Can anyone tell me if we'd be entitled to anything we're not already receiving?

BigAunty

anmarj wrote: »

it does not guarantee that he he will get full help with mortage, if he has remortage they will look at what the remortage was for and could cap the amount paid out, plus it is only at a set rate, if his interest is highter then he is not going to get full help, there could also be a non dependent disregard (not sure if getting lr of DLA might override that.)

Good point. This is what the Entitled To calculator accessed via the Age UK website says about SMI which means that it isn't always the solution that some homeowners expect, particularly those who have remortgaged or have non-dependents living with them:-

******************************


Help with housing costs is only possible as part of a claim for one of the following means tested benefits:

• Income Support or
• income-related Employment & Support Allowance or
• the guarantee credit part of Pension Credit or
• income-based Jobseekers Allowance

The rules determining how much help you will get with your housing costs are extremely complex and we would strongly advise you to get more detailed advice about the help that you are likely to receive.

If you claim income-based Jobseekers Allowance after 5th January 2009, there is a two year limit on the help you get with your housing costs. This time limit does not apply to any of the other benefits mentioned above nor to claims for income-based Jobseekers Allowance made before this date.

You can only get help with your housing costs for the home in which you normally live. As well as interest on a mortgage it is possible to get help with the interest on loans for some types of repairs and improvements to your home.
However, not all loans are covered. They must be for repairs needed to keep the property fit to live in, e.g providing a bath, shower or toilet; repairing structural defects; adaptations for a disabled person. Seek further advice from our Helpline if you are in any doubts as to whether a loan will qualify. It is also possible to get help with some types of service charges (e.g. communal heating or cleaning bills) – for more information see charges, ground rent and other eligible housing costs.


SMI cannot help you pay:

• the amount you borrowed (only interest on the mortgage is paid)
• anything towards insurance policies you have
• mortgage arrears

The amount claimed for housing costs can be reduced if other adults (excluding your partner) normally live with you. For more information see deductions for non-dependants.

Standard interest rate

In calculating your housing costs a standard interest rate is used. This is currently 3.63% (rate applicable from 1 October 2010). The standard interest rate is set by reference to the Bank of England’s average mortgage interest rate, 3.63% being the average rate they calculated on 31 August 2010. The standard rate applies regardless of what your own mortgage rate is.

Some homeowners may have actual interest rates that are lower than the standard rate used to calculate SMI payments. This means they receive more SMI than required to meet the payments due to their lender. These payments can only be credited to their mortgage account.


How much of my loan will be met?


You should enter the outstanding balance on your mortgage or other housing loan in the calculator. However, there is a cap of £200,000 or in some cases £100,000. The cap rules are:

• If you claim Pension Credit, and you want help towards mortgage interest payments, you will be able to claim for mortgage interest on up to £100,000 of your mortgage
• If you claim Income Support, income-related Jobseeker's Allowance or income-related Employment and Support Allowance you will be able to claim for mortgage interest on up to £200,000 of your mortgage.

In reality the amount met by the Department of Work and Pensions may be less - if the amount of loan met is restricted then the help you actually receive will be lower than the figure estimated by the calculator. In some cases this may mean that you are not entitled to any payments at all. The Department of Work and Pensions also has the power to restrict the amount of loan they will meet if they believe that your housing costs are excessive (e.g. that the property is too big for your household’s needs or the area you live in is much more expensive than other areas nearby where there are suitable properties).

Any loan taken out to adapt your property for the special needs of a disabled person is ignored when working out if your loan exceeds the cap. If this applies to you, it is possible in certain circumstances, that you might get more help than the figure estimated by the calculator - contact our Helpline for further advice.

When will I start to get help?

Most people have to serve a waiting period before they actually receive any help with their housing costs. The calculator assumes a waiting period of only 13 weeks but in some cases you may actually have a much longer waiting period.

Payments of help with housing costs are made directly to your mortgage lender.
Restrictions

If you used part of your mortgage for other purposes you cannot get help with that part of your loan. For instance, if you consolidated your debts by re-mortgaging you can not claim for that part of your mortgage.

If you receive payments from a mortgage protection policy this can affect the amount of help you will get.

If you take out a mortgage/loan when you are on one of the benefits mentioned above (or in a break between two periods on benefit separated by 26 weeks or less), you may not be eligible for any help. Similarly if you already had your mortgage/loan, but increased it after you started claiming benefit, you may only get interest payments on the amount you originally borrowed. Exceptions to these rules can be made in specific circumstances e.g. you have taken out a loan to buy a home better suited to the needs of a disabled person, or to provide separate bedrooms for a boy and girl aged 10 or over.

bryanb

Was the £650 rent declared as income on father's pension credit claim? He could be storing up problems.

pmlindyloo

bryanb wrote: »

Was the £650 rent declared as income on father's pension credit claim? He could be storing up problems.

I thought this too so looked it up.

I think the bit under 'tenants and lodgers' is saying that the OP paying towards their living expenses is disregarded.

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/publications/specialist-guides/technical-guidance/pc10s-guide-to-pension-credit/income-disregards/

Hopefully the money they pay is seen as living expenses (although classed as rent by OP?)

BigAunty

chazsucks wrote: »

...However the gas and electricity bills are too much for my dad to afford which I think is because our house is so drafty over winter we have the heating on a lot, as well as using our log fire. In the summer the gas bill is fine.

How much are your energy bills?

Look into things like warmfront, any energy/insulation schemes that may be run by the council for those on benefits/low income, any energy/insulation schemes run by energy providers.

MSE should have plenty of info on the forums and websites about how to cheaply improve insulation, cut consumption, find the cheapest tariffs, get grants for improvements.

As you've got a car, you may find that you can get hold of free wood for the wood burner off local sites like Freecycle, etc. Again, the forum members on the energy or old style moneysaving forums may have tips on getting hold of free wood.

I believe some energy providers and water suppliers have discounts or tariffs for the disabled but I don't know the criteria for this or how they operate. The Disability and Dosh forum may know.

bryanb

pmlindyloo wrote: »

I thought this too so looked it up.

I think the bit under 'tenants and lodgers' is saying that the OP paying towards their living expenses is disregarded.

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/publications/specialist-guides/technical-guidance/pc10s-guide-to-pension-credit/income-disregards/

Hopefully the money they pay is seen as living expenses (although classed as rent by OP?)

Yes, it could be disregarded, but would need to be declared.

FBaby

bkebbay wrote: »

Hello people. I’m new to this site and wondering if anyone could please help me out. I am from France residing in the UK and working full as single person with two children. My kids are based in the France with my x wife but I do take care for them. According to the EU laws I am entitle to claim tax credits for them. Now I don’t know the rules further and hmrc website does not give full information on it either.

My questions are these
-if my x wife is on state benefit in France will it affect my claim
-Or if she is working more than 16 hours how would that affect my claim.
-If she is working full time how would that affect my claim?

Any advice or help is appreciated.

Thanks
JK

You can't claim tax credits for children who don't reside with you, no matter how often they visit, end of.

Witch_Hazel

bkebbay wrote: »

Hello people. I’m new to this site and wondering if anyone could please help me out. I am from France residing in the UK and working full as single person with two children. My kids are based in the France with my x wife but I do take care for them. According to the EU laws I am entitle to claim tax credits for them. Now I don’t know the rules further and hmrc website does not give full information on it either.

My questions are these
-if my x wife is on state benefit in France will it affect my claim
-Or if she is working more than 16 hours how would that affect my claim.
-If she is working full time how would that affect my claim?

Any advice or help is appreciated.

Thanks
JK

Do you travel a lot? Not so long ago you were from Holland......

If your child lives with your ex-partner outside the UK

If you're working, you'll normally just get paid Working Tax Credit as a single person.
You may also be able to get Child Tax Credit if:

• you work in the UK
• you have a right to reside in the UK
• you pay National Insurance contributions here
• your child lives with your ex-partner in an EEA country or in Switzerland, and they depend mainly on you to support them

The Tax Credit Office will check to make sure your child really does depend on you for money. They might check that you make regular payments for them. And they could check if your ex-partner works or gets their own family benefits, as this may affect the amount of tax credits you get.
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/start/who-qualifies/new-arrivals-intro/family-not-in-UK.htm

Dunroamin

FBaby wrote: »

You can't claim tax credits for children who don't reside with you, no matter how often they visit, end of.

Unfortunately, you're completely wrong.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/9835068/50000-children-overseas-getting-child-benefit-and-tax-credit-Treasury-admits.html

Davekelly

chazsucks wrote: »

Hi there. I wanted this to be a short post but apprently I am incapable of typing anything out briefly so thank you so much if you manage to read through all this!

Some background info - I'm 23, partner is 28. We have a 2 year old and a 3 year old. We both used to work full time and rent privately but in 2011 I started a full time degree. Prior to this we came to an arrangement with my dad to move in with him as we could not afford to rent once I had left work and he was struggling with his mortgage so it seemed a good idea.

We moved in with my dad and pay £650 a month rent... we have a bedroom for me and OH and a bedroom our sons share. We share the living room, kitchen, dining room and bathroom with my dad. He has a bedroom and a small office/living room as his own space.

My dad is 76, he gets pension credit and the lowest rate of disability allowance as he is disabled.

My OH is self employed and works around 14 hours a week as he looks after the children when I am at uni or on placement (shift work) so has to fit it around that.

I have an NHS student bursary of £600 per month which I use to pay the rent and a student loan of just over £3,000 per year which I use to top up the rent every month and contribute towards utility bills etc etc

We are currently really struggling with outgoings - the monthly basics we pay are ok - £650 rent, £50 debt repayments, £70 car insurance, £30 petrol, £150 food, groceries etc. However the gas and electricity bills are too much for my dad to afford which I think is because our house is so drafty over winter we have the heating on a lot, as well as using our log fire. In the summer the gas bill is fine.

Anyway in August my dads mortgage is going up by quite a lot. I don't understand mortgages myself but he pays interest and the interest rate is going up as it's coming to the end of a fixed term (if that makes sense to anyone else). He doesn't know for sure yet but has been warned by santander that it will be estimated to raise from around £500 a month to over £900. So after august we will be paying him more rent as he just cannot afford that himself.

He's been talking to other banks about switching mortgage but they have said no due to his age. He has also inquired about me and my partner taking over the mortgage and him paying us rent instead but because I am a student with no regular earnings and I do not graduate for another 18 months they have said they cannot do this.

We claim child benefit for both children - so around £20 per week for eldest and £13 for youngest.

We claim child tax credit and get £434 every four weeks based on our income.

We are not entitled to local housing allowance as we live with my dad.

I've spoken to our local Citizens advice but all they could say was use a website called turn2us, which when I went to use it said it doesn't work with students.

I've been on the government and hmrc websites for the last couple of days trying to work out if there is anything we might be entitled to that we're not currently claiming and to be honest I can't see anything that we're eligible for.

The only thing that I thought we might be able to claim (but I'm not hopeful) is income support, so I've filled in the form and I'm going to send it off with documents tomorrow.

I feel really stupid but just looking at these websites and all the different benefits and who is entitled to what has really confused me and sometimes you can't see the wood through the trees, you know? So I was just wondering if anyone on here could offer any advice, with any of it, even if we aren't entitled to anything else.

Oh and I've also signed up to my local hospital as a bank HCA but nothing has come up yet.

Thank you so much if you've managed to read all this x

Not meaning to be hard but rather than expecting others to pay for your life choices have you ever considered living within your means? Looking at your circumstances I would say you cannot afford your career choices with two children. It is completely wrong to come on here and look for others to recommend other welfare payments you may claim and it is these attitudes that are at the heart of the welfare cancer that has destroyed the UK.

Also not meaning to sound harsh but your father must have made some really poor life choices to be left with a (potentially £900/month) mortgage at 76 years old. I note he is taking benefits as well.

Gentile

Davekelly wrote: »

Not meaning to be hard but rather than expecting others to pay for your life choices have you ever considered living within your means? Looking at your circumstances I would say you cannot afford your career choices with two children. It is completely wrong to come on here and look for others to recommend other welfare payments you may claim and it is these attitudes that are at the heart of the welfare cancer that has destroyed the UK.

Also not meaning to sound harsh but your father must have made some really poor life choices to be left with a (potentially £900/month) mortgage at 76 years old. I note he is taking benefits as well.

That is quite harsh !!