Entitled to benefits?...very confused

Ellejmorgan

Horseunderwater wrote: »

Yep you do need to tell them he is still in FT education. I was given this advice for when my now 16 year old reaches Aug 31st after Y11 ends. This is just after the exam results and getting into 6th forms etc, so a busy time. You ring them up and they will advise what proof you need to provide as they will need something to continue paying it. I assume that as they are now 17 that some time has passed since 31st Aug when they were 16. You might be able to get CB backdated to that point - worth trying. 1st job on Monday is to ring CBen and see what is available/can be done.
2nd job:
Make a list of all debts and I mean all of them. These are not essential. Are you maxed out on them all? If yes then you will most likely have not got any credit facility left to get hold of, so prob no 0% interest free deals to be had. If that is the case, the best thing to do, is to write to each and every creditor and ask to have interest frozen and offer to make them a percentage of what is left from your monthly budget. But you do have to stick to it and you have to be mean with all outgoings. Whatever else you do, do not go down the IVA route with any company that offers to sort it out, as they will take 80% of any money paid in fees etc. Often not even sending on the monies to the creditors.
Make a list of all essential outgoings.
This for me is:
Mortgage/rent
Council tax
TV license
Gas/Oil
Elect
BT(phone)
Water
House insurance
Car insurance(s)
MOT
Fuel
Servicing
Food and house cleaning bits
Those are the true essentials, add those up by looking at what you have paid out at the moment and then how much food gets thrown out as out of date etc. My fridge is now empty by Frid/Sat and gets stocked again with just enough to get to next weekend. Rarely chuck out of date food out now. After all that has been paid - how much is left over to pay any non essential debts? To work out what you can pay to each one, take each one and divide it over total debt to get percentage eg: If debts are say £10k and one CC is say £5k and others are all smaller. £5k/£10000K would give you 50% to pay to that creditor each month from your leftover income and so on until you have the 100% debts covered in your offer to them. It can be a small amount if your budget is tight, we used to pay a min of £1 at one point to ours back in 2005.
If you are on credit deals with utilities, can you swap to Pre payment meters, because even though you may be getting a good deal with say a credit account, sometimes it can be worth going down this route, so that you can stick to weekly budget for them and even better if you are in debit with them. They will set a weekly amount for any stand charge and debt on the meter, so all you do is top up at a pay point shop or I can do mine online with a USB device (BG), so I do not even need to drive(saving more pennies). They provide them free.
Do you have lots of unused clothing or electrical items not being used that could be sold on Ebay? Another way to clear debts is to sell off things that caused the debts in first place. You may not get as much for them, but sometimes can get a higher amount. And as soon as you get that money - put is aside and use to pay off debts quicker.
Another thing I do is buy food about to go out of date that can be frozen for cooking in a big batch later on. I accumulate until I have enough of that item. So as I make fish pie with cod loins(smoked) from Sainsburys fresh fish counter, I will buy whatever is there and I always ask if a further reduction is available. I normally get it as well. It goes into freezer when I get back and stays there till I have enough for homemade fish pie. V easy to make. Enough mashed potatoes for 4 cooked and mashed with butter salt pepper and 2 eggs, until a good spreading consistency. Fish gets baked with pepper, butter and some water or milk for 20 mins in oven, then broken up with fork and placed in dish to be used in the final bake. Make enough cheese sauce (thick) and mix in with fish. Spread mash over that and bake for 20-30 mins - Timing approx 1 1/4 hours from scratch. Cod loin is £18.90kg, so when I get it for £5kg or less I am getting a good saving on what is very good quality food. I do this with all the protein parts of my meals. Be friend the deli staff - it can be well worth it.
I now have my spending cut so tight that I can actually pay off the debt I had to run up last year due to illness in significant chunks and I hope to have at least cleared the interest bit by end of this year and some of the 0% bit by end date.

Making a fish pie for that money isn't very moneysaving, I can feed my family for £1 evening and 50p lunch..that's 4 of us..cod loins huh !! the only time to buy them is when ASDA sell them off for 20p..

I manage to save half my income by living on hardly anything..
live more basically..

Horseunderwater

Ellejmorgan wrote: »

Making a fish pie for that money isn't very moneysaving, I can feed my family for £1 evening and 50p lunch..that's 4 of us..cod loins huh !! the only time to buy them is when ASDA sell them off for 20p..

I manage to save half my income by living on hardly anything..
live more basically..

Perhaps but for me - I have to eat a high protein diet due to the illness I have and I get no wastage with that dish(bones) and it has no hidden sugar or other things in it. It also helps keep my blood sugars lower, which can be very high due to the steroids I need to take. I trim the shopping budget in other areas to make larger savings. I shall be taking stock of what I now have in freezer to see what I can cook with this week. I know that many posters on here do things differently - no one method works for all people - same as dieting. I now have a method that works for me - have lost over 10 stone now. It has been mentioned on dieting threads. SO I will not bore you.:D

Ellejmorgan

Horseunderwater wrote: »

Perhaps but for me - I have to eat a high protein diet due to the illness I have and I get no wastage with that dish(bones) and it has no hidden sugar or other things in it. It also helps keep my blood sugars lower, which can be very high due to the steroids I need to take. I trim the shopping budget in other areas to make larger savings. I shall be taking stock of what I now have in freezer to see what I can cook with this week. I know that many posters on here do things differently - no one method works for all people - same as dieting. I now have a method that works for me - have lost over 10 stone now. It has been mentioned on dieting threads. SO I will not bore you.:D

I lost over 5 stone a few years ago, black coffee did it for me..have kept it off though..

ani_26

dazzst wrote: »

Hi,

One benefit calculator says we are entitled to benefits, another not so I'm confused and am looking for some advice. I'll keep the facts brief.

1. Two children aged 17 and 15, both in full time education and no savings.
2. My wife does not work but does voluntary work as a teaching assistant. She is looking for part time work without luck.
3. I'm in full time employment, working 42 hours a week on a net monthly income of £2400. £39000 per annum before tax.
4. We receive £80.00 per month child benefit.
5. We have no savings and no other income.

Are we entitled to any benefits?

Thanks
Daz

I doubt you will be entitled to any benefits if you have a salary of £39k pa, I wouldn't pay too much attention to online calculators. They often seem to calculate you're entitled to benefits, but in the real world, it just doesn't happen like that. Even with wtc, there seems to be a small window of oppurtunity between the level where your income is too low or too high, to qualify. I speak, as someone who has had NO income for 8 weeks now, still, not had my applications processed / assessed. Isn't there a thread somewhere about living on fresh air?

Maybe a trip to the dfw board would help? If you post your soa, there are many people who can help with your expenditure and how to manage the remaining £1480 disposable income you have remaining after mortgage and council tax payments?

Hope this helps x

lyniced

Could you make some extra money selling stuff on eBay, or doing a car boot sale? My husband sell stuff on eBay and sometimes it's surprising what you think is junk, is another man's treasure! Worth a thought.

Also, I know what it's like to be strapped for cash, ( hubby was unemployed for 14 months and I am disabled, so can't work) but we somehow managed. Penny pinching became our full time occupation. There's so many ways you can save money, I could write a book! I'm sure Martin Lewis has already, though!

Take care. Don't look down, keep looking up! Things will improve.