Can you help, please ?

nellykim

A woman I know through a family member has been borowing money from myself and others, in order to be able to buy gas and electric, which she has to pay for beforehand.

Her situation from what I gather is that she was on benefits ( not sure what benefits ) a few years ago, and then came into an amount of money from a relative passing away. Unfortunately for her, she did not let the people who paid her benefits know that she had this money.

They found out by whatever means, and now obviously she has to pay back an amount ( not sure how much).

The bottom line is that she gets £62 per week now, only. And she has a daughter at school. There is just her and her daughter living in a council house.

She doesn't know that I am asking. I am asking because of her borrowing, and I feel sad for her and I want to be able to say to her, 'Look, I can give you some advice about money problems' etc.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation or can offer any good advice please ?

Thankyou


(I originally posted this on the wrong forum, but someone kindly explained to come to this one )

princessdon

The advise is stop borrowing money

She will only be getting £62 a week if she has savings (they won't deduct that much of an overpayment), so I don't think she is being truthful with you and you are probably being taken a lend of.

She will get £71 pw for her and £85 pw for her child, plus rent and council tax paid for.

Yes she may have some deductions due to her fraudulent claims but it's not £100 pw as she says.

nellykim

Thankyou princessdon. Are you sure that she will be getting these amounts ? Is it a set amount ? ie £71 for her and £85 for her child = £156 ? I must admit that I find only £62 to be very low, and wondered if the authorities would be willing to take less each payment due, or in fact wipe the debt ( not knowing how much the debt still may be ) ?

princessdon

Yes that is the MINIMUM she would get. It is set at £71 per adult and £85 first child and £65 subsequent children per week. (there are additional payments but that is minimum). She will be expected to pay back some of her overpayments, but the way they work out her affordability if based on many things (ie it's personal as to what she has going out, her current savings etc).

The maximum is normally around 20% - so if you took her £150 it would be £30 leaving her with £120.

The only real exception I can think of is Depravation of Capital. Ie she had £20,000 then 6 months later only has £4,000. If she gave money away they'd deem her as still having it.

Even then they'd not leave a mother and child with £62 a week.

You need to get some honest answers from her and if they are true why. There is a part of the puzzle here you are missing. For example if she owns part of the house and therefore can't get HB and paying to a relative who part owns the house etc it may leave her with that.

I am not saying she is 100% lying to you, but there are circumstances that you are not aware of and until people know them they can't advise.

sleepless_saver

Because this is complicated and you don't know all the relevant information about your friend's circumstances, you can't get an accurate reply here.

The best advice you can give your friend is to make an appointment with her local CAB or welfare rights and take along all the paperwork. They can check that she's getting what she should be. (It doesn't sound to me like she is, because even with paying back an overpayment she should be getting child benefit and child tax credit which would together amount to more than £62. )

Morlock

princessdon wrote: »

Even then they'd not leave a mother and child with £62 a week.

Whilst I would agree that this is not currently the case, the benefit cap could indeed leave a mother and child with only £62 per week after rent is paid, particularly those living in the South East with no prospect of rehousing.

princessdon

Morlock wrote: »

Whilst I would agree that this is not currently the case, the benefit cap could indeed leave a mother and child with only £62 per week after rent is paid, particularly those living in the South East with no prospect of rehousing.

They could then move to a cheaper house or shared accomodation, or another part of the country.

£2,000 a month on benefits is more than enough - or they could work 16 hours a week and be exempt from the cap.

nellykim

Thankyou for your replies everyone. I will certainly try to find out the truth if she asks to borrow from me again, and I will try and guide her towards getting free expert help from either a counsellor, or citizens advice.

As far as I am aware, she does get housing benefit, not sure about council tax, or whether her daughter gets free meals ( do they do free meals still, these days ? ) No one else lives in the house. It is purely owned by the council.

Her main problem, she always says is to keep her house warm by central heating, and paying that as she goes along is very difficult.

She always seems to covet any food that is around also, and therefore in the past I have sometimes helped her with a few goods rather than money. I wish there was an easy answer to all this.

princessdon

The answer is she isn't being truthful - example. Child tax credits and child benefit are not savings based. You can have a million pound in the bank and get this (only interest over £300 is counted). Therefore she'd owe nothing to them and this is £85 per week I can't see her figures being truthful. She may have £62 left after debts - but that is a different issue and her debts would be to more people than the council.

Good luck and a merry new year to you

Morlock

princessdon wrote: »

They could then move to a cheaper house or shared accomodation, or another part of the country.

£2,000 a month on benefits is more than enough - or they could work 16 hours a week and be exempt from the cap.

Oh, and there was me reading official reports stating that 40,000 families and 80,000 children will potentially become homeless due to the cap, when all they need to do is move or get a job! You are an economic genius!

paulwellerfan

op how old is the child involved???