Overwhelmed

cazz2013

I am sorry if I sound like such a thicko, but I really do not know where to go to ask for advice on what do I need to do first, before I get overwhelmed. My husband has announced that he is leaving - going back to his own country for good next weekend - he has already booked his flights and everything. Once over the initial shock I used the benefits calculator to try and work out what to do and what I could possibly be entitled to. Currently we have a joint tax credits claim of 60 CTC and 30 WTC, and he has just been sacked again (hence him giving up and leaving). And we get a small amount of HB each week. I currently receive enhanced care and standard mobility PIP, and my daughter is the same rate but DLA - and I have been unable to work due to our individual health reasons for the last year. I was entitled to CB ESA, but chose not to claim because of the hoops I would have needed to jump through, I do get carers for my daughter. I just do not know where to start or who to contact first. I was just setting up a small home-based ltd company when he dropped this bombshell - and am not actually earning anything yet. I do not know if I need to claim IS or ESA, who do I need to call first housing, tax credits, benefits people and what on earth do I say? Will it make a difference that I have put myself down as a company director of a newly formed company (02/07/2014) or will I have to close it before I have even started. Please can some-one unscramble my head and advise me on what I need to do first as I am not in a very good place now. Sorry for such a long garbled post, but I am terrified of this whole process.

jetplane

OK take a breath, as blondebubbles has already said you need to check that the disability premiums are being included in your tax credit award. Then contact HMRC when he leaves and finalise the joint claim setting up a single claim. Are you intending to continue with this business and if so how many hours will you be working? Once you establish this then that will determine whether you claim Working tax Credits or Income Support.

Whatever your earnings or benefit income you need to contact the LA and make a claim for HB & CTB as a single person, they will assess you on whatever income you have whether you are working or not. Do not wait until you have everything in order, just make the claim and then supply the information as soon as you have it, this ensures that you will receive backdated benefit.

If you are working less than 16 hours you will need to claim IS as a carer and this will passport you to full HB & CTB minus any restriction applied by your LA as they all administer their own schemes.

If you are working more than 16 hours you can claim WTC. HMRC will need your income from the last tax year and will ask for an estimate for the current tax year which you have probably estimated in your business plan. You will need to keep the LA informed of any award.

You could claim ESA however any payments would be offset against your CA and IS will be more generous as you will receive the disability premiums and Severe Disability premium if you live alone with your children.

The crux for you is how many hours you will be working and if it is close to 16 then you probably need a benefit check to see which would be most appropriate. IS would be generous with the premiums but does not include any childcare costs.

How old is your daughter and do you / will you have child care costs?

cazz2013

blondebubbles wrote: »

Are tax credits aware your daughter is on DLA? The amounts you quoted don't appear to include the disability elements of CTC.

You would call them once your partner leaves, they will then set up a single CTC claim over the phone. If you work over 16 hours per week you can also claim WTC.

If not working 16 hours then you would look into other benefits from to JCP.

Can give any advice on these or housing I'm afraid.

Thank-you very much for replying. I informed tax credits of my daughters DLA award a couple of weeks ago (fortunately her claim was awarded within 3 weeks of applying - nothing like the PIP fiasco) so I am still awaiting a response from them. The benefit calculators say I should claim ESA , (which I am loathe to do due to the assessment criteria and the undue stress that it causes) - but a friend has said that I would be better claiming IS, due to being a carer. I really would not like to do any of the above and would rather be an ostrich. I would rather struggle and say that I am working 16 hours a week on my new business to avoid the whole saga - but will not turn an income from it for at least another couple of weeks - hence I will be classed as lying if I cannot produce accounts. When I contact tax credits will they automatically notify the housing benefit department, or do I have to do that separately?, also when I tell them that I am now alone - won't they base my income on last years household income which includes my husbands salary? I am really trying to get my head around all of this and do not know what to do for the best. Thank-you for reading x

cazz2013

Thank-you Jetplane. My daughter is 13, and with my health problems I am unable to work outside of the home but I did not want to give up on working, so I have spent time creating a small niche market so that I can work from home - thereby also eliminating the need for outside assistance for either of us. I just cannot bear the thought of relying solely on the state and worry that once I go down that route I will be very limited and restricted in progressing with my business. Not to mention the amount of interviews, assessments, forms, etc and all of the associated stress. My claim for PIP was so awful and stressful that my daughters CPN actually submitted her DLA claim for me, because I could not face doing it.

jetplane

You can not rely on one department to automatically inform another department, you must do it yourself. Yes departments share and receive information but they do not award benefits on this basis.

Your friend is correct and there should be no saga claiming IS as a carer. You must be careful not to say you are working 16 hours if you are not as you could end up being overpaid the wrong benefit. HMRC will base the award on your income not your husbands.

HMRC LA and DWP are used to people who are self employed so will not consider you are lying as you currently have no accounts to produce. You must remember that even if you have an income in a couple of weeks this will be your gross turnover and you will need to deduct costs and expenses from this to get a true figure.

I can understand you wanting to bury your head but taking action now will save a whole lot of mess later down the line.

BigAunty

A lone parent only has to work 16 hours per week to qualify for working tax credits, including the self employed (and qualify for the usual other means tested benefits like child tax credit, housing benefit, child benefit, council tax discount plus non-means tested ones like PIP).

You may lose your Carers Allowance on income grounds above a certain level so do check the criteria.

You can model certain scenarios on the Turn2us online benefit calculator.

You can check on the child support board whether the country that your ex is fleeing to may have some kind of legislation that supports extracting child support from him.

The HMRC are quite aggressive about checking whether or not the self -employed are meeting the criteria to claim WTC and often challenge recipients to prove that they've spent the hours they claim. Make sure you familiarise yourself with what is expected and keep records that can help you if you are audited.

In the future, under the move to the Universal Credit system, there is a harsher conditionality for the self employed. This may be years away or get scrapped through project/IT issues. However, the govt are not impressed with the level of long-term benefit dependency by the self employed and have set the Self employed the target to earn the national minimum wage from their businesses. So do some research in this area for the long-term potential impact if your business ends up being one of the many low or no profit ones that the govt hope to eradicate under UC.

jetplane

BigAunty wrote: »

You may lose your Carers Allowance on income grounds above a certain level so do check the criteria.

Currently £102 a week net and after allowable expenses and 50% pension contributions.

OP Big Aunty makes an excellent point in you keeping tight records to show you are self employed even if you are running at a loss in the beginning, which many business do. All benefits come with lots of paperwork, interviews and questions.

The benefit calculators you are using will be be defaulting to ESA probably because you will be entering the info that you have a disability and unable to look for employment.

In your position I would be visiting the CAB, Welfare Rights or Advice Centre where someone can look at your whole situation, facts and figures and give you informed advice based on your personal circumstances.

cazz2013

I cannot say thank-you enough for taking the time to respond to me. For work purposes I was initially aiming for 16 hours a week at minimum wage , being an employee of the company. With all going to plan the company should turn a profit within 6 months. It is only a small cottage industry business, but with future prospects of never needing to rely on the state again. I was aiming on boosting our income enough this year so that we no longer needed to rely on tax credits etc. but that is all quite irrelevant now. We took such a drop in income when I got ill, it was my way of finding an alternative form of employment. On the benefit calculators there is virtually no difference in financial assistance available - I really want to work, but will not be getting an income as such for a couple of weeks. On the basis of all of your kind advice I will call tax credits next week and start a new claim in my own right, based on predicted earnings from working. Please keep your fingers crossed for me x

jetplane

Good luck and don't forget to contact the LA and CA will also need to know of your change in circumstances as you are now working they will have to check that you are not earning too much. 16 hours min wage is just below the threshold for CA, however when the min wage goes up in October this will cause problems so it will be worthwhile considering paying into a small pension to keep you under the threshold.

Like I say no benefits are stress free.

cazz2013

Hello, I am sorry to bother you all - this update is more of a rant of despair. Tax credits and HB were informed when my husband left - 3 weeks ago - and I put in a single claim for working & child tax credits, based on 16 hours a week, working for my own company on PAYE. I have kept full records and accounts since the beginning of July (when the company was created) and my PAYE is direct RTI. I am unable to work outside the home, and have poured all my energy into this company to try and make a success.

I rang the tax credits office yesterday to check the status of my claim, and was forwarded to another department (I do not know which). After explaining why I was calling this man said that a letter had been sent to me a week ago - and could not say what it was about - I was just told to wait for it to arrive (up to 2 weeks) and the comment I got when asked how long will the claim take to sort out, his exact words to me were "well you won't be getting any payment this week or anytime soon".

The tears have been flowing all night - I do not know what I could possibly have done to deserve that. I hate the phone at the best of times - that comment has finished me and I feel sick at the thought of dealing with them now. Rant over, and clueless at what to do now.

Icequeen99

cazz2013 wrote: »

Hello, I am sorry to bother you all - this update is more of a rant of despair. Tax credits and HB were informed when my husband left - 3 weeks ago - and I put in a single claim for working & child tax credits, based on 16 hours a week, working for my own company on PAYE. I have kept full records and accounts since the beginning of July (when the company was created) and my PAYE is direct RTI. I am unable to work outside the home, and have poured all my energy into this company to try and make a success.

I rang the tax credits office yesterday to check the status of my claim, and was forwarded to another department (I do not know which). After explaining why I was calling this man said that a letter had been sent to me a week ago - and could not say what it was about - I was just told to wait for it to arrive (up to 2 weeks) and the comment I got when asked how long will the claim take to sort out, his exact words to me were "well you won't be getting any payment this week or anytime soon".

The tears have been flowing all night - I do not know what I could possibly have done to deserve that. I hate the phone at the best of times - that comment has finished me and I feel sick at the thought of dealing with them now. Rant over, and clueless at what to do now.

It sounds very much like your claim has been picked up for a pre-claim investigation. Probably because of the recent change in couple status and maybe your employment status is being flagged up.

What do you do for the company? How many hours are you working and how does that match the hours going through RTI? What is the nature of the business?

You need to wait for the letter and then send them the information they require. Unfortunately there isn't much that can be done at this stage.

IQ