widow

somebodyhelpmeplease

i am a widow aged 55 i work 16 hours per week my children have left home there was no life insurance my dear husband had a private pnsion and i paid some of the mortgage off with that i still owe £14000.00 my daughter is expecting so i will be looking after he/she on my days off hence i cant work any more hours i have all the other bills my question is am i entiled to any benifits .

littleminx_2

Hi,

Really not clued up on benefits, but this may help http://www.turn2us.org.uk/benefits_search.aspx

xx

podperson

You might be better posting on the benefits board but to be honest I think from what you've said you might be out of the brackets for most things. You don't work enough hours for tax credits, can't get pensions credits until 60 and won't be able to get housing benefit as own your own home. You could try for council tax benefit on the grounds of low income (am assuming you're already claiming the single person discount?) but can't think of anything else, sorry

missbishi

Unfortunately, I think podperson is right. The only things I could suggest are:

-Increase your hours at work or charge daughter for childminding duties?
-Downsize the house?
-What about taking in a lodger?

Sorry I can't help you any further : (

heartbreak_star

Taking in a lodger is a good one - I'm sure you can legally make about £4k a year?

HBS x

podperson

heartbreak_star wrote: »

Taking in a lodger is a good one - I'm sure you can legally make about £4k a year?

HBS x

It's perfectly legal for you to make as much as you like renting out rooms but you can receive £4250 a year from lodgers before you have to pay tax on it

somebodyhelpmeplease

thankyou everybody for your replies of help i will look into it .:)

mrsyardbroom

If your daughter claims tax credits she may be able to get some extra money to pay for child minding. I think you'd need to be registered as a child minder unless the rules have changed but it's always worth looking into. There's more info here http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/leaflets/wtc5-hs.pdf