Left husband benefits

Kayalana99

Hiya guys,

Long short..my sister has left her husband she is not really very good with money / bills etc at all...so I am compiling her a 'to do' list any help would be appreciated I will keep adding to it/ editing it.

She also will be jobless, she was due to start a new job next week so has given notice on her old job and she can do neither job with childcare as they both involve stupid shifts.

I want the company/phone number/ 'what she has to say more or less' /

House - Give 1 month notice Tuesday, you need to do this in writing but can also ring them up to let them know. (She is sorted where she is moving to)

Electric/Gas - Already in your name.

Water - Already in your name ~ How much are you paying? Can you get this reduced?

Council Tax - 0333 200 6900 - Ring up and say you are now single, you need to put it in your name only and you should be eligible for 25% discount off it...make sure you mention this if they don't.

Sky - Not in your name.

Contents insurance? - You need to find out what company this is what does it say on bank statement?

Benefits to ring:

Job Seekers - Seems you can do this online https://www.dwpe-services.direct.gov.uk/portal/page/portal/jsaol/lp
MUST wait until your job is finished on Sunday...so do this Monday.

Tax Credits - 0345 300 3900 - You really need to find somehow last years income..preferably last pay check before April ? P45 ? As they will want this info, Also need to keep track of how much you earn this year so far. Update your circumstances and see how much they say ...you still owe them £3,000 so will need to put your foot down with them on how much you can pay back out of your award.

Council Tax Support - https://www.gov.uk/apply-council-tax-reduction - It looks like you can only claim this if you are on certain benefits so do this LAST and after your job has finished.

Housing Benefits - It seems this is linked in with job seekers allowance and it says you need to ask them how to claim?

Contact Jobcentre Plus to claim Housing Benefit with your claim for job seekers?

Jobcentre Plus
Telephone: 0800 055 6688

Other stuff;

School ~ It's up to you but school could be doing with making aware of what's happened when your ready.


FTA: Child of six.

Kayalana99

Have I missed anything?

iammumtoone

Appreciate you are helping her and giving her a list of things at the moment is a good idea, as I suspect she is not thinking straight at present, however you cannot do this forever as a single mum she will have to learn fast how to organise a budget/pay bills etc. Once things have settle could you sit down with her and help her set a budget that she is able to mange on her own.

You don't make it clear has her husband left the home they shared or has she left?

Thins that spring to mind are
Child maintenance CSA or direct?
Water - speak to them some companies have special rate for very low use, 1 adult and one child should (if you are careful) fall into this (I do and am a single mum to a six year old)
School to be told of the situation, not a necessity if she doesn't want to but a good idea in my opinion.

She has to have a good reason for leaving a job if she wants to claim JSA maybe start to get evidence that childcare is not available for the working hours.

Kayalana99

This is going to get really confusing for me let alone her (It would be easier if she didn't chuck everything in the bin...every time I say do you have XXX ...shes like I don't think so I might have chucked it )

Problem is her job made her self employed from (I believe) March...so she has to fill in a tax return for one month...then she will have two paydays from Ap/May that will be as self employed income.

Don't know how job seekers take her leaving a self employed job? She seems to think she is being let go and not leaving because 'they found out about her job so they replaced her'

The hours for her current job are 5am starts...11pm finishes (not in one day) and the new job would of been everything from morning to night shifts so even worse.

Child benefit is already in her name, I'll work back though your suggestions now and add them to the list

Kayalana99

You've both mentioned child maintenance..so for the info she is in limbo about this she doesn't think he will give her anything but I will push her to do the CSA route if not but for now she wants to be civil and not bring it up (as this has just happened I will be with her for this at least for a week if not two)

To add insult to injury I don't know how CSA work but he is self employed (but technically employed) and hasn't been saying he is working for the last 6 months. As far as anyone is concerned he is unemployed..its not cash in hand either IDK how he thinks he will get away with it but thats neither of our concern I hope?!

Not sure if CSA can deduct earnings if its self employed even if coming from one business to himself a month.

iammumtoone

Kayalana99 wrote: »

Not sure if CSA can deduct earnings if its self employed even if coming from one business to himself a month.

Oh dear, I know from personal experience and was told by a solicitor that the CSA do not have any power when it comes to enforcing payment from self-employed people. However things change and it is best to get your own advise on this, good luck with it but be prepared to not get much.

iammumtoone

not good about the paperwork but can't be helped just best to sort everything out as best you can and make sure in future she is more organised and doesn't find herself in this situation again.

She does need to get the situation clarified on her employment as she needs to tell the Job centre the truth, not saying she intends to lie but she needs to get her facts right as they will ask for proof from the previous employer if she tells them she was let go.

Kayalana99

Thank you, more then anything I just wanted to make sure my list was complete and I hadn't missed anything important and get feedback.

I will bare in mind that CSA are useless when it comes to self employment... (the annoying thing is he isn't technically self employed but thats just how the company run it to save costs.. ) and try to get them to come to some agreement.

It sounds like he won't have a job for to long anyway, won't go into little details but he has been skipping a few days so with them breaking up I would think this would only make this worse.

I worked out that she should be entitled to around £240 a week which is just liveable once you take food into account as well...but then she still has to buy clothes etc...the extra £100 a month of the Ex would make the world of difference..

I am sure she will manage though.

FBaby

I don't think it is so much they are useless, more that self-employed can play the system to make it look like they have no income under the csa rules, hence no maintenance to take.

BigAunty

Another 'to do' task - download the MSE budget planner and get your sister to populate it so she can go through the site to work out how to slash every outgoing and then she will have a baseline budget to stick to.

Guineapigsqueaks

I would be suggesting getting rid of Sky. Expensive and not really a necessity.

Guineapigsqueaks x