Desperate, desperate situation with no help

sacha28

No, he was working but worked many hours as his previous employer was always short staffed which shows he was earning more than he does now (his csa reflected this!) and because, from what I can understand, they take what you earned the previous year and what you expect to earn the next year into account and this is how they worked it out. As I said, very complicated with lots of room for mistakes to be made.

I am part of unison, have been from day 1, are they able to help with things like this?!

paulineb_2

Get back onto british gas, tell them you have an unwell child in the house and that you need your fuel supply reconnected.

And yes, working tax credits can be a pain in the !!!! as they do work on a year behind. But claim anything you might be entitled to.

shop-to-drop

Check the unison website and see what you can find.

I'm Usdaw and they definitely seem to encourage their members to claim anything they can. Not used it myself but I think they can be helpful.

too_much_debt

I think for 1 child the cut off is 26k for Tax Credits.


Are you getting child benefit? That should be £20.30 a week for one child.


Not sure if you or your dh have family who could help out or who could have your son for a couple of days.


How about the Salvation Army? I keep seeing adverts on TV about them helping people.

ladymarmalade222

Hi Sacha

I have sent you a PM.

xxx

RAS

Hi

Your problem is that you are spending and not budgetting.

sacha28 wrote: »

I earned £1400, partner £1100
Plus child benefit? £80?

Spends
Nursery £500
Rent £775
Water £55
Gas £100
Electric £55
Council Tax £289 (due to drop to what per month when the "debt" is ;paid off?)
Food and nappies etc £350 - this really is massively high for 3 people including a littley. Go over to the old Style forum and discuss menus and cheap products.
Milk/bread/fresh veg over the past few weeks £30 - on top of the high basic grocery and baby bills?
Car Insurance £50
TV/Phone/BB £55 - this is very high - look for better deals
Mobiles £24 - on top of the phones?

Present ordered 2 months ago but was out of stock and they decided to take payment when it was back in stock £55 ...
it was my OH's dad's birthday in the middle.
So how much do you spend on presents each year? You need a budgetting account into which you pay 1/12 of all your annual bills each month.
Drive shaft for my car £150 - so how much did the car repairs cost each year? You need a budgetting account into which you pay 1/12 of all your annual bills each month.
Car tax £96 - How much is this per year? You need a budgetting account into which you pay 1/12 of all your annual bills each month.
There are some small things that add up, like our monthly payday take away which only happens on payday. This month it came to £20. Given the very high cost of your basic grocery and bay bills, this should be included.

Hope I have included everything!

Clothes? Holidays? Travel to work costs? Petrol?

May sound like a broken record but you need a budgetting account for all the regular stuff that is not day to day expenditure like car tax, repiars, presents and you need to reduce your core spends as they are too high.

RAS

sacha28 wrote: »

his csa reflected this

So where is this in your monthly budget?

quidsy

http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/personal-monthly-budget.html

put everything & I mean everything into here, then adjust until it comes to zero. And then live to the budget. Do it month by month and on those months when there is more than zero, save it.

The money is going somewhere. your aim is to look honestly where & see where you can reduce outgoings further. Speaking to the union about help with credits is an excellent idea.

FireWyrm

paulineb wrote: »

Phone the emergency social services number, explain the situation, please do it, all you need is enough money to get back into credit and to be able to heat the house and cook.

Dont call them. It is unnecessary and only invites further interference.

paulineb wrote: »

I thought that the fuel companies werent allowed to leave someone with no gas or electricity if they had a child or an elderly person in the house

The fuel company is not responsible here. They did nothing wrong. They are not allowed to cut you off for non payment under those circumstances, but the OP ran out of the fuel through mis-management and mishap.

paulineb wrote: »

Get that prepayment meter taken out as soon as you can and get onto a direct debit method of payment,

Unlikely to be allowed if there is debt on the account.

paulineb wrote: »

you'll get discounts from most companies if you take both gas and electricity from them and if you pay by DD and no matter how much your bill is, a situation like this wont happen to you again.

Adversities happen. The nature of this particular adversity is of less importance than the complete lack of resources to deal with it. The OP should deal with the initial crisis and then move on to ensuring that future crises are averted in good time, or weathered in good order.

bloolagoon

On your wage you should get £50 pw tax credits (childcare help) and some housing benefit - have you applied?

What are your expected earnings this year (joint)?