Can my girlfriend claim anything for herself

burtons

My girlfriend/partner lost her job about 3 months ago so she went into the jobcentre and she was told she cannot claim anything as i work to many hours and i earn to much :shocked: I work 26.81 hours and take home £172.54 after national insurance and tax, i also get £17.89 a week from working tax credit but they said in a letter this will be going down to about £15 something. I don't know exactly what money my girlfriend gets for the three kids but does this sound right that she cannot claim anything even though i got to pay £90 a week rent and £30 a week council tax.

Caz3121

there are 2 types of JSA
contribution based that ignores household income/savings and is payable for 26 weeks if the claimant has paid sufficient NI contributions in the previous 2 tax years
Income based JSA for those that do not meet the criteria for contribution based but will take into account household income. As you work over 24 hours and earn more than the couples rate of JSA there would be no payment
You could have a look at housing benefit for your current situation

burtons

She was only in the job 18 months and she didn't pay NI as her wages was to low. I have filled in forms for housing and council tax benefits but i got refused due to them adding the kids money and mine together. So if a coulpe on income based jsa gets £112.55 a week and has no rent or council tax to pay i would be better off not working as after i payed for my rent and council tax i have £70.43 a week to live on.

notanewuser

What is the "kids money" and why do you seem to think it shouldn't be used towards housing them?

custardy

burtons wrote: »

She was only in the job 18 months and she didn't pay NI as her wages was to low. I have filled in forms for housing and council tax benefits but i got refused due to them adding the kids money and mine together. So if a coulpe on income based jsa gets £112.55 a week and has no rent or council tax to pay i would be better off not working as after i payed for my rent and council tax i have £70.43 a week to live on.

You said you dont know what money your partner gets for her 3 kids
how do you know you would be better off then?

Caz3121

you claim as a household and they will look at all the money coming into the household to assess what housing benefit would be paid
After all the kids will mean you qualify for more bedrooms than if you were single

Jobseeeker

do you pay the whole rent yourself? does she contribute anything?

are you not the father to these kids if that is the case she could chase the father through csa

hard to say the position you'd be in with no job (without the full picture) but you would have to pay some council tax with the new rules

DeeDee74

She gets 160 odd a week child tax and 47 child benefit a week..
I dont see why u pay 90 a week rent have u changed detaileds since she stopped working?

flump123

I very much doubt you would be better of on jsa if you are claiming as a household. It sounds like a mix up somewhere. Put your income into a benefit calculator to see what you should be entitled to.

nannytone_2

are you claiming WTC as a couple? (which you should be)
the amount you are receiving sounds very low. the threshold for a couple is about 18k a year, and youre earning nowhere near that amount

Bollotom

Try this. But have all your finacial things ready. And you should be claiming as a couple. I think you'll get some Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit so worth an hour to do the calculations.

http://www.turn2us.org.uk/?gclid=CMyigvH9ybYCFUzHtAodJXUASQ