Student - JSA, grants, & living with grandparents

Oldernotwiser

birkee wrote: »

That's it!
News report on TV this morning regarding identity theft.
Chap on there, was at a hotel, and had his wallet stolen at lunchtime. By 4pm they had cleaned out HIS accounts, AND his Wife's accounts, and they were left penniless. (No PIN number in the wallet either!)
I know! ..... how did they get his Wife's accounts? I've no idea, but that's what he said.

Another item on the same broadcast. Elderly man gave a publishing company(?) his account details to pay for an advertisement for his cottage to let in France, and they cleaned out his account of 11K, taking up to SIX payments per day to avoid large withdrawals.

Put my bank statements into an unknown system?
Looks like my pension will be keeping my Grandson for two more years.
(How many more systems need to see bank statements by the way?)

So, you never pay anything by cheque then?

birkee

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

So, you never pay anything by cheque then?

Paid for new windows with a cheque, to a national company, otherwise virtually never use them.
(To avoid giving cash payments to installers)

All payments (pensions etc) are paid into MY account, and then I transfer money into our joint account, which is the only one I hold a chequebook for. Little use of cheques these days as the DD card covers so much.

clemmatis

birkee wrote: »

That's it!
News report on TV this morning regarding identity theft.
Chap on there, was at a hotel, and had his wallet stolen at lunchtime. By 4pm they had cleaned out HIS accounts, AND his Wife's accounts, and they were left penniless. (No PIN number in the wallet either!)
I know! ..... how did they get his Wife's accounts? I've no idea, but that's what he said.

Well then, birkee, you'd better stay at home all the time.

This is a most unlikely story, however, if he kept too much ID in his wallet and his PIN numbers, and had been silly enough to have a signature that matched the name on his cards, and had had his wife's cards and PIN numbers in there too, and his cards were not insured, and his bank and credit card issuers hadn't noticed anything unusual, yes, I suppose it could happen. My bank and my credit card issuers would have 'phoned me and blocked the cards for far less than that.

Put my bank statements into an unknown system?
Looks like my pension will be keeping my Grandson for two more years.

it's your call...

fresian_cow

birkee wrote: »

That's it!
News report on TV this morning regarding identity theft.
Chap on there, was at a hotel, and had his wallet stolen at lunchtime. By 4pm they had cleaned out HIS accounts, AND his Wife's accounts, and they were left penniless. (No PIN number in the wallet either!)
I know! ..... how did they get his Wife's accounts? I've no idea, but that's what he said.

Another item on the same broadcast. Elderly man gave a publishing company(?) his account details to pay for an advertisement for his cottage to let in France, and they cleaned out his account of 11K, taking up to SIX payments per day to avoid large withdrawals.

Put my bank statements into an unknown system?
Looks like my pension will be keeping my Grandson for two more years.
(How many more systems need to see bank statements by the way?)

I think you may have missed the part of this report in which the gentleman said that the thiefs had called his credit card company MBNA and they gave out the persons pin number over the phone. He was insured and got all of the money back.

I have read this entire thread and I understand why you are nervous of identity fraud but these people will not have any of your details with which to commit fraud (if you blank out the account numbers etc as you have been advised) nor will they have your pin number or your bank cards. It's your call but unless you want to financially support your grandson it's a small thing to do which may really help you all.

birkee

Think it's all a mute point now folks, as it appears all the grant money available has gone now, for this year apparently.

Perhaps next term, with acct No's etc blacked out?

Oldernotwiser

birkee wrote: »

Think it's all a mute point now folks, as it appears all the grant money available has gone now, for this year apparently.

Perhaps next term, with acct No's etc blacked out?

If you've been told that the money's gone for this year, they probably mean this academic year, not 2011.

thorsoak

So, your grandson cannot start his university/college course now before September 2012. Nice one, grandpa!

BatOutOfUll

birkee wrote: »

Pretty fair summary terryw, but of course, things are not always as straightforward as they seem.
When my Grandson sought refuge with us, we thought it was just a temporary thing. Also, his Mother would have been getting the benefits, so we couldn't claim them as well could we?
Also of course, being older, I thought child benefits etc stopped at the age of 16, and he became 17 two weeks after arriving on our doorstep.

She shouldn't have continued to receive benefit for him, you cant claim for a child that not resident with you. The exception being of course if the child is staying with a non-resident parent/relative for a short time (holidays) If she DID continue to claim (or indeed is still claiming) she should be sending you the money. Child Benefit can be extended up to age 20 if they stay on in full-time education.

Why not try claiming now? It's not Income Based and as far as I'm aware doesn't effect any benefits (I may be wrong but I'm sure someone will put me right) They can only look at your case and make a decision based on the information on the form and I THINK it can be backdated three months. You give them the date they came to live with you, they dont ask why you didn't claim before and if it turns out his mother IS still claiming, they will look into it and if you qualify switch the payments to you.

Hope this helps

Batty x