benefits to tide us over

BigAunty

21Twinkle wrote: »

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We do have a mortgage and council tax to pay as well as gas/electricity/home insurance/car insurance/road tax/petrol etc - so how can anyone be expected to survive on £111 per week ?
I do get mid range DLA (care component)

That means that you currently net approx £245 a week. On the one hand, it's not great as that's just over one full time wage on the National Minimum Wage. On the other hand, that's more than twice what a couple on JSA receives. The Turn2us online benefit calculator will show if you have any further entitlements.

I imagine most households where one of the couple worked one day a week would struggle to pay a mortgage and run a car - most would sell up in your situation and move to rented accommodation and get rid of the motor.

If you are struggling to pay the mortgage and there is a risk of arrears or repossession, do look at the Shelter website which has a section for homeowners on their options, including one scheme where a social housing landlord buys the property and rents it back to the former owners.

Otherwise, what you've got is a budgeting, not benefits issue - download the MSE budget planner and work through the site to identify how to reduce spend and up your income.

For certain types of benefits (JSA and income based ESA), the claimant can access some support to pay their mortgage interest. I know this doesn't apply to you but if your circumstances change, do look at the Shelter and Direct Gov website about the SMI scheme.

21Twinkle wrote: »

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My wife works 7 hours per week and has tried to get more hours without sucess - she used to claim carers allowance too - but since we both found "jobs" - we cancelled the claim - it didn't seem right, both working and claiming CA

Do look into reapplying for carers allowance as that's another £55 which will top up your income to £300 per week, nearly 3 times the sum of an unemployed couple. She is allowed to earn up to £100 per week and still receive it, otherwise you are throwing away nearly 3k a year.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/CaringForSomeone/MoneyMatters/CarersAllowance/index.htm