tap my son up for a loan when he comes home at christmas..lol

sammyjammy

Rain

Why on earth would you lose your Child Benefit just becasue your OH is joining the Army?

Rain_is_Insane

sammyjammy wrote: »

Rain

Why on earth would you lose your Child Benefit just becasue your OH is joining the Army?

Because it's not classed as full time education i get it for an extra 20 weeks from the date he left school in June.

And it's my son joining the Army not my OH...he's a window cleaner...lmao

Indie_Kid

Rain_is_Insane wrote: »

Because it's not classed as full time education i get it for an extra 20 weeks from the date he left school in June.

And it's my son joining the Army not my OH...he's a window cleaner...lmao

Oh - I read it as your OH joining the army.:o

Can OH get his hours up to 30 per week? Might be able to claim some WTC then.

Rain_is_Insane

He does he gets £21 a week for over 30 hours. It's me that doesn't get anything apart from CTC and CB which will both stop. I've checked all the calculations and they all seem to be in good working order.

I think i got a shock when i renewed this year as we only claimed from Nov last year and we ended up on £140 a week for the two credits and then all of a sudden it's less than halved. It's a shock to the system but we've managed through the summer. It's the winter meter feeding thats going to kill us.

Rain_is_Insane

I suppose as a last resort i could always feed the fish to the dog :0

Mollycat13

It might be worth checking what income figure tax credits are using. If they are using 2009/10 (which they normally would do) this would include your wages for that year.

I would suggest asking them to base it on an estimated figure for 2010/11, but overestimate and make sure you update when you find work. Your JSA figure would need to be included as it is taxable if contribution based.

This might bring in a bit more WTC.
I haven't run any figure through entitledto though.