Please help- don't know what to do.

Maltey

I'm on the verge of a panic attack so I'm sorry if this is all jumbled.
I work as a teaching assistant, I earn £787 a month. My partner just started working in December and earned £100 a week because he was on training with them until 2 weeks ago when he started earning £150 a week. I told the housing benefit people 2 weeks ago when we found out he was properly employed by them although he hasn't signed a contract.
Our rent is £795, council tax £130.
We were receiving £65 a week housing benefit and a 50% reduction in council tax but I took my husband's payslips in and they've stopped our council tax benefit so we now have to pay full price which means another £140.
On top of this they are asking to recover housing benefit from the period where he was training of £520 and apparently these have to be paid in 21 days.
Considering I just had to pay £300 in council tax because our payment got recalled by the bank and they asked us to pay the rest off in full and I'm already in an overdraft with no savings what so ever I can't possibly pay this off, it's nearly the whole of my monthly wage.
To make things worse they've now changed the pay at my husband's work and it's now all commission based so we have no idea what he'll be earning week to week but it'll definitely be less than what he was earning. He's looking for another job but those things don't move quickly and definitely not in time to pay this housing benefit overpayment.
We live by the skin of our teeth as it is, I have literally no money left over for luxuries- I don't drink, smoke, go out ever, no luxuries at all, it would take me all year and maybe more to save up that £660.
I don't know what to do- I've tried ringing them but they won't answer. I can't go down and speak to them because I'm not allowed time off work and we've got inspectors in. Please someone have a solution for me!

RAS

You WRITE to the Council as above.

You would have been able to estimate the change in your HB and CT benefits using www.turn2us.org.uk and needed to keep the likely overpayment aside rather than spend it over the last three months. That would mean you now had the money to cover the HB benefit debt.

You need to tell them that he is now commission based only and you have no idea of likely income.

Is your LHA/HB claim still live? Ditto the CTB claim? if not get on the ststem NOW and make a new claim.

Once you have the first week's actual income inform the Council but make sure they know that weekly income may be anything from £0 upwards.

Why or why accept a job that is commission only?

NotSuchASmugMarriedNow

Could your husband get a second job to bring more income in. I estimate £150 a week is 24 hours work at minimum wage. Many people work an average of 44 hours a week.

Morglin

You will really need to speak to them, and sort out what you should be getting, a repayment plan for anything owing, and straighten this out.

If you agree a plan with them, then nothing will have to be repaid next week or anything!

I suggest you, or your partner, keep phoning, and then make an appointment for you both - I am sure your school will let you have a couple of hours off for something important.

Other than that, take a day's leave.

Lin

Caz3121

Maltey wrote: »

My partner just started working in December and earned £100 a week because he was on training with them until 2 weeks ago when he started earning £150 a week. I told the housing benefit people 2 weeks ago when we found out he was properly employed by them although he hasn't signed a contract.
Our rent is £795, council tax £130.

You obviously do know that you should have advised them as soon as he started earning (even though it was a training wage) which would have avoided overpayment, the additional £100 income would have stopped most if not all of the £65 housing benefit payment

What is the LHA rate for your circumstances in your area. I assume you do not have children as you do not mention tax credits.
If you do receive tax credits you need to advise them with any changes with 30 days.
Does your husband work part time? £150 for a week full time would be much lower than minimum wage
Could you move somewhere cheaper

If he is going to be commission based then you are going to have to supply regular pay slips to the housing benefit people.

Re the paying in 21 days, if you have no way of paying it you will need to try to get them to agree to a payment plan of so much per week, when you calculate it out it is probably best to do so in such a way that they are not going to have to wait years to get the full repayment eg £5 per week would take 11 years to pay off so is unlikely to be acceptable.
Council tax is a nasty one as you can very quickly find yourself with court and CCJ so best to communicate with them promptly

Maltey

He works full time, 9-5, sometimes more and they only pay him £150. He didn't know what the wage was when he got the job but he needed it so anything was better than nothing (we thought) and he's been looking for other jobs but he's limited as he doesn't drive and there's only 2 or 3 places that are open after 5pm where we live.
RAS he didn't accept a job that was commission only, if you reread my post it was a flat rate at first and they just this week changed it to commission only.
Also, I had to use that housing benefit to pay off the council tax payment in full, it's not like I've spent it on anything excessive.
HB claim is still live, we're now receiving 84p a week...
I did do the turn2us benefit calculator and it told us we would no longer receive it but didn't say anything about any overpayment. Not that it would've made a difference except make me worry earlier because we couldn't have got that money from anywhere anyway.

Morglin

You need to sort it out with them, so make an appointment, so you can do that.

Lin

Maltey

Nope, no children and only 23 so no working tax credits either.
I'd just like to clarify that both my partner and I work full time, I don't know how they were getting away with paying less than minimum wage and I did ask him to query that but he was afraid of getting fired since he has no contract and they got rid of a girl 2 weeks ago for getting less than her target. We'd rather have some kind of income than none at all.
LHA rate is £112 I think and can't move anywhere cheaper as we have no money for a deposit/referencing/admin fees etc.

RAS

Maltey wrote: »

He works full time, 9-5, sometimes more and they only pay him £150. He didn't know what the wage was when he got the job but he needed it so anything was better than nothing (we thought) and he's been looking for other jobs but he's limited as he doesn't drive and there's only 2 or 3 places that are open after 5pm where we live.
RAS he didn't accept a job that was commission only, if you reread my post it was a flat rate at first and they just this week changed it to commission only.

His employers cannot just change his conditions of service like THAT. It is not legal.

Get out his contract of employment and find out what it says about payment. Did he sign a contract for commission only or not?

If not, what does it say?

Maltey

He hasn't got a contract.
I'm sure it's not legal to only be paying like £4 an hour or whatever it works out to either but we're not in a position to start arguing with them because we need that income, however small it is.

Morglin

I thnk perhaps an appointment with the Citizens Advice Bureau might be useful, as they will be able to advise both about the benefits and the employment situation.

Lin