Cost of living.. advice please

BigAunty

robbie1412 wrote: »

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

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

I make your weekly income to be £409.08 per week from tax credits, child benefit and net income, and your disposable income is £347.05 after your contribution to the rent.

Even if you get the DHP (which is unlikely), it will only be a one off temporary stop gap and while you are in employment, you must surely expect that some of your wages must be spent towards your rent.

Even though the decision makers who reviewed your application for DHP have resisted some of your claims of how you spend your income, as a general principle, benefits rarely take into account how the claimant spends their money and always ignores debts - this is a personal matter for you to resolve.

Go to the Debt Free wanabee board and post a statement of accounts. The posters there will come up with a debt management strategy that will help you break the cycle and either write off your debts or allow you to pay back a token amount. They will also review your spending and give good pointers on how to slash costs.

You could also visit the Debt Management section of the Direct Gov website for info, book a visit with the Citizens Advice Bureau or attend debt counselling with other charitable organisations like Christians Against Poverty or a local charity that specialises in this.

If you do not get to grip with your debts, cannot up your income through employment and aren't entitled to any further benefits (which appears to be the case), then that is your sole option to get out of the trap that you are in.

Download the MSE budget planner so that actually identify where your money is actually and definately going, rather than just estimating.

Visit the energy boards on here so you can find out how to get back onto meters.

Visit the 'Up your income' and 'old style' boards to find out how to live more thriftily than you do rather than hankering after the magic bullet of more benefits. Some households manage to get their food costs to £100 a month for all meals for a family of 4, for example - there are menu planners and recipes that the posters there provide links for which provide a way of slashing spending on groceries. You spend around £43 a month on cleaning and toiletry products and the people on the Old Style board will tell you how to reduce that spend.

If you are hitting instances where you are struggling to buy groceries, then look into whether there are any food banks in your area as they give out basic staples to households who are struggling. Many do not do this directly but need a referral from a 3rd party like Citizens Advice, doctor, social worker and so on.

BigAunty

Dunroamin wrote: »

Love the comment,

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

which strikes me as quite a lot of actual benefits.

Council tax benefit seems to be ommitted from the working tax credits, child tax credits, housing benefit and child benefit. I think it only needs an ESA or DLA claim and then we can all shout 'bingo'.

BigAunty

nannytone wrote: »

im redistered blind ... so most accept my poor spelling. once i get 1 leyyer wrong, the rest follow lol

To be honest, Nannytone, I wonder whether you should put a some kind of footnote on your posts to declare this as you often get comments back, sometimes cruel, from new posters who don't realise your sight problems.

nannytone_2

in general, the comments dont bother me and i almost enjoy the thought of the more ignorant posters squirming when they realise that i am not an illiterate idiot, but actually have a reason for why my posts sometimes come out as they do lol.

i dont want to add a footnote explaining myselfm as it isnt my lack of vision that defines me as a person.

i am not a blind person that posts on the forum.... but a poster that just happens to have a visual impairment!

Witch_Hazel

robbie1412 wrote: »

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

---

I highly doubt you will be eligible for Income support.

oldestgnome

robbie1412 wrote: »

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. ...

If you scrap the car you would be able to pay your neighbour back the £250 scrap value plus the £45 per month you have been paying for insurance meaning that in three and a bit months time you would have paid back your neighbour and be £45 per month better off.

I understand that if you were able to find the time and money to source the parts and fix the car (which at this time of year is difficult due to light and temperature) you could sell it and perhaps come out of it with upto £100 but that makes no allowance for potentially another couple of months of paying the insurance to give you time to do the sourcing and fixing wiping out any benefit of the time and energy in doing so.

nannytone_2

the sad fact is that i do proof read them lol

i dont feel the need to pick people up on their bad spelling/bad grannar.
despite the mistakes, the majority of my post can be easily understood.

the only people that choose to make an example of my posts are those that have weak arguments.

by all means, criticise the content of my posts .... but to criticise the spelling mistakes of a blind person is infantile

BigAunty

Witch_Hazel wrote: »

I highly doubt you will be eligible for Income support.

I agree. Income support is a top-up for a low income household such as a lone parent, or those on disability/sickness benefits, or who works less than 16 hours per week.

It won't go a household with someone in employment or receiving WTC. The OPs claim will be rejected.

nannytone_2

i also need the font extremely large.
possibly if i worked in admin, and typed daily as employment, i would possibly be more accurate.

it isnt the 'big reveal' as in 'tonight matthew i will be...' (aka stars in their eyes lol).

it annoys the hell out of me when people say 'i could of done this... or could of done that.

i could correct them and say its 'could have' not could of.
but i understand the jist of their posts and thats what counts.

when people pretend to not understand my posts just to beawkward ...

well it says more about them than it does about me

cte1111

You don't have to insure a car if it has been declared off road by SORN:
"The rules for insuring vehicles are called ‘continuous insurance enforcement’. They mean that if you’re the registered keeper of a vehicle it must be insured or declared as off the road (SORN)."
https://www.gov.uk/vehicle-insurance/uninsured-vehicles

The only reason that you would have to keep paying is if you had already claimed on the insurance for this year. If you cancel the insurance now, then there will quite possibly be cancellation fees, but hopefully they will be less than the rest of the year's worth of car insurance

My children's school meals cost £2.21 each per day, you are doing quite well with the price that your children's school charges.

Re your letter, I can understand your stress but don't think using capitals to emphasise really helps your cause. If you are quoting sections that you think they have broken, then I think you need to detail what it says and what they have done, rather than just listing section numbers.