Housing Benefit?

CherryDrop

Hi everyone, thought I would ask the question here first before my visit to the CAB to see if I can try and understand how benefits work

I am 24 years old and pregnant, baby is due on 12th November and have found out I am being made redundant from my job I have been in for 5 years. Have been through all my consultation meetings etc and my leaving date is the 14th September which will also be the date my SMP is paid from, which I will be getting in a lump sum in my final pay packet.

My husband and I are on the council list and have been awarded 10 points, we bid every week but are band 4 so don't really get considered for anything. I contacted our old letting agents who have a property for us that the landlord would accept housing benefit on. Husband works 2 jobs and I am hoping to go back to work ASAP after baby is born, originally I was going to take the full year off but don't think fate wanted that to happen.

My question is: Will we only be able to claim housing benefit once baby is here? The property we have been offered to look at is 2 bed and obviously LHA is based on how many bedrooms you need and as a couple we only need one, and, will I be able to work pretty soon after baby is here or do I need to wait the time I have been paid maternity pay for? (6 months)

Hope you can help, sorry for the garbled story

nannytone_2

until the baby is born you will only be considered for the 1 bed rate. how much you get would be dependant on income

pmlindyloo

The benefits you need to look at are Housing Benefit, Council Tax benefit and Tax credits.

The HB and CTB are means tested and will depend on your total household income (you say your husband is working) and any capital/savings.

Tax credits are awarded depending on your household income. They can be quite complicated as they are awarded on the previous year's income but can be adjusted if your income goes down considerably.

Once the baby is born you may be entitled to Child Tax credits and of course, Child Benefit will be paid.

Really it depends on your OH's salary and your salary when you go back to work.

Whilst you are on maternity leave receiving SMP you will still be classed as working but there is a disregard for £100 a week of your SMP (said it was complicated didn't I?!)

You can use the benefit calculator on www.turn2us.org.uk to give you an idea of your entitlements - you can put in different scenarios e.g. now, when you are on maternity leave, after you've had the baby, when you go back to work.

CAB will also be able to do various scenarios with a Quick Benefit check.

earthbound_misfit

Although you will only be entitled to the 1-bed rate of Local Housing Allowance until your baby is born, it might be worth sorting moving out now if there is any way you can scrape together the difference for the next couple of months (fingers crossed baby is a little early lol). There is also a discretionary fund administered by the Housing Benefit/LHA dept. which you may be entitled to in these circumstances.

CherryDrop

Thank you for your replies :beer:

I have looked at the turn2us website and the calculator just does my head in! My partner brings home 1360 each month (before tax) he also pays £79 a week child support, which I understand will change when bubs arrives. His second job brings in 300 a month (before tax) which helps pay his fuel costs to work etc. The calculator says we earn too much as I had to include my SMP and what I have earnt so far this year as I was the highest earner on 17500 a year. So all in all we're entitled to £13 a week HB and nothing else.. Think i've done it wrong somewhere!

I've been sat here thinking and wondering. I'm getting quite a substantial amount of money in my final pay (september) as I am being made redundant I am getting redundancy pay, statutory redundancy pay and all of my SMP in one lump sum. Perhaps a landlord would accept 6 months rent in advance from us, then I wouldnt have to worry about applying for HB, could find a job in those 6 months then hopefully start all over again. Sounds to good to be true and not sure if there is another board I should be asking that question on.

Really knocks you for 6 when you think you have your life planned out then the company you've given your life too just throws you away!

Forgot to add, am currently living with my parents as our plans were to pay off debts with 2-3 months pay before baby arrives, then this happened! Doh!

missbunbury

Is the maintenance paid through the CSA? If so you will have to inform them of your child benefit reference number when your new one arrives, and they will deduct 15% from the income they use to work out what he should pay in future. Bear in mind two things though: 1.) any child tax credit you claim will be added to his assessable income and 2.) not judging but it appears he hasn't told them about his second job (based on the figure you give), they may pick this up when you ask for a reassessment and it will be included as more income.

CherryDrop

missbunbury wrote: »

Is the maintenance paid through the CSA? If so you will have to inform them of your child benefit reference number when your new one arrives, and they will deduct 15% from the income they use to work out what he should pay in future. Bear in mind two things though: 1.) any child tax credit you claim will be added to his assessable income and 2.) not judging but it appears he hasn't told them about his second job (based on the figure you give), they may pick this up when you ask for a reassessment and it will be included as more income.

Thank you for getting back to me, yes he pays through CSA, will deffo contact them about this second job though, we don't really know much about all of this CSA/benefit business we just do what we get told and pay what we get told to pay, obviously need to get more savvy to all this.

wlasikiewicz

You may be able to claim benefit but on a reduced rate as your partner is working, its worth checking out tho.