Mooloo's New Home, New Year and New Start part 3

queen_vi

hi Mooloo dont let it get you down you were doing so well
i hate getting bills as well
not long now untill your holiday

Savvy_sewing

queen_vi wrote: »

hi Mooloo dont let it get you down you were doing so well
i hate getting bills as well
not long now untill your holiday

Hi Vi,
No, I havent stood still, since my letting off steam, I have been chatting with Molly.
I rang Sky to see about Cancelling my package, but they have offered me a deal for the next 3 months, I loose my HD, but I dont watch it half the time anyway. And I will still get DGD's childrens programmes. for £5.
That will take some pressure off of the £32.65 I have been paying. Then it can be reviewed in 3 Months.
But while talking to the lady she has offered me a good deal on the phone and broadband.
Again if I switch from BT, currently my provider, at £35. a month, they will again offer me that at £5, then the next 9 months at £12.50.
So all in all I have made quite a bit of a saving there.
Every penny counts so they say.

Yes not long till the holiday now. I am not ready for it at all. I have to find time to sort out our clothes, and I am making a few bits for DGD and Myself to wear. If I have the energy.
DGD is in Nursery on Monday, and Thursday, and Molly's daughter helps with her on Wednesday and usually Thursdays if I want, so I can sew then. DGD's shorts, top, and skirt out of the same Duvet cover her other dress is, and I have cut myself a 60's style dress out of the same fabric. It may be a bit thin though. So we will see what it comes out like.

I have a few sewing projects as well.
Just waiting for the people to confirm what they are definitely after, so I only make what is needed, rather then what people enquired about.
All of this is ofcourse if my arm will let me.Today its not so good and neither is my neck.
Cannot take anymore tablets until bedtime.
DGD has jut covered herself in paint after having a bath and everyting. I better go.

Savvy_sewing

Morning,
An early start with DGD. 6.30 she woke me, dispite her still being awake well after 9pm last night.
I had a rough night, weird dreams, as well. But I have woken with a lot of Pain in my lower back, and the sciatica is back. (Wonder if this was sparked off from my starting to do my exercises again, a few days ago?). I am struggling. Hopefully the tablets will soon start to take effect, and the heatpad is on full blast.
I need to get out to buy the electric as its down to the last £2 odd, and bread, milk etc for the weekend.
Oh well, I have the day to work it out.
BF is due to come later, usually around Lunchtime. I hope I am moving better by then. We are due to go out to gather in the materials he needs for his works community project this week. They are to be making a sensory path for a school that they help. (He works for Landrover).

gizmo111

Mooloo - why do you have to pay rent - your income as a foster carer should be disregarded.

Savvy_sewing

gizmo111 wrote: »

Mooloo - why do you have to pay rent - your income as a foster carer should be disregarded.

Well as a Foster Carer, I was told that i had to register as Self Employed.
This allowed me to claim Working Tax credits.
These are £50.13 a week.
Working Tax credits have told the housing, (well I did tell them, but they didnt believe me or listen originally), and the Housing add this to my ESA.
The government say I can live off of £94.50 a week. So the Tax credits are above this and they are then off set against my Council Tax Benefit and my Housing Benefit.
That makes me have to pay part of both.
Becuase the Tax Creidits originally told the Housing it had stopped, my rent was put at the full rent. Less what I owed from the last mess up with DS moving in and out. Then Tax credits corrected the information. This means I now not only have to pay both Rent and Rates but I have to backpay them for this financial year.

Now that has actually meant that they are demanding back more then I have coming in for Tax Credits.!
So I am back in a rough space!.
The good thing is that I have been proactive with my other expenses and I have sorted out what I can to reduce the rest of my outgoings.
By the new financial year, I will have had to clear the Rates. The rent difference, I have to pay to my Housing Association, at the rate I owe weekly, plus another £10.40 a week until its cleared. Which will take 2 1/2 years.!!
Then of course, when I am the guardian of DGD. I will not be working. So I will loose the Tax Credits. Unless I get a job, or build up my sewing to earn a living. We will have the Guardianship funds, which is £20.40 less then the current Fostering Allowance, which is made up by claiming the Child Benefit.
Once DGD becomes my sole responsibility, then I can have her added to my housing and my rates benefits. So it will change again.
But nobody, including my current solicitor seems to know what happens with the Fostering Allowance/ does it become Maintenance? If its Maintenance then there is an arguement as to whether or not this is taken into account or not.

So I am in the dark, but worried.

gizmo111

The fostering allowance will stop when you get the SGO.
At present it should not be taken into account for any benefits as it is an allowance for the child and not meant for you as an income. You don't have to register as SE you simply tell the benfits you are a non fee paid foster carer - the calculation seems wrong to me. Have you checked out www.entitledto.co.uk ?

Savvy_sewing

gizmo111 wrote: »

The fostering allowance will stop when you get the SGO.
At present it should not be taken into account for any benefits as it is an allowance for the child and not meant for you as an income. You don't have to register as SE you simply tell the benfits you are a non fee paid foster carer - the calculation seems wrong to me. Have you checked out www.entitledto.co.uk ?

Well I have tried it all out, every which way. I wish it was wrong, but it seems not.
If I had not claimed the Tax Credits, which I was advised by the Tax office that I could. As I am deemed to work, dispite not earning anything. My wages are classed as 0.00. So they allow me the working Tax credits. However I am supposed to pay a % of it to the council. They take 65% of my income into consideration, and take that off of the amount the government say I am to live on.

Their calculation.
I receive. £94.25 ESA
WTC 51.15 (Less disregard)£17.10

total income to use £128.30

Law says I need to live on £67.50
ESA WRA Component £26.75

Total to live on £94.25

My income £128.30
Allowance 94.25

Excess income £34.05


Rent is £100.54
Less 65% of adjusted inc £23.98

Housing Benefit £76.56

However due to the overpayments they are claiming back the overpayment as well. So I am having to pay £50 a week.

The council Tax liability of £16.24
Less 20% of my excess income £6.81
Leaves £9.43 a week benefit.

However with all the changes that they have added, taken away, and added over the last 10 months plus.
They are demanding back £60 a month.

So am afraid I am stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea.


when the fostering is over, becuase I am on a low income, the SS had bestowed a 2 year payment Guardianship fee, of £113.84, which was the equivelant to the fostering allowance less the child benefit, as I would be able to claim Child benefit.
(How ever I will no longer be able to claim working Tax credits.).

Its all a muddle and a terrible stress and strain on me.

But if I owe it, then I have to find the money somehow. It makes things very tight.
But the flights are booked, and the appartment is booked, so we are having our holiday.
I have done all the damage limitation that I can do at the moment, and I will have to hit the Frugal challenges all over again.
But I won't have to be making paper logs to burn on the fire in this house! No fire. :T

Onwards into battle we go. Poverty may be looming ahead. But at least we will have DGD.

Savvy_sewing

p.s. When the guardianship is through, I will be allowed a little more to live on, as they will then reckonise DGD as if she was my child, and then I would be given a slightly higher amount to live on. But nobody can tell me if the Guardianship allowance will be included as my income or disregarded as if it it maintenance. So we still live to see what happens there.

Errata

Trying to make sense of it, after a bit of googling. It seems that some foster carers may be paid by the LA for fostering a child, on top of the fostering allowance they receive which is intended to cover the costs of looking after a child (food, clothes etc); such an LA payment would make them self-employed fosterers and liable for tax and NI.
If the LA does not make a payment for fostering a child, the fosterer is not earning any income and doesn't need to register as self-employed - because they're not.

However.............it seems to me the most sensible thing for Mooloo to do on return from holiday is arrange a session with a welfare rights advisor to get this mess sorted out once and for all and until a Guardianship order is made. Most LA's (all?) have a welfare rights advisor, and in my experience they're pretty knowledgeable and have enough sense to access info for cases which aren't run of the mill, like Mooloo's.

Savvy_sewing

Errata wrote: »

Trying to make sense of it, after a bit of googling. It seems that some foster carers may be paid by the LA for fostering a child, on top of the fostering allowance they receive which is intended to cover the costs of looking after a child (food, clothes etc); such an LA payment would make them self-employed fosterers and liable for tax and NI.
If the LA does not make a payment for fostering a child, the fosterer is not earning any income and doesn't need to register as self-employed - because they're not.

However.............it seems to me the most sensible thing for Mooloo to do on return from holiday is arrange a session with a welfare rights advisor to get this mess sorted out once and for all and until a Guardianship order is made. Most LA's (all?) have a welfare rights advisor, and in my experience they're pretty knowledgeable and have enough sense to access info for cases which aren't run of the mill, like Mooloo's.

Thanks Errata.
I have the Social Worker for DGD coming to see me tomorrow. I will ask her who they have onboard and see what they make of it.
Have been given some other information that may or may not help me.
We will see.
Anything is better then nothing.
I am sick of the ups and downs thats for sure.