Housng benefits help!

Fiver29

doveman1234 wrote: »

Ok lets brake this down a bit as you think you can live off £1350 a month.

Rent - £600
Council tax - £110
Gas - £60
Electric - £60
Water - £20
Petrol - £120
Food - £120
Baby Milk, Nappies etc - £120
Car insurance - £70

Thats the necessities and comes to 1280. Thats not including, mobile phone bills which are also needed, house phone which is needed, car tax, travel costs, clothes. I Dont know what person can honestly live off of £1350 a month for 3 people. So with my necessities being paid for i have no money left for any of the above. what a great life.

My wife cant go back to work as there is know one to look after my boy and no family around us.

A lot of people live on an awful lot less per month for 3 people ( I live off £1138, for 3 people, 1 dog, 1 cat, 1 rabbit and 2 hamsters).

Buying terry nappies would reduce your monthly outgoings immediately. If your wife is not working there's no reason why you can't use them.

pompeyrich

Give the guy a break, if you put his rent and CT into the calculator in post 2, then add them as a couple not working, it shows their monthly income, IS, HB, CTB and CTC and CB, would be in excess of £1,500. The op is trying to support his family by working and is financially worse off.

missbunbury

OP - I'm not having a go, I'm trying to say if you do the things I suggest your money will go further. Because I'm not sure there is anything else you can claim, whether that's fair or not, so you will have to either get more money coming in or stretch what you do have further. I'm not judging you and I'm not saying it isn't hard, just that there are things you can do to help yourself.

neverdespairgirl

doveman1234 wrote: »

Food - £120
Baby Milk, Nappies etc - £120
Car insurance - £70

Those 3 are all cut downable. Nappies and milk surely don't cost £120 a month! £840 a year in car insurance seems really high, too.

Anubis_2

doveman1234 wrote: »

Thanks for the website Caz it has helped, do you think i can make a claim now so they are prepared for when December comes round or will i have to do it all in December when her SMP finishes.

And Miss Bunbury, i am getting child tax credit and child benefit however its only a very small amount of help when you have so many bills, petrol, and rent to pay, not including food, nappies and baby milk.

I pay £600 rent with £110 council tax so £710 in total inc council tax.

Did you use the calculator that Caz linked to? It is ***possible*** once SMP stops, you may be entitled to working tax credit, but if you use the calculator it will give you an idea.

Morglin

doveman1234 wrote: »

Thanks for the website Caz it has helped, do you think i can make a claim now so they are prepared for when December comes round or will i have to do it all in December when her SMP finishes.

And Miss Bunbury, i am getting child tax credit and child benefit however its only a very small amount of help when you have so many bills, petrol, and rent to pay, not including food, nappies and baby milk.

I pay £600 rent with £110 council tax so £710 in total inc council tax.

If the 'entitledto' site says you can claim, and you would be eligible for rent/CT help, then put in a claim a couple of weeks before December - it will take this long for them to even start to process it.

Just put what date you wish to claim from, on the form, and make sure you send/take all verification documents they require.

If you post it all, make sure you send it recorded delivery. If you take it to the office, they will photocopy what they needs and give you the original forms back.

Lin

Oldernotwiser

The other possibility, of course, is that your wife goes back to work. This could be either in her current job or in something whose hours complement yours. Being a SAHM may be something that you as a family cannot afford at present.

doveman1234

pompeyrich wrote: »

Give the guy a break, if you put his rent and CT into the calculator in post 2, then add them as a couple not working, it shows their monthly income, IS, HB, CTB and CTC and CB, would be in excess of £1,500. The op is trying to support his family by working and is financially worse off.

I appreciate you sticking up for me lol People obviously think i earn enough to servive when i really cant see it even with cut backs.
Maybe i should just stop working and see what everyone thinks of me getting £200 more doing nothing and letting all you tax payers pay for me. I suppose more fool me and my wife getting married at 20 and doing things the right way round and not working the system instead. Suppose it would of been easier not to marry and claim that we are not living together, maybe we would of got a house and complete rent paid for.

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Those 3 are all cut downable. Nappies and milk surely don't cost £120 a month! £840 a year in car insurance seems really high, too.

And no really that is how much it costs. He goes through two tubs of milk a week costing £80 a month with nappies on top of that. And for car insurance you try finding a cheaper deal for a 23 year old male and a 24 year old female.

People obviously feel that i shouldnt need any help and i should get on with it, makes you want to work the system like other people...

merlin68

Go ahead and give up work, you won't be able to claim nothing. Your generation think they should have it all. I have a daughter a simlilar age. JSA for a couple is £105 a week. So you wouldn't be any better of.

cord123

You havent included what you are getting from smp now.... could you not put some of that away so when you renew your car insurance (which will hopefully have gone down) you can pay it off in one lumo sum? Also buy car tax stamps, that way you dont need to find a lump some in a month.

Nappies - you dont have to spend that much! Look for bargains.... asda do 2 packets for a tenner. Not sure exactly how much in packet but around 65 so that 130 nappies, they should last you 2 weeks minimum so nappies a month - £20, wipes get 4 for £3 in asda, but use cotton wool and water when at home. It may be not as convienient but is cheaper! Also, if he is going through that much milk a week i would change him to hungry baby, that is quite a lot!! That should instantly save you atleast the cost of one box of milk! I weaned my LO at 4 months, that is considered as quite early but he needed it, sounds like your LO does too!

Food - spending way too much! When I was on maternity leave we cut ours down to £80 and that was to feed my step children (x 2) for atleast 10 times a month! Pasta, mince, smart price tinned toms are 24p passat is 24p get those instead of the £1 odd jar of sauce.... it tastes alot nicer with a few herbs in... some pasta - cheap meal for about £2.50! And you can freeze some....jecket pots and baked beans, freezer food... it may not be steak every night but needs must eh!

As a pp said you will start weaning in the next few months so although it initially wont make a great deal of diff to milk costs it will eventually. Also, follow on milk is usually alot cheaper, cow & gate is reg on offer for around £5 which they can have from 6 months so that will halve your milk costs.

Having a baby does cost a fortune but you just need to save money off non essentials. Could your wife not get an evening job in a supermarket etc to get some extra money when her smp stops? Have you looked into help with childcare aswell... you may qualify for some help there so she can go back to work for a few hours?

My OH and I now have a seperate account so say we get £2000 into the account and our bills are £1500 £450 is trf to our'house' account. This is what we need to live on for the month, so petrol, food, nappies, clothes, days out etc. I do the monthly shop (on the ineternet) so costs less already - search for free del code. Get every thing you need for the month so atleast you know you have food and nappies etc if you run out of money... obv you will need to buy milk and bread but if you run out of money it isnt the end of the world. Then whatever you have left divide by 4 (ie, number of weeks til the next payday) you will be amazed how doing that you are a lot more careful. so say now you have £80 a week to live on .... put £40 in petrol. There is no reason you need to spend the other £40 because you have food etc.... just dont spend money on rubbish-magazines etc are not essential. PAYG phone, you will wait for people to ring you because you have to top up before you use it and not pay after! it will be tight but it is do-able!