Cost of living.. advice please

nannytone_2

it;s really unfortunate, but many oif us are finding ourselves in less than ideal curcumstances.
our choice is to either lay down and give up, or carry in and make the best of a bad lot

robbie1412

missbunbury wrote: »

As far as the car goes, if you aren't using it I don't see why you can't get rid of it and still pay off the money you borrowed, it's off a person you know isn't it? If you are set on keeping it, try investigating cheaper insurance, I don't know whether you can still do this but I once had third party only (not fire and theft) which I had to ask for specially but it was a fair bit cheaper and since the car was worth barely anything it was well worth doing.

I borrowed £800 , used it for a year, paid off £400, still owe £400. Then car failed mot and if taken to a garage would need £400 to get it right, it could be done by myself for about £100 if i can source the parts. As it is at the moment its worth £250 scrap, which wouldn't cover the £400 still owed. Fixed, it would be worth about £600, which would cover the £400 owed and the £100 I spent on fixing it. As i am living on £100 less than what the government says is the applicable amount, it's hard to find that money. Especially this time of year.

Am still puzzled as to why this thread is going off on tangents though. all I want to know is, how people would spend the 'applicable amount'

and that's all i asked really...

robbie1412

nannytone wrote: »

it;s really unfortunate, but many oif us are finding ourselves in less than ideal curcumstances.
our choice is to either lay down and give up, or carry in and make the best of a bad lot

tell me what you spend your money on my friend, because that's all i really asked in this thread !!

nannytone_2

how are you living om £100 less than the applicable amount?

shakeitright

His figures are wrong anyway,you have to deduct child benefit from the figures he quoted ,so he wouldnt receive £323.82 a week.

paddedjohn

Applicable Amount/Allowances:
Family premium £17.40
Young person < 11 £64.99
Young person < 11 £64.99
Young person < 11 £64.99
Couple with person between 18 > £111.45
You actually get more for a kid than you do for an adult. According to this table they reckon a kid needs £64.99 while an adult can manage on £55.72

robbie1412

nannytone wrote: »

how are you living om £100 less than the applicable amount?

by taking out payday loans , provident loans and such my friend

its a vicious circle... but what can i do ?

robbie1412

shakeitright wrote: »

His figures are wrong anyway,you have to deduct child benefit from the figures he quoted ,so he wouldnt receive £323.82 a week.

*cough* child benefit is disregarded in an HB claim, but is used in a DHP claim. sorry, shakeitright... what was your point again?

Hmm71

robbie1412 wrote: »

Hi, when filling in the DHP form that is the amounts we stated, and they are saying this seems more reasonable, etc.

We are on no actual benefit other that tax credits, wtc, 50% HB and child ben.

Regarding the benefits calculator, it seems we are in a catch 22 situation. On income figures, it shows that one of us could claim income support of around £50 per week which would give us full HB and council Tax , BUT, if we got that, we would then have more wage to show, so we wouldn't be entitled to any income support. Its a circle. This is the reality of it though and this is part of what I wrote on my complaint for to them when they refused us DHP

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To make it simpler for you, I will show you how we work it out, and then you can explain to me how you work it out different.

I'll start by stating the 'applicable amount' = 323.82 per week

anything below that amount would give us full h/b
full c/tax rebate - free school meals - free clothing grant

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child benefit is 47.10 = 47.10 per week ( but disregarded in h/b claim )

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current h/benefit is 95.46 f/night = 48.73 per week ( I'll come back to this later )

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Our actual income is
tax/credits are 189.66 = 189.66 per week
monthly wage 746.73 = 172.32 per week

total weekly = 361.98

current rent is = 110.76 per week
minus current h/b -48.73
= 62.03 rent we have to pay ourselves

so, total weekly = 361.98
-62.03 rent we have to pay

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= 299.95 ( which is exactly 23.87 LESS than what the government STATES BY LAW is the minimum amount we need to live on.

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The reality of the matter is even worse !!
we also have school meals to pay for, £25, travel to work expenses £18 and council tax £20

Something that non working people do not have, so in actual fact our 'applicable amount' we are living on is £236.95. That is almost £100 less than what the government STATES we need to live on.

You appear to have missed off Child Benefit in the calculation of your weekly income.
You say you are living on £23.87 a week less than the law says you need but if you add on your child benefit of £47.10 a week then you actually have £23.23 a week more than the law states you need.
(Unless I've missed something here.)

As far as the DHP goes I'd guess your council has a standard formula and amounts of money they have to allow for so even if you're spending more than that, they can't take that into account which is why you were turned down.

If Princessdon is correct and your kids' school meals cost £1.85 a day each rather than a week then that's £27.75 a week during term time. If you do as was suggested and give them all packed lunches you'll save a fair bit of money there.

FBaby

Surely if you are struggling, either because indeed you are short of what you need as an absolute minimum, or because you are not budgeting properly, shouldn't you be using your energy trying to gain more hours work than trying to convince whoever that you should get more benefits?

In the end, if you are only working 24 hours between your wife and yourself, and somehow she can't (or you are not willing to) claim ESA/DLA, of course you are going to get by on the absolute minimum. Just like you are comparing yourself with people on benefits and concluding that you would be better not working, there will be people working 40 hours who will just be a bit better off so if you were somehow entitled to more, they would argue that they might as well cut their hours to 24 hours. It's a vicious circle.