General Advice for My mother

Tugboat

Hi,

My Mum who is 61 (due to claim her state pension September 2013). She lost her partner a year ago and was claiming Bereavement Allowance which has now finished.

The only income she has coming in is her partners private pension of £70 a week and savings of £10,000. She is still paying out £500+ a month in mortgage payments whilst we try and sell her house.

Can anyone advise if there is any help or benefit we can help her claim for the next 12 months when her state pension kicks in. We were thinking Jobseekers though I am not sure she could cope with full time work. Any help and advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Tim

Torry_Quine

Does she claim the 25% council tax discount?

annie1975_2

Did mums partner not have any kind of insurance to pay the mortgage off??

McKneff

is she able to look for work till her state pension kicks in.

McKneff

Could she take in some lodgers or some students.

Tugboat

Thanks for the reply's.
I have helped her fill in the council tax benefit.
No insurance unfortunately.
She technically is able to work though she is partially deaf and lives out in the sticks with no form of transport apart from a few daily buses to the local town.

Man_Overboard_2

There are several online 'benefits calculators' which are extremely useful - google 'benefits calculator' and choose the directgov one first.

Also, go to CAB, and write to the mortgage company to warn them of possible financial difficulties in the near future - if your mother has no need for a good credit record, then she might be surprised by flexibility of some finance companies, and in any case, an initial letter can do her no harm.

dandelionclock30

I doubt if she will be able to get jobseekers as she gets the £70.00 per week from the pension.
I think she may be able to get council tax benefit but Im not sure of her entitlement due to her savings. I would ask the One Stop Shop about this.
I think it will be very difficult for her to get a job at the present time as age discrimination is rife and theres hardly any jobs anyway. She may fair better by asking around friends and family about cleaning or babysitting type jobs.

Sparklebabey

Ummmm...is this not what her savings are for? To help her when times are tough?

Dunroamin

Tugboat wrote: »

Hi,

My Mum who is 61 (due to claim her state pension September 2013). She lost her partner a year ago and was claiming Bereavement Allowance which has now finished.

Are you sure you've checked her pension date correctly? Even if her 61st birthday was today, her pension date would only be 6 January 2013.

http://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/state-pensions/state-pension-age-calculator?

Also, I'm pretty sure you can only claim bereavement allowance if they were married or civil partners (which may,of course, have been what you meant).

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/Bereaved/DG_10018684

Tugboat

Dunroamin wrote: »

Are you sure you've checked her pension date correctly? Even if her 61st birthday was today, her pension date would only be 6 January 2013.



Also, I'm pretty sure you can only claim bereavement allowance if they were married or civil partners (which may,of course, have been what you meant).

Sorry my mistake she is 60 (61 in December). She was claiming bereavement allowance but this has now ended.