coming off income support

guccigoo

hi at the moment im recieving a bit of income support as i work 10 hrs a week but as from monday my hrs are going up to 16. When do i inform I.S, tax credits and housing benefit? also does it take long for them to sort it out. I dont know which one to inform first as housing benefit will prob want wage slips but i dont get that till the end of the month with my new hrs on so what do i do??

skater_kat

inform them all on monday. you can send them the wage slips as they come in. if you inform them on monday of your hours and rate of pay, it minimises the chances of any overpayments.

guccigoo

thankyou but will they stop my housing benefit till they recieve the wage slips?

skater_kat

how long have you been on income support? you might qualify for a extended payment or "run-on". (google this)

when i have informed the HB dept of any changes, the payment has continued whilst waiting for proofs. can you get a letter from the employer (offer letter or such like0 to give to the council.

rainbow81

Hi, I have just come off income support as I started working 20 hours, so I can tell you how it worked for me...

I rang up IS, the number that's on the website. They told me to ring my local jobcentre and a specific person who deals with getting back into work. He took all my work details and income, etc and he contacted tax credits and HB. Tax credits also contacted HB with the details of my new claim. (I actually rang tax credits first and later emailed HB but I didn't know about this system then!). So basically IS first as that will be the one that gets overpaid the soonest! Tax credits will go up as HB goes down. HB had my TC details before I did!

HTH a bit. I would say IS is definitely the priority though.

guccigoo

thankyou so much for the info as i have been worrying about this wondering who to contact first. I shall ring income support monday, would i have to go up there or is all done over the phone?