Anything for mum who's out of work due to disability?

xylophone

"Currently, there's me & my gf. My brother & my sister & obviously my mum, living in this house."

I make that five adults. One (Mum) cannot work, your sister is a student
but the other three (you, your girlfriend, your brother) work full time?

I am assuming that all three of you make an individual contribution.

If your mother were left alone in the house, what would her essential monthly outgoings amount to?

[Deleted User]

Can you just clarify, in your first post you said Mum gets around 8k in benefits and 8.6k in pension? Is that correct or do you mean the pension tops her income up to 8.6k total? If your Mum has almost £17000 a year coming in with no rent or mortgage to pay then this is clearly more a budgeting problem? Also if she lived alone she would get 25% off Council Tax and possibly Council Tax Benefit, plus with less showers, baths, washing machine etc gas and electric would go down. With 3 full-time wages also coming in the house I can't see how there can be any shortfall. Maybe suggest your Mum increase her savings using some of the board money? When I lived at home I paid £70 per week and that was 1999!!!

atrixblue.-MFR-.

the home insurance thing you can do right at home with her, go on go compare home insurance then get the cheapest then got to their website or pay for it through a cashback site!


i really would would seek to have the caravan run on it own generator, thats like running two homes off one meter the way your doing it?

easy way to check she's on a meter look at her bill or go outside open the stop tap cover and see if there one there, or under the sink if internal meter if not see below.

you can save her about £300 a year just by buying a £39.99 FREESAT or FREESAT HD BOX if HD telly on a one off payment of the box if mum wishes to have any other channels not available to free to air she can subscribe to channels for as little as £2.99 permonth.

TV license, if she wants a payment break then she will still be covered to watch tv you dont have to take it away. have a look of the monthly payments. see if you can work out a smaller payment structure without actually stopping paying it, instead of monthly payments smaller weekly payments may be better for her on a payment card. tv lisence amount x 52 weeks =. lts usually paid in advance is a tv license by upto a year ahead.

as for water you maybe able to instruct water authority to take minimum payment from her Incapacity benefit weekly so she doesnt have to worry about it.

look at ways to make your caravan more independant from the house.

if she's so critical of a pot in the house, get a digital safe and bolt it to the floor or wall in her room out of sight, that way you can give her the money she can put it in there too keep for emergency's.

council tax banding reconsidderation is a hit or miss thing and hard pressed to have re evaluated may go up or may go down its a 50/50 swing.

i sincerely hope mum has not put her name as main driver down on sis's car insurance because it wasnt affordable in her own name (its illegal and called fronting).

again BT or you telephone provider, how often does she use the phone and how much is the average bill. free evening and weekend call all inclusive or basic line rental, what extra's are on the line and how much do they cost can those extra's be cancelled?
if she uses the phone in the evenings mostly and she's on basic would it not be more viable to put her on a evening and weekend package.


with the mobile my OH has orange, she tops up £15 a month and get unlimited texts and 1gb free internet, and 500 mins of free calls on a animal package not sure wich one dolphin i think i coul be wrong. compared to a contract of £15.00 per month having to pay top rates to other outside of network rates ontop and landline calls and 0800 numbers are premium rate as suppose to free on a uk landline (bt).

its all about digging to find deals.

check that TV insurance, make sure its not a rolling policy, because come renewal it may auto renew and she ends up paying that amount dad set it at.

what extra's are on her car insurance if she drives, breakdown cover european cover etc. if she wants breakdown cover shop around, it usually adds about £40+ to a policy, so when her car insurance renewal comes up, get quotes on other breakdown deals available from RAC AA greenflag etc.

it all about looking at what you can half or save on completely and do without making fine adjustment to living like swtching off appliances at night or not in use. turning the thermostats down a few clicks.

duchy

Nobody goes to brokers in person anymore -use Comparison sites like MoneySupermarket.com -you can check gas and electric tariff there too-also check Quidco and TopCashBack.

Quite honestly though you claim you're paying your way which with three working adults in the house should be around £70 x3 per week so £210 a week (which is a very low estimate tbh) plus your Mum's own income so either something is seriously wrong with utility bills etc or you've not disclosed the full story. Incidently sleeping in the caravan is dodgy as you may need council permission -unlikely to be a problem unless a neighbour complains though but you should be aware.

I don't think you're appreciating the size of any of the bills though "a few oats for breakfast" (presumably not dry oats alone) and a bit of tea add up to quite a lot over five adults. Showers let alone baths and washing for five really stack up too. Is washing line dried or tumble dried ?As for the digs about your Mum's magazines -frankly it's none of your business-she's an adult -and as another adult living in her home you could be a bit more respectful of her choices.

Your Mum may not be good with money (and possibly until six months ago when she lost your Dad never had to deal with it) and is probably still adjusting both emotionally and financially but at the moment it seems everyone in the house is seeing it as a parent providing and kids "living at home" rather than adults jointly supporting a household. Yes it's lovely that your Mum wants to help you get a deposit together but it seems to be at a high cost to her. I think putting together a SOA (statement of affairs -lots of examples on the Debt Free Wannabe forum) and taking a realistic look at the current household outgoings might be an eyeopener to EVERYONE in the house.
You're all adults and should ALL be fully informed . There may very well be savings to be made but it may also be that the working adults simply aren't paying their way. Remember that if you and your girlfriend were to move out (and maybe your working sibling) your Mum would qualify for the single person rebate on council tax (whilst your sister is a student) and possibly other benefits too as well as vastly reduced food and utility bills.

Yes your Mum probably could cut her budget-most of us can when we do an SOA but six months into widowhood she's still adjusting -just as much as you and your siblings are as you are no longer "the kids living at home" but adults in a joint household. You've got very defensive but hopefully part of that is you realizing that maybe you're not doing as much for your Mum as you could be or thought you were -as well as disappointment that your plans for getting a deposit together might need adjusting as they aren't sustainable if you both make a fair contribution to your current home.

Dunroamin

Advice on cutting down expenses is always a good thing but with 4 adults supporting a household of 5 people in a house with no mortgage there should be no need. Your mother's benefits and a contribution of, say, £70 pw each from the workers would give a household income of about £440 pw which should allow for paying all the bills comfortably with plenty of "extras". In a year's time, when the OP and GF have left and the sister is working, this would go down to £370 with only 3 people to support which still shouldn't be a problem.

I can only agree with the other poster who said "where does the money go?".

duchy

You were asking what an SOA is . I've pulled one from one of the debt free diaries to give you an idea -basically it lists everything in household expenditure so you can see the true outgoings - for you that's the important part -This one is missing out on a few things like putting money aside each month for repairs (car and house) MOTs ,etc and has creditcard debt which doesn't appear to be part of your Mum's concerns from what you've said-but it's a good template to start from and work out what the real household expenses are just tailor it to your own circumstances (and useful for when you move out to work out what your expenses will be then too)

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1301
Partners monthly income after tax....... 549.33
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1850.33

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 308
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 77
Electricity............................. 20
Gas..................................... 20
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 37
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 117
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 216
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 53.45
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 60
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
bank fee ............................... 10
Total monthly expenses.................. 930.57


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 0

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
dad............................1783......160...... .0
vanquis........................1100......48....... .53.9
capital one....................190.......5.........34.9
very...........................408.......30.84.... .45.9
legal aid......................100.......16.45.....0
choice.........................181.6.....23.72.... .0
aqua...........................345.......12....... .35.9
capital one progress...........185.......5.........26.9
Total unsecured debts..........4292.6....301.01....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,850.33
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 930.57
Available for debt repayments........... 919.76
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 301.01
Amount left after debt repayments....... 618.75

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -4,292.6
Net Assets.............................. -4,292.6

victory

duchy sorry to interrupt, sorry to bother you but have been trying to PM you and your box is full, was wondering if you could empty it so that I could PM you please? Thank you victory

duchy

K_P83 wrote: »

. Plus i would assume that by a sale of the house & a nice wedge in her bank account from the sale, that her benefits would then either stop or be reduced considerably, so that the savings would then be eroded even quicker - due to expenditure being more than income.
Or am i wrong? This isn't me challenging what you've said. This is me asking whether i've got the wrong end of the stick here.

Possibly

The pension from your Dad would remain untouched (I'm assuming this is a private pension)
DLA isn't taken into account when calculating benefits so would remain untouched
So IB (she may get moved to ESA later on but same principle) would be the only part of income affected and with £100K (a ballpark figure for what a house might realise when sold) in savings would stop as she'd be expected to live on capital until her savings drop to a certain level . Once that level is reached (which is still more than her current level of savings) she'd qualify for housing benefit and Council tax benefit after taking her pension but not her DLA into account.

Broke_n_Broken

K_P83 wrote: »

Nope, we've all passed & we all paid up our own lessons anyway, and insurance. Oh except my sister - my mum got her insurance as she couldn't afford it..

Oh dear lord! It gets better and better! NEWS FLASH!!!
Your mom is on BENEFITS, she couldn't afford it!
Incapacity Benefit gives you JUST enough to live on, this means survive and not much more!

Your mom is obviously living beyond her means and while what she's trying to do for the family is nice, most people in full time work can't afford to insure a car for a 21yr old, support 2 in the garden etc, etc.

PLEASE don't respond to this expecting me to read it, I've had enough. Just to keep this OT I'll repeat my last advice.

Broke_n_Broken wrote: »

Do us, yourself, and most importantly YOUR MOM a favour and work out a few more facts like...
How much is it costing her to keep you?
How much would it cost her to keep the house if you weren't there?

atrixblue.-MFR-.

Broke_n_Broken wrote: »

Hey, thanks for the added facts, they helped me come to the INFORMED opinion that you are bleeding your mom dry.
Personal reasons aside, the FACT is, at this rate, you saving for your own home is gonna cost your mom hers.
Do us, yourself, and most importantly YOUR MOM a favour and work out a few more facts like...
How much is is costing her to keep you?
How much would it cost her to keep the house if you weren't there?

That may open your eyes to why people have said what they have.

Truth hurts, FACT

FACT, working out how much its costing her to keep them now is going to be a need.

irrelavant to the NOW situation is how much it would cost to not keep them there. that should be worked out a few weeks before people start to move out.

[STRIKE]MOM[/STRIKE] mum mam, apologies if american.