Benefits advice,please!

Gingel

My daughter is a single mother with two small children aged 10 months and 4. She receives Housing/Council Tax Benefit, Child Benefit and Income Support.
In July she is getting married to the father of her children (hooray!!!). He works as a painter, which is poorly paid, and occasionally he will have several weeks without work. He gets between £50 and £80 per day, after tax; when he has no work he relys on my daughter or his mother to feed him, as he hates the whole signing-on thing. I sympathise - I don't know about other job centres, but our 'local' one (an expensive bus ride away) is pretty unhelpful and depressing.
These sweet, but generally broke, lovebirds are wondering how they will manage as a married couple. I expect she will lose Income Support, posibly some HB, but I have suggested three things so far:
Child Tax Credit
Working Tax Credit
He should grit his teeth and SIGN ON between jobs!!!!
Thankfully I have had very little experience of the system in recent years. Anybody got any ideas and insight?
Thanks

welshone27

They have two children together and are getting married and they're not living together? Hmmm.....sure.

Entitledto.org will tell them what they can get.

Income shouldnt be a reason for them to be legit.

kingfisherblue

Your daughter should already be receiving child tax credit.

Anubis_2

They should have been claiming as a couple already!

CTC she will be getting already. If he is self employed he will be expected to budget for the year - so its unlikely he will be able to sign on when work is quiet.

It's possible they may question your daughter when they get married and begin their claim together - they will want to know why this wasn't done earlier as they would think it obvious they are together. So don't be surprised if an interview takes place with questions to answer.

Gingel

welshone27 wrote: »

They have two children together and are getting married and they're not living together? Hmmm.....sure.
Entitledto.org will tell them what they can get.
Income shouldnt be a reason for them to be legit.

Ah, well, it's quite a sweet story and might soften that cynical heart of yours....When my daughter first fell pregnant she was 16 and her boyfriend was 17. His dad had scarpered when he was 2, so, although he wanted to be a good dad, he was lacking skills. She and the babe lived with us. He visted often and we have watched the relationship deepen (possibily didn't watch closely enough). Last January our daughter moved into her own place, just a little pregnant. The boyfriend has grown up and matured a lot; we have advised him where we can, encouraged him (self-esteem wasn't great), tried to set a good example, and now he's shaping up nicely. On Valentine's day he went on one knee, shaking like a leaf, told her that he loved her more than anything and wanted to spend his whole life with her, and offered her a ring. Finances are in no way any part of the decision.
He isn't self-employed. There are a couple of guys, one-man bands, who run decorating businesses and give him work when they have some, PAYE. Painting and decorating is all he knows - he went to a special school where the policy seemed to be containment, rather than education, so they didn't even enter him for a single GCSE. He is studying to get a CSCS card, and we have bought him a course of driving lessons to increase his earning potential.

Very helpful website, many thanks!

Hmm71

Gingel that is a very sweet story and I was thinking "awww, how lovely" when I read your post. Ignore the cynical old gits on this board, there are a lot of them. Good luck to your daughter and son-in-law to be.

Anubis_2

Gingel wrote: »

Ah, well, it's quite a sweet story and might soften that cynical heart of yours....When my daughter first fell pregnant she was 16 and her boyfriend was 17. His dad had scarpered when he was 2, so, although he wanted to be a good dad, he was lacking skills. She and the babe lived with us. He visted often and we have watched the relationship deepen (possibily didn't watch closely enough). Last January our daughter moved into her own place, just a little pregnant. The boyfriend has grown up and matured a lot; we have advised him where we can, encouraged him (self-esteem wasn't great), tried to set a good example, and now he's shaping up nicely. On Valentine's day he went on one knee, shaking like a leaf, told her that he loved her more than anything and wanted to spend his whole life with her, and offered her a ring. Finances are in no way any part of the decision.
He isn't self-employed. There are a couple of guys, one-man bands, who run decorating businesses and give him work when they have some, PAYE. Painting and decorating is all he knows - he went to a special school where the policy seemed to be containment, rather than education, so they didn't even enter him for a single GCSE. He is studying to get a CSCS card, and we have bought him a course of driving lessons to increase his earning potential.

Very helpful website, many thanks!

Not sure what the rules are concerning PAYE, he may be able to sign on.

I would still imagine your daughter will be questioned regardless of the love story involved. They will view that they must have been in a relationship to get pregnant both times, and because it's with the same person, there may be some questions surrounding her claim as a single parent.

It's better to be aware that the above is a possibility.

Gingel

Okay, I shall mention it, so she's not suprised. I have always encouraged her to be completely straight and honest filling in forms: she has always volunteered name and address of father when asked (up to now, his mother's), and the fact that he has very little money! Over the last few months he has been at hers overnight more and more of the time She's an adult now, and a mother (a good one, too!), so I generally butt out of 'private' stuff, but I did warn her to be very careful about her status. She has explained the situation to her Housing Officer, who doesn't think that there is a problem as things stand.

clouty

Hi, and congrats on your charming family.

Once they are living together as a couple, your daughter and her chap will be assessed as one unit, with one of them as the 'claimant'. Whichever that is, should claim child tax credits and working tax credits - though there is a minimum weekly hours requirement of 24 hours for that.

Your daughter will still get her Child Benefit, that stays the same.

The biggie is the housing benefit and council tax benefit. The taper is harsh for these, and the young couple may well end up worse off as a result of their moving in together.

Here's a benefit checker they can fill in, from an independent charity https://www.turn2us.entitledto.co.uk/

Hope this helps.