Benefits check up guide and tool discussion

JimmyTheWig

lilmissclass wrote: »

If you are on income support and cb and hb are you allowed to work at all before it affects your benefits? Is there like a 16hr a wk threshold a and then your benefits are affected or is it a case of even 1hr would affect your benefits?

I have no idea, I'm afraid.
You might get better answers if you start a new thread for your question. This thread is designed to discuss the tool to check your benefits rather than answer benefits questions per-se. I know that other benefit questions do get answered here, but if yours isn't then I'd suggest starting a new thread and hopefully more people will read it.

Misstress

lilmissclass wrote: »

If you are on income support and cb and hb are you allowed to work at all before it affects your benefits? Is there like a 16hr a wk threshold a and then your benefits are affected or is it a case of even 1hr would affect your benefits?

Q. I am a lone parent on Income Support, how much can I earn before it effects my Income Support?

A. You are allowed to earn up to £20 per week before it will effect your Income Support, let the local Benefits Agency know that you are working, and earning, just in-case someone else does it for you.

John_Drake_2

Has anyone any experience of what documents might be required by Cambridge City Council for Council Tax Benefit?

Now, each local authority can administer CTB differently, and I have yet to find the answer on the Internet. Nor can I find my statutory rights.

Will documents be required covering the period many months before the claim for CTB starts? It might be difficult to find them after I have moved. I have recently sold my flat and moved into a bungalow.

I temporarily have £15K I have borrowed privately, and receive contributory Employment Support Allowance (not means-tested) as a replacement for a long-term claim for Incapacity Benefit. I am not required to attend any work group. I am 62 years old.

Hoping to receive CTB in accordance with a government policy that I should not lose benefit through being switched from Incapacity Benefit to contributory Employment Support Allowance. With IB, my substantial CTB was not means-tested.

Poppie68

John_Drake wrote: »

Has anyone any experience of what documents might be required by Cambridge City Council for Council Tax Benefit?

Now, each local authority can administer CTB differently, and I have yet to find the answer on the Internet. Nor can I find my statutory rights.

Will documents be required covering the period many months before the claim for CTB starts? It might be difficult to find them after I have moved. I have recently sold my flat and moved into a bungalow.

I temporarily have £15K I have borrowed privately, and receive contributory Employment Support Allowance (not means-tested) as a replacement for a long-term claim for Incapacity Benefit. I am not required to attend any work group. I am 62 years old.

Hoping to receive CTB in accordance with a government policy that I should not lose benefit through being switched from Incapacity Benefit to contributory Employment Support Allowance. With IB, my substantial CTB was not means-tested.

You need to post this by starting a new thread which will appear further down the benefit and tax credit page....this thread is for a discussion on Benefit calculator tools (well supposed to be).
To be honest though i would think you would need to ring your local authority and ask them.

tiffanybenson

Can anybody advise on the housing benefit rules please. I can not find anything on line and i am sure that my council has made a mistake. The issue is that they are deducting money from my hb claim because my son has joined the royal navy. He no longer lives at home and of course he is not paying board/lodge. How then can housing benefits take his wage into account when sorting out my claim? It is a private tenancy so (i think) not subject to the bedroom tax. Any advice would be appreciated.

cattermole

tiffanybenson wrote: »

Can anybody advise on the housing benefit rules please. I can not find anything on line and i am sure that my council has made a mistake. The issue is that they are deducting money from my hb claim because my son has joined the royal navy. He no longer lives at home and of course he is not paying board/lodge. How then can housing benefits take his wage into account when sorting out my claim? It is a private tenancy so (i think) not subject to the bedroom tax. Any advice would be appreciated.

It's now been explained on your original thread and there is a link to the regulations in one of the posts regarding Forces personnel.

The rules for LHA and Housing Benefit have now been brought into line private tenants were/are subject to the sizing criteria in the same way Social tenants now are. It was actually the Bedroom Tax kicking off that led to the new rule being bought in for Forces personnel amongst others that has also now been applied to LHA rules as well.

In a nutshell the number of rooms anyone is entitled to benefit for is exactly the same criteria for LHA and Social Housing. (apart from Pensioners).

Sarah1987

Hello,

I just filled in the benefits calculator on the website and it says I'm entitled to one bedroom, but I think that might be incorrect?

I'm 26 years old so assumed I'm only entitled to the rate for shared accommodation.

I've recently made a claim for ESA and housing benefit and I'm living in a self contained flat. I have a lot of problems with anxiety and depression which has been ongoing for years but at some times it's better than others.

It's gotten quite bad over the last 6 months or so, to the point where I only ever leave my flat just to get my shopping and don't see any friends and don't have any family. I was a full time student and took a leave of absence because I was really struggling to go into university because of my anxiety problems and the small amounts of savings I did have are all gone so I've had to make a benefits claim..

I'm really worried that I'm going to be forced to move into shared accommodation because of the LHA and with my problems at the moment it's just going to make my anxiety and depression even worse. I also have 2 cats who are the only things that stop me from wanting to kill myself and if I have to move somewhere else and can't take them then I feel like I wont have anything else left to live for..

I'm just wondering if someone can clarify for me if there's a problem with the calculator or if I'd actually be entitled to the one bedroom rate? If I am only entitled to the shared rate then is there a way to change my entitlement if I get proof of my situation from my doctor?

Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask. The benefits calculator tool had a link to this thread for questions, but maybe there's a better place to ask.

Thank you,
Sarah

jfgmrjhvlgaw

hi all
i was widowed just over 5yrs ago and dont yet recieve a widows pension as my hubby was under 60 when he died.can you tell me when i will be able to recieve this. last september would have been his 60th birthday. i do not ,so i`m led to believe qualify for any income support or benefits .i work 18 hrs a week and am semi retired. can you help me understand the system cause its like gobbledygook to me.thanks x:

nfp20

Can anyone help because I am at my wits end

I have a live in carer one that I have had for more than 10 years. They were originally set up as part of a support package by my university along side my Psychiatrist. I have mental health issues (Depression & PTSD caused by multiple traumas) and a visual impairment that on occasion leaves me blind.

I was previously on DLA at the Middle rate of care Lower Rate mobility but when the new system came in my DLA was cancelled because I am a maintenance case (in other words I no longer receive hospital or consultant care but have instead a support network and coping strategies) I was unable to provide up to date documentation to support my claim and my doctors who were new did not support it either. I have not actually used this doctor's because I am terrified to go into the surgery, it is town centre and was provided by the local NHS because I need a female doctor. Each time I have contacted them I have received no help. When I have managed to get myself into the surgery they have a short 5 minute appointment (even when asked for a double) and that barely gives enough time to actually get through my notes let alone explain that I am struggling.

My support network has broken down, I have my same live in carer but I can no longer afford to full services that I was originally on instead I have the bare minimum of help until absolutely desperate to save on funds. My two consultants from my visual issues have both retired after providing 30 years of support (no need for appointments just turn up as and when needed) my assistance dog was PTS a few weeks ago after 11 years, sadly my support network is dropping like flies and I am not able to replace them. The support i received from my Psychiatrist was on private medical insurance from my employers but when I was transferred to the NHS I was advised that PTSD did not exist and to basically go home and get on with it. It took me two years to leave the house after that wonderful diagnosis and advice!

I have been basically managing without my DLA but I now have a lot of debts starting to pile up mainly with southern water because to go to the loo I have to sit in the bath and I am on a water meter. And the gas because last winter was pretty cold although I am paying them off slowly as i am on a meter and cannot change company without paying a fee that I simply cannot afford on top of the normal bills (talk about a catch 22). I have a very strict routine 5 days a week I take my daughter to school, I spend a lot of time there in the garden and then I come home. Basically its ideal for me I barely see anyone and I don't waste huge amounts of money because I make one journey instead of two and its a safe environment.

Now to my dilemma… My carer does not pay rent we have an informal agreement and he also helps with my daughter (acts as carer and for all intents and purposes is a parent) my housing benefit has just been reviewed and now they are stating that I have to have his income taken into account with my rent payments as I don't pay an agency. I have never asked my carer his earnings, he has a job that allows him to work for himself that he can work around me when I need help, I don't think it pays well. I am now worried that if my carers income is taken into account (these are funds I have absolutely no access to) then I will not have my rent covered and will end up homeless again (I was previous to having my home now). Or to keep my home I will lose my carer, which in turn puts me at risk and leaves me completely without any support except my daughter. This is all making me sick at the moment and I have repeatedly asked for help, even the simplest form in filling out the forms which have always been done by phone and sent to me for signature (highlighted section) they are now insisting on coming into my home to complete. I've not had anyone in my home for a very long time outside the carer and my daughter and the occasional visit from my mother. Its simply not something I am comfortable with and haven't been for a very long time.

Is there anything that i can do because without my home I have literally no security and I am worried that if I get sick I will lose my daughter. This was threatened in the past by the local NHS hospital because on paper I am a bit of a disaster and tick all their boxes, sadly they failed to see me as a person altogether!

Also can they take my daughters savings into account? As the forms are now asking for her savings information too. I put a little aside each time I receive her child benefit so that when she is older she can do something special, maybe education or learn to drive. Its not much £25 a month sometimes I can't do it but I try to and its built up so she has a couple of thousand pounds now that I have never touched and she can only have when she is 21. I cannot access the funds myself.

I tried talking to my doctors again but even contacting them by email has resulted in nothing more than someone will be in contact with me in due course… more than a month of trying to speak to someone has literally got me no where.

I can't afford the rent on my own without help there simply isn't enough from the EESA (Support Group) for that and bills and food. Sorry this is all so long winded but I've sort of reached the end of my tether.

winnie105

My other half has just been made redundant and we are now down to £1000 a month income with a mortgage and household bills this calculator says we are entitled to nothing.

Luckily we have no children to feed but I do have bills, food and petrol to buy aswell as the main bills.

He is claiming ESA as he has a disability which were taken into account at his last job but there is no way a new employer will take him on whilst taking 45 tablets a day, they will always go for the fitter man first. 39 and on the scrap heap isnt funny.

Why isnt there a system to help us when we need the help the most.

We are both very scared and worried how we are going to cope.