Help us please

Amethyst

Hi I am sure that these questions will have already come up but I hope you will bear with me!

My son & nearly daughter in law are trying to get her 3 sisters and brother into school, they have been told that there is no help with uniforms just school meals. They have been offered to "look through the lost property box" for uniform.

Her mum has terminal cancer and up till recently has been home educating the children, she is no longer able to do so - nearly daughter in law is not working as she needs to be with her mum. Son has not been at work for the last 2 weeks (so no overtime money!)

Son & n dil have no spare money ( they are currently waiting to hear from CCCS for help with their own debts ) we will do what we can to help - but is anybody able to suggest where we can get any help for them.

Next they have been told that if n dil claims carers allowance of £50 pw, her mum will lose the equivalent amount from her DLA! Is that right can anyone tell me?

How do we go about seeing if her mum can get the car tax free as she will be travelling in n dil's car?

Is there anything I am missing??

They are very upset anyway and the social are not being any help, we would appreciate any advise anyone can give.

Many thanks
Amethyst.

zzzLazyDaisy

What an awful situation to be in. Sorry, can't help with school uniforms, but hopefully someone else can.

Re carer's allowance - you will find detailed info here.

http://www.dialdoncaster.co.uk/benefit/Carers%20Allowance.htm

It is not true that your DIL's carers allowance would be deducted from her mum's DLA. BUT if Mum is in receipt of Income Support with Severe Disablement Allowance, she would lose SDA

As far as Car tax is concerned, if Mum gets High Rate Mobility Component of DLA she is entitled to car tax exemption. The info should have come with teh DLA papers. BUT there is a major drawback to this - the car must be used ONLY by or for the disabled person. So, if it is a family car, used for other purposes like going to work, running the kids around, etc, then the road tax exemption is not available.

Finally, has Mum got a blue badge? If not, contact social services or your town hall. The blue badge can be used by DIL in her car when transporting Mum.

Hope this helps. Let us know how they get on.

Daisy

Edinburghlass_2

As regards school uniform I think you will find its the local authority that offer grants for this.

Amethyst

Hi,

Thanks for the information, so far our local authority have said they don't have grants for uniforms - so we will be paying for them for the children. I will investigate which benefits n dil's mum gets to see if SDA is applicable, thanks for letting me know about the car usage.

Amethyst

Spendless

Re uniform.

If you need to buy it and can't get any help.

Is the uniform personalised with name of school?

That's where I find it gets expensive when you can only buy from the school itself.

Fortunately sons school it is only the sweat-shirt that I have to buy from school,. I can shop around for the polo-shirts and trousers.

Do you/they know anyone with a child that attends/used to attend that school. People passed sweat-shirts onto me when their chilkdren out-grew them or moved to another school and I've done likewise. Are you able to do this?

Best wishes.

Swattie

I'd try the Citizens Advice Bureau - they're well informed about entitlements and should be able to help.

I'm sure there is a discretionary fund for hardship allowance but they'll probably have to jump through hoops to get it.

If her mother is a lone parent there should be a dedicated advisor at Soc Services who will be better informed as to other allowances that may be available.

Curry_Queen

If you contact CAB and the Family Welfare Association they should be able to tell you of any charitable help you can get in your area, as this often occurs where LEA's refuse to provide help. You can also apply to the Social Fund for a loan or grant for help with cost of uniform too, again in areas where there is no LEA funding.

HTH

Debt_Free_Chick

What sort of school & how old are the children? Whilst a school may have uniform requirements, often you can get exactly what you need from Asda, Matalan etc e.g. plain white shirt, plain black/grey trousers/skirts.

Do they have a clothing allowance in their budget? Can they make a one-off cut back somewhere else to fund the clothes?

As with many things, getting financial help for unexpected expenses like this is pretty near impossible. LAs simply don't have the funding anymore, despite the horrendous rates of Council Tax (and other tax!) we pay.

Does the school not have a second-hand uniform sale? Try the PTA, who may be able to offer some pointers.

jellyhead

you can often get school uniform from charity shops, or as has been suggested - the lost property box (although it's mainly jumpers, not many kids lose their trousers lol! worth looking if you need special school jumpers). failing that, it's cheap at asda, even school shoes. i have before now bought uniform from a catalogue, it's not the cheapest way of doing things but the weekly payments help with budgeting, you just have to make sure you don't buy anything else out of the catalogue because they're a bad idea in the long run, vastly overpriced.

magoogy

i cannot understand why they cannot get a school uniform grant - if you are entitled to school dinners you are entitled to the uniform too - surely every authority provides this?

Curry_Queen

No they don't magoogy ... over 40% provide no assistance at all now and some only to specific cases.

Edit: have a look at this pdf file compiled by CAB.