No Tax Credits or Housing Benefit for at least 5 weeks... family of 4?

benefitbaby

HB is payable to people on a low income, at present you have no 'live' claim for CTC/WTC and have a very low income (wages and JSA) so the council should be calculating entitlement to HB and CTS on this.

If/when CTC/WTC is processed and paid then you tell the council and they should recalculate entitlement (you may end up with some HB to repay the council).

As others have noted you should find out what localised support their is e.g. foodbank to help you in the meantime.

Good luck.

belowtheline2013

Thank you for the helpful replies.

I work mainly for Council Tax and provide only a bit of support to Housing Benefit. I've had no training in Benefits and had no idea of the claims process. My claim is dealt with directly by a Supervisor who has told me that her hands are tied and there will be no payments until my Tax Credits claim is active. From the replies it seems that this is wrong and I will approach her again asking if the claim can be calculated on my current income and then reassessed when I receive my award letter.

I couldn't stay any longer at Mums - personal reasons. I stayed out of desperation and threw every penny I had at debt so that I could start again. In an ideal world I'd have stayed and saved but not all of us have perfect family lifes.

I have already taken on the maximum hours my work will give me but do to the backlog in salaries my first increased pay will be either 15th July or 15th August. Once I get these hours we will actually only be entitled to Housing Benefit of £1 a week. But still doesn't help the situation I'm in now. I could ask for a salary advance but this would mean that my salary would be short in June and I wouldn't have enough to pay the rent.

I appreciate that I have been naive, I didn't realise how complex it is to move from a single to a joint tax credits claim and took it for granted that the claim would just be "updated" within a few weeks and payments would carry on as normal. As I said, prior to the beginning of the year we have NEVER claimed benefits before and have always just received the minimum Tax Credits so I had no idea what rely on state "hand-outs" involves.

I guess the only thing I can do is prioritise the £71 a week between food and nappies and bide my time. It's only a temporary situation, once I start being paid for my increased hours we will be able to manage until my partner is back into full-time work.

Thanks for all the help.

Blackpool_Saver

Well, at least this post shows that even if you work in benefit depts. you are still subject to delays and red tape....

saterkey

maybe try freecycle, for all sorts of things even fruit is given away, foodbanks, carboots, ebay local papers, bar job perhaps, can you do any jobs for your mother perhaps for cash, food. does hubby have any family. surveys, do you have anygold you could sell. good luck.

spartacusthe1st

You should definitely ask for help from your health visitor,they can refer you to a food bank.
They are great my friend had to use them a few times, you will get offered food but also essentials like washing stuff,shampoo,nappies and formula.

pmlindyloo

You must apply for Hardship payments.

See here:

http://onlineservices.cpag.org.uk/book/chs/206220

If you have no luck with your local council then you must visit CAB and ask them to contact your council on your behalf. CAB will also be able to help with food parcels.

This kind of delay should trigger hardship payments automatically but unfortunately council authorities do not always do this.

belowtheline2013

Thanks pmlindyloo. I work for Revenues at the local Council so very close to Benefits. I approach my supervisor today regarding this and go the following response:

"I would suggest you contact Tax Credits regarding your new award.
Unfortunately our workload has slipped however your claim will be checked over soon. We will be unable to update your claim until we receive confirmation of your new Tax Credits award."

So absolutely useless then. I can't ask for an interim payment from Tax Credits as I haven't even made the joint claim yet seeing as they haven't yet managed to send me out a claim pack!

We get £142 tomorrow which is 2 weeks JSA. We can manage baby essentials and food for 2 weeks from this but I'll be walking to work for the next two weeks again, I get so wet I have to take a change of clothes! But at least I won't have to beg from a foodbank.

Have been checking freecycle daily, nothing there. Nothing I could eBay or Carboot as I donated everything I didn't store for the new house to homeless charities when I moved into my Mums. No gold etc. OH applying for jobs daily and I've taken on overtime to take me up to full-time hours but no full-time pay until July.

Our budget is more than manageable once tax credits are in payment it's just this waiting period!

belowtheline2013

Hi ladies and gents

Me again, this whole stupid saga is still ongoing. It's ridiculous, I phoned them on the 14th of May, before I even moved in with my partner to get this sorted.

My partner got back into employment and I thought the panic was over but we are finding that without the Tax Credits award we can't carry on because of childcare costs. My childcare has to be paid weekly in advance and once we have paid the childcare we only have pennies left for food. We have been borrowing from my Mum the past few weeks (after assurances from TC the claim was fine and wouldn't take any longer than 3 weeks) and now yesterday they told me it's gone for a compliance check! I had an awful team leader on the phone at Tax Credits this morning who had me in tears, outright accusing me of lying by saying I'd already been told I don't qualify for hardship payments so stop asking (I had not been told I didn't qualify) and that the fact I can no longer afford to eat is "not her problem because she's not a financial advisor".

I've done everything I can. I've asked them if I can be put through to compliance to chat with them about the problem, they refused. I've sent in a complaint and I've written to my MP.

There's nothing complicated about my claim. There was nothing wrong with my single claim and it's been finalised. I told them the day before I was moving in with my partner. I have our earnings from last year and estimates for this year (which are much higher). I have provided these. We work fixed hours so no need to check this. Our childcare fees are a fixed weekly amount with no changes or time off.

I have a diary below of my contact with TC and just don't know what to do anymore. The stress is making me ill. What more can I do?

Tax Credits Diary
14th May 2013 - called to end single claim and request new joint claim
24th May 2013 - still recieved single claim payment so called again to end single claim (have now been overpaid £800) and request new joint claim, advised to wait 3 weeks before calling again
17th June - 3 weeks deadline for claim form has passed, tried calling TC Helpline, unable to get through
18th, 19th and 20th June, tried calling TC helpline - unable to get through. Either cut off at first point or on hold for 1hour+ Unable to hold on longer than 1hour due to call charges on mobile
21st June - issued letter to TC advising still have not recieved claim form
W/C 24th June and w/c 1st July - manage to get through to TC helpline once (can't remember what date) advised they will send me a claim pack but not to wait so long next time
3rd July - issued complaint to TC about delay, this time recorded delivery
6th July - claim pack arrives in post, no return envelope or address!
8th July - claim pack arrives in post with return envelope
11th July - claim returned to TC by recorded delivery, letter included with this years earnings as they are higher than last years
w/c 15th, 22nd July - rang several times to check progress of claim, advisor checks through claim form with me and advises everything is fine and will be processed within the 3 weeks timescale... before 6th August
25th July - acknowledge letter re complaint, apologises for taking longer than expected
w/c 29th July - rang again to check progress of claim, advisor says partner's PAYE reference was wrong and causing delay. then says it doesn't matter and they don't need it anyway.
5th Aug - TC office closed, can't get through
6th Aug - try all morning to get through, finally speak to advisor in the evening. advised that award has all gone through okay and award notice was issued on 31st July, ask how much and advisor can't see on system so transfers me to someone else and I wait on hols for several minutes again. new advisor tells me that no award has been made, claim has been passed for extra checks. won't provide any other information and is dismissive when I mention financial difficulties without claim, won't tell me anything about timescale etc.
7th Aug - ring early morning, able to get through to TC office. first advisor checks claim notes, can't help me and transfers me back to waiting on hold, second advisor says she will transfer me to team leader to escalate my complaint and apply for emergency/hardship payments. team leader on the phone is rude and tells me that the advisor has already told me to contact complaints department directly and that i don't qualify for hardship payment. Both of these statement are false and I was given no such information by the advisor. Given number for complaints department but told I can't speak to anyone regarding extra checks to speed up the process. Told I don't qualify for hardship payments because my claim has been sent for extra checks. Ask how I am supposed to meet my living expenses and the team leader is rude and says that she is not a financial advisor. Confuses me by telling me the check might take up to 4 weeks then tells me she's looked at the claim and there's nothing wrong so she has sent a notification to the compliance department today to process the claim and issue payment.
7th July, ring complaints department, get through security checks then my phone cuts off because it's ran out of credit, will write instead

princessdon

I feel for you but I imagine its more complicated than you think. Ie you were not entitled to childcare payments during the start of joint claim and him starting his new job, they may look at your single claim and want to see if you were indeed still together, they would have based your initial award on no WTC as under 24 hours and your income, now it's dual incomes etc.

I hope some one can advise and help you as it is dragging on. When does your OH get paid?

Murphybear

Poor you, you are having a rough time.

I don't understand why your council has to wait until your tax credit issue has been resolved. I had a problem with our council a while ago while I was waiting for a non straightforward JSA claim to go through. I told them I had no way of paying the rent and they told me if I wrote them a letter stating I had no income they could pay LHA immediately. I did this and I got paid in a couple of days including arrears. I was told by them that an LHA claim was based solely on your income and not related to other benefit claims.

It is possible that different councils do things differently but I don't see how they can change the rules.

Have you tried emailing your MP rather than writing? It may get your case brought to his/her attention much sooner.

Finally if you are renting privately it may be worth while having a word with your landlord or letting agent. Let them know your situation and ask if your payments can be reduced slightly until the problems with tax credits are resolved. Whether they are prepared to do this may depend on whether your landlord has a mortgage on the property. Before anyone jumps in here, I worked in the industry for years and the vast majority of landlords are good, and understanding.

Good luck with, and let us know how you get on.