IS and Savings

kirstiekoo

Hi due to my ex husband leaving myself and 4 children i had my house Repossessed in March am now in temporary housing accommodation still awaiting the housing to decide if am eligeble for help.

In this time i have been recieving I.S , C.T.C and child benefit and housing costs covered with H.B.

Tomorrow i am due to recieve the equity from the house sale £19'000 i realise this means i have to much in savings to claim benefits and will have to cover the rent and c.tax out of this money. What im worried about is this money wont last for ever and how i can make it last, can i pay some debts off , i want to pay for my DD to go on her school french trip (£250) what will happen if i need to go back on benefits later down the line what am i allowed to spend money on Etc can i put any into savings for kids

I just want to do right thing and not waste it life as been tough last year with no money and never knowing where we are going to end up living but dont want this money making more probs for me later down the line.

Thanks for any help ideas

Elle00

kirstiekoo wrote: »

Hi due to my ex husband leaving myself and 4 children i had my house Repossessed in March am now in temporary housing accommodation still awaiting the housing to decide if am eligeble for help.

In this time i have been recieving I.S , C.T.C and child benefit and housing costs covered with H.B.

Tomorrow i am due to recieve the equity from the house sale £19'000 i realise this means i have to much in savings to claim benefits and will have to cover the rent and c.tax out of this money. What im worried about is this money wont last for ever and how i can make it last, can i pay some debts off , i want to pay for my DD to go on her school french trip (£250) what will happen if i need to go back on benefits later down the line what am i allowed to spend money on Etc can i put any into savings for kids

I just want to do right thing and not waste it life as been tough last year with no money and never knowing where we are going to end up living but dont want this money making more probs for me later down the line.

Thanks for any help ideas

Hi hun,

I had some experience of this but of course this is personal experience I'm citing here rather than hard and fast rules. This would be my advice:

When you receive this money you should ring all the agencies you're receiving benefits from THAT DAY and tell them what's happened. You should continue to receive CTC and CB but not IS or HB (inc council tax relief).

You should be able to stay in your hostel and simply pay full rent though this is down to your local housing department. It would be advisable to speak with them before spending any of the money as they may suggest shared ownership to you though of course we both know this isn't very realistic if you're a SAHM! Still, you must talk to them before spending house deposit kind of money as it has been known that people have been branded irresponsible or working the system for "wasting" possible house deposits.

If there are no obsticles in your way then my advice would be to clear any debts, pay for one or two justifiable luxuries (French trip for DD, any new furniture, car repairs etc).

Then budget that money so you live at a sensible amount each month (try to spend no more than 150% what you would receive on IS would be my advice).

KEEP ALL YOUR RECEIPTS IN A FOLDER!!! Sorry, it warrants caps because it's ever so important! And keep your bank statements each month with them too.

When your savings fall below £6k, if you are not back at work (you can claim WTC regardless of savings I believe) and need IS again because of your children then you will be asked to declare this money you received and produce your receipts to show where you spent it. Someone at IS will make you wait a while and then eventually rubber stamp your claim to say you've spent the money responsibly and initiate a new claim for you.

I received a divorce settlement marginally over the savings threshold last year and had to do all this! Like I said, I don't work for DWP but this is what I had to do and it all seems pretty reasonable so I'd expect you would need to do the same.

All the best, hope things turn around for you soon.