Urgent help..think Ive done the wrong thing here.

beanielou

They need to go to their local CAB on Monday first thing & get them to help.
Is your daughter involved with any mental health support of any sort?
If so they can also help with the process.
Take it your daughter doesent have a support worker?

RAS

grumbleweed

I have been reading back over your other threads and also trying to understand what has been going on recently.

I understand that you use a reader and are obviously trying to extract information from people whio may not want to share. Can you try and get them to be precise. Like who is "they" and which benefit has been stopped.

I am not going to use things like BF, so will call the boyfriend man from now on.

Do not have long to post.

As I understand your last post now, your girl, man and baby moved into rented accomodation before Christmas.

There is a long history of failed accomodation options including an urgent house sale and previous eviction for non-payment of rent, and allegations of deprivation of capital (spending the house money). So they have no chance of getting social housing as they are considered intentionally homeless.

Man went to sign on as unemployed before Christmas so they could claim Job Seekers Allowance (dole), then Local Housing Allowance (rent) and Council Tax Benefit. He missed one appointment, was sent a letter about another appointment that failed to arrive, so missed that appointment. So his claim for dole has been rejected. This means he cannot claim rent or Council tax benefit.

So they are now going to be two months in arrears on the rent and I susepct the next S 8 notice to quit will follow soon?

Has man ever appealed against the decision to reject his claim because of the second failure to attend?

Since this happened a month ago, has man made any attempt to re-regsiter as unemployed?

Unless he sorts this out, they cannot make claims for any other sort of benefit.

Man appears to have a long history of chaotic financial arrangments and I am unsure whether the problems caused by their spending the house money will still affect their right to claim benefits because of the deprivation of capital problems.

I think you are going to have to consdier having some very blunt conversations with girl. When she was taggign along with this loser, it was OK, but nott with baby as well

grumbleweed2

Hello Ras
I dont think separation is going to be an option, and even if it ere, the debts are in both names, and are as much her fault as his. I dont excuse the mistakes they (daughte and parter) have made, but the are trying to sort themselves out and I am trying to support them to do that beacuse I dont want my gandson growing up in such dire circumstances.

Im sorry I dont know what you meant by saying I was trying to 'extract information from people', Im just asking for some help, nothing more, and beacuse dont understand the systems.

You summary is quite helpful, a few things I have not shared here. They were evicted from a house beacuse they were turned down for housing, but 12 months later (oct 2010) they won their appeal and the rent and council tax benefit was backdated..the landlord got their rent and their council tax debt was reduced for that period of time. They were able to claim housing near her and moved into their place in September. The council here sadi the business with the sale of house was irrelevnt as 2 years had by then lasped and hey sold it for peanuts anyway.

During this time they had been on ESa, beacuse of my daughters mental health, but when re-assessed for this, the forms ask questons like 'can you walk; can you feed yourself' The forms do not ask questions like 'can you go out in a public place (she cant); can you talk to strangers (no she cant). Her partner also suffers depression. They were kicked off ESA, appealed, lost, and had to go onto jobseekers, which they did.

During december partner was asked t attend appt on 29th december for which he did not recieve letter. when he next went on his normal signing day, he was told his claim had been stopped and he would have to claim again. He did not know that this had happened beacuse he did not know about this extra appointment. They and I were not aware that they could appeal that decision and so I expect it might be too late now and I do not know how they need to do that. They are waiting for a new clam to be processed and have explained all of this to housing who have said they will have to complete a new claim for housing benefit which they have done. he have been told to phone on Monday to see if claim has been processed but in the meantim having no money is 'tough'

I must add this is the second time this has happened, we have asked and asked (in writing) that the benefit office phones them if there are additional appointments but they wont. I must stress these are Not his normal days, these are extra appointments.

My daughters family worker has written to the benfits office but there has been no response. The support worker is giving them food parcels, ad we help out where we can.

As a result of all of this, it has meant they couldn't pay the amount agreed to the debt agency they are working with, who had until this kept bailiiffs off their back. They cannot pay what they dont have, and this is why they are now pursuing a DRO, I cannot see any other solution for them.

In addition to this they aslo have money deducted from their benefits for old social loans..they have had the max allowed and this is deducted at source. (but obviosl not when the are not getting any benefits)

Please dont assume that everyone who makes some mistakes is automatically a loser. They have been stupid, yes, but they are trying their dammdest to put it right. Neither have any skills or job experince, and getting job in current climate is hard, but he is trying, he makes several calls a day, goes to job clubs, knocks door to door, but he has no qualifications. He is about to start that building certifcate you need to work on building sites. Dauhter is thinking about ways to earn frm home, where she dosnt have to meet people (so she coulnt do AVon for example)

Now that bailiiffs have been again, it isnt doing daughers mentl state any good, and this will ultimately affect their son too. It makes me cross when peple are genuinely trying to sort themselves out just get kicked in the teeth again and again, and I dont know how best to help them,

I hope that has clairied things in order to know how to advise them next.

Spendnsave2010

Hi
you mention they get child benefit as the JSA has stopped - do they not receive anything else for the baby such as tax credits?
I understand how hard it is to get a job as were looking too and it seems impossible

we have also been in the situation if having only child benefit which was about £15 at the time to live on when we first claimed this was five years ago, we didnt have family to rely on to help out but im sure it will get sorted out as long as they keep to appointments, also not sure on distance to jobcentre but when we had to go to jobcentre about five years ago it was nearly 20 miles as we lived right out the way in east yorkshire and the jobcentre would cover the travel expenses

katsu

grumbleweed - I think RAS meant that you were getting information to post here from your daughter and the boyfriend, so had to extract it from them and it means you can only say what they told you etc. RAS is a very knowledgeable poster who always seems helpful so I think you have misunderstood what RAS meant.

grumbleweed2

spendnsave, you are correct, they do get tax credit to, a fair portion of that goes to the bills they HAVE to pay..otherwise they will just end up in the same state again. So they are keeping on top of gas leccy phone water and tvlicense.
They dont have to travel as far as you did, but the train fair is £7, so quite a lot if you're not getting benefits yet. They dont get it for normal signing days, only for additonal days.

Katusu, yes I did misunderstand which is why I said I didn't understand. I take your meaning about what they say to me, yes also true, lots of lies and half truths in the beginning, but once they realized just how big the hole was they were digging, they had to come clean about a lot of things. Once they lived with us, we were able to listen to call be at home when they had visitors , go with them to CAB etc so know what was said.

Obviously the only thing I cant be certain of is that they didn't receive that letter that had caused all this, but to be honest they know its not in their best interest to not attend, as they know this will happen. I also don't know how benefits offices do or should behave, in my day they were pleasant and helpful, it appears that this may not be the case now? But I dont know, I dont know the system any more, I dont know they should or shouldn't expect.

I apologies to ras or anyone else whom I might have offended.

RAS

grumbleweed2 wrote: »

They and I were not aware that they could appeal that decision and so I expect it might be too late now and I do not know how they need to do that. They are waiting for a new clam to be processed and have explained all of this to housing who have said they will have to complete a new claim for housing benefit which they have done. he have been told to phone on Monday to see if claim has been processed but in the meantim having no money is 'tough'

I must add this is the second time this has happened, we have asked and asked (in writing) that the benefit office phones them if there are additional appointments but they wont. I must stress these are Not his normal days, these are extra appointments.

My daughters family worker has written to the benfits office but there has been no response. The support worker is giving them food parcels, ad we help out where we can.

Thanks for explaining what has happened. Katsu is corect, I mean you had to keep asking them questions and maybe getting part of the answer, so needing more questions.

I am glad that the problem with deprivation of assets has been sorted out at last. Whilst that was a problem, there was no way for your daughter to get any support if she remain dependent on man.

Do you know about the Trussel Foundation - they do food banks.

And given your daughter does not go out, how do they shop? If it is man, can he learn to pick up very reduced items at the end of the day? or to dumpster dive; there are some good options there and not all are the most obvious.

grumbleweed2

daughter gets to local shop for basic groceries. They have been told they will get paid next Friday, just hope they do!

Next questions please on practical note. We have seen CAB re DRO but now have to see the person who is licensed or whatever the word is for this..we are told there is only one in our region. I hope we dont have to wait too long.

We have done a SOA, is it worth posting on here at all? Im pretty sure they dont have £50 left over.

Second, the last visit by bailiff to my house charged 194 for the visit, I understand this is too high? What do we need to do about this..or will it not matter anyway if they get the DRO? Or if there is a better place to post this query, could someone please provide a link, its not the easiest place for me to navigate.

thanks

RAS

The approved intermediaries for a DRO include:

• CAB
• CCCS
• National Debtline
• Institute of Money Advisers
• Payplan

If CAB locally is small, it may well be quicker to speak to CCCS oor National Debtline.

You can talk to folk on thge BR forum about DROs and get help with the SOA here http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=136

With respect to bailiff charges, without knowing whether you let the bailiffs into the house and what charges they had made previoucly, it is impossible to tell.

With this, I really think your daughter and her man need to sort it out, they can talk to NDL or CCCs or the specialist bailiff advice line.

Herbie21 runs this web-site http://www.bailiffadviceonline.co.uk/ - 0906 802 0273 (60p a min)

try sending her a PM and she may well answer it here for free. Otherwise, try tomorrow and ask her to read her pms.

Copy of a letter they need to send in the next post.

RAS

Unless they made a levy (on a car say) or your daughter signed a walking possession order, they can only charge letter fees. Once you let them in the house, the fees increase massively.

This is the link to the fees they can charge

Factsheet | Bailiffs and Council Tax



Got to go but the expert on bailiffs is Herbie21. She provided this advice to a previous OP.



You need to WRITE to the bailiff company or better still send an e-mail.

You need to say something along the following lines.

I refer to the above account in relation to unpaid council tax due to xxxx

As you will be aware from your files this account has been assed to your bailiff Mr xxx to enforce.

The query that I have is concerning the amount that your bailiff is now stating is due. You will be aware that your bailiff visited my premises on xxx and for this visit I am advised that Mr xxx may only charge a fee of £24.50 for "attending deliver the first letter". (read the information on the link to the bailiff advice line for more fees)


As a matter of urgency can you please provide a full and detailed breakdown of the charges made by your bailiff.