Help needed if you can....

sistafromanothermista

:wave:
Morning all, i'm after a little bit of advice for my sister.
Here is a bit of background....

She is a careworker and her pay is such that she is on a 0 contract and doesn't get paid sick pay if she is ill etc.
She takes home between £350-£500 pm
She gets Tax credits £185 pw as well as child benefit for 2 children.

She has had a lot of time off from work lately due to depression (diagnosed) and has recently suffered a quite serious health problem.

She applied for SSP by filling in the form and giving it to her employer as she has been signed off sick for the next 2 weeks and due to the fact she is not able to work due to her health she cannot live off just the £185 pw tax credits alone.

This has been declined with the reason being 'she has not earned enough in the weeks leading upto the sign off to qualify for SSP'
This leaves her in a predicament. She is not able to work-no money coming in. She is not entitled to SSP-no money coming in.


Can anyone suggest the next step to take?
She can't even leave the house at the moment to go to the job centre and ask.


Any help at this difficult time much appreciated...

rogerblack

She needs to make a backdated claim for ESA.
This can be backdated to the time she fell ill - if her doctor is willing to write a backdated note.
(They have to have seen her over this period)
https://www.gov.uk/employment-support-allowance/how-to-claim

If she is in rental accommodation, she needs to apply for housing benefit, and anyway council tax support.
This will pay (perhaps some of) her rent and (perhaps not all of) her council tax.

sistafromanothermista

Thanks, i will send her this link.

Caz3121

she probably needs to also watch out if her hours are averaging under 16 as she may end up with an overpayment of working tax credits

sistafromanothermista

What is the situation regarding tax credits?
Due sickness, she isn't working and therefor isn't working the 16/20 hours to qualify for tax credits...

Caz3121

It sounds like the months she is earning under £430 she is doing less than 16 hours (16 x hours per week at minimum wage = £430) so I assume that some weeks she is doing more and she is averaging her hours. I believe you can still claim for some weeks when off sick but would keep them advised to avoid overpayment.

pmlindyloo

Her employer will need to complete a from saying why she is not entitled to SSP.

Read all of this link:

https://www.gov.uk/statutory-sick-pay/overview

sistafromanothermista

Well, a little bit of an update (what a saga)

She went to the Jobcentre to be told she must only apply by phone for ESA.
So she does this and is told that as she hasn't paid NI (low earner) she is not entitled to one part of it.
They sent the form out and TBH it doesn't seem as if ESA really applies in her situation.
She has been off work, unpaid, for 5 weeks due to miscarriage.
Not long term illness but long term enough that during this time she was trying to survive on £185pw tax credits with no 'wage' coming in.

So, from what i can now gather, she is not entitled to anything! how can this be so?

pmlindyloo

As long as she still has fit notes from the doctor then she is entitled to ESA. As she is not eligible for contribution based ESA then she will be assessed for income based JSA which, from what you say, she will be eligible for.

ESA is not only for people with long term sickness it is for people who cannot claim SSP for whatever reason.

Has her employed completed the form I mentioned previously?

Icequeen99

sistafromanothermista wrote: »

Well, a little bit of an update (what a saga)

She went to the Jobcentre to be told she must only apply by phone for ESA.
So she does this and is told that as she hasn't paid NI (low earner) she is not entitled to one part of it.
They sent the form out and TBH it doesn't seem as if ESA really applies in her situation.
She has been off work, unpaid, for 5 weeks due to miscarriage.
Not long term illness but long term enough that during this time she was trying to survive on £185pw tax credits with no 'wage' coming in.

So, from what i can now gather, she is not entitled to anything! how can this be so?

ESA is the alternative when someone doesn't qualify for sick pay. So it is the appropriate thing to claim.

However, she needs to be careful because 5 weeks of not working would need to be declared to HMRC for tax credits as if she was claiming working tax credits she won't be entitled. A disruption to normal working hours of 4 weeks would be ok, but not longer.

Also, she needs to make sure she can show she was always working at least 16 hours if she has been claiming WTC.

Can you contact a CAB or your local authority welfare rights team to do a full benefits check with her and ensure everything is right?

IQ

sistafromanothermista

pmlindyloo wrote: »

As long as she still has fit notes from the doctor then she is entitled to ESA. As she is not eligible for contribution based ESA then she will be assessed for income based JSA which, from what you say, she will be eligible for.

ESA is not only for people with long term sickness it is for people who cannot claim SSP for whatever reason.

Has her employed completed the form I mentioned previously?

Yes they did. Thanks for this.

Icequeen99 wrote: »

ESA is the alternative when someone doesn't qualify for sick pay. So it is the appropriate thing to claim.

However, she needs to be careful because 5 weeks of not working would need to be declared to HMRC for tax credits as if she was claiming working tax credits she won't be entitled. A disruption to normal working hours of 4 weeks would be ok, but not longer.


The jobcentre have advised that the period of time she was signed off work for does not need to be declared to HMRC. If however she would've been off a further week it would need to.

Also, she needs to make sure she can show she was always working at least 16 hours if she has been claiming WTC.

Apparently they have said that she can still claim for a period of time (i forget waht she said now) without it affecting WTC

Can you contact a CAB or your local authority welfare rights team to do a full benefits check with her and ensure everything is right?

IQ

The massive trouble with all this to-ing and fro-ing is that one thing has a knock on effect to another.
For example; She hasn't been recieving anything other than WTC so in theory shouldn't be paying rent (council housing) although she has been. But to declare to the council the lack of funds would mean a new assessment (taking time) for them to calculate that she should not pay anything but then a few weeks later she's back to work and they have to assess it all over again!


Boy am i glad i'm not on benefits, it's a minefield!