Son 16 in full time education

dette48

Hello,
I informed the tax credit office in May that my son would be continuing full time education, we did not receive a payment this week, my husband phoned and was told all about the recalculating from 1st september (I have read various posts regarding this)
But the adviser could not tell us when we will next receive payment. We do not have other income, so I had to cancel my gas direct debit so we would have some available cash, which will now result in letters from our gas supplier as a non payment is triggered.
There must be lots of people who this has happened to. Is there nothing in place to cover "their recalculating delays"?
They should be able to let you know when the payment is going to be made (we would have been left with no cash at all for this first week that my son is starting college, great start) hence my utility bills/direct debits will be all messed up now!
Any advise please?

McKneff

Surely you must have some other income, JSA, ESA, Child Benefit etc. Housing Benefit, Income support.....

Fredbloogs

dette48 wrote: »

Hello,
I informed the tax credit office in May that my son would be continuing full time education, we did not receive a payment this week, my husband phoned and was told all about the recalculating from 1st september (I have read various posts regarding this)
But the adviser could not tell us when we will next receive payment. We do not have other income, so I had to cancel my gas direct debit so we would have some available cash, which will now result in letters from our gas supplier as a non payment is triggered.
There must be lots of people who this has happened to. Is there nothing in place to cover "their recalculating delays"?
They should be able to let you know when the payment is going to be made (we would have been left with no cash at all for this first week that my son is starting college, great start) hence my utility bills/direct debits will be all messed up now!
Any advise please?

Did your husband speak to tax credits today? If so it means they still haven't finished recalculating which seems a bit ridiculous as it's a computer system which does it. When my daughter started college 2 years ago everything was recalculated by September 3rd as I have checked my bank statements and we got an extra payment 2 days after our normal payment, this sometimes happens when they recalculate.

kingfisherblue

dette48 wrote: »

Hello,
I informed the tax credit office in May that my son would be continuing full time education, we did not receive a payment this week, my husband phoned and was told all about the recalculating from 1st september (I have read various posts regarding this)
But the adviser could not tell us when we will next receive payment. We do not have other income, so I had to cancel my gas direct debit so we would have some available cash, which will now result in letters from our gas supplier as a non payment is triggered.
There must be lots of people who this has happened to. Is there nothing in place to cover "their recalculating delays"?
They should be able to let you know when the payment is going to be made (we would have been left with no cash at all for this first week that my son is starting college, great start) hence my utility bills/direct debits will be all messed up now!
Any advise please?

Inform your supplier that you have cancelled your DD and will start it up again. That way, you might be able to avoid fees from the bank. I'm not certain, but they might charge for any DD that is applied for. Hopefully I am wrong, but it's worth checking.

Jonj1611

McKneff wrote: »

Surely you must have some other income, JSA, ESA, Child Benefit etc. Housing Benefit, Income support.....

I also found myself in the same situation today, and yes I have other income, that though came in earlier in the week, it's not until today that I found out, like the OP I expect, that the money going in is less than expected or worse, has not gone in.

My BT bill is due tomorrow, which is paid for by the money I receive today.

Having other income is great and can be used for other things but only when you know whats going on with payments. If I had known that today would have been different I would have moved my DD.

However, I was told like many others, that payments will continue as normal. Extra income or not doesn't change the fact that if you are told things will carry on as normal then you expect things to carry on as they would normally, I have never missed a bill date because my bills are spread out through the month and coincide with payment dates.

Rather they sent out letters stating that for people within a certain time-frame that payments maybe irregular or lower than expected, at least that way people don't get left up the creek like today.

Child benefit is paid on Tuesdays, housing benefit is every 2 weeks, JSA/ESA for me anyway is paid on a Friday so nothing would have helped today. Just like many other people.

Jonj1611

blondebubbles wrote: »

As much as I can understand everyone's feelings regarding this and the issues it causes, your awards do only show the payments only continuing to 31st Aug so technically there was no payments due after that.

I also don't believe that 2 days is a ridiculous amount of time. Although I do agree the process involved makes no sense.

Some people who rang up weren't told their award would stop, even though thats what the paperwork said, my paperwork for instance says I will receive less money, if I had one child I would have been told it would have stopped. In horror I rang CTC and was told and I wish I had recorded it, no, my payments will NOT change and will carry on as normal, the paperwork is just what is sent out, but its recalculated in September and my payments wont be affected. But they were affected weren't they, same as other peoples, told one thing, but not told that payments could have been affected. I wasn't told that at all.

However, while 2 days may not be a lot for you, when you have next to no money and rely on these payments, 2 days can seem an awfully long time. As mentioned in other posts from me today, I had a DD coming out tomorrow, that has been cancelled and I pray I dont get charged for it, but I bet CTC won't pay the charge if it does come out as there isn't enough money in my account to cover it now.

Jonj1611

To be honest whats the point in complaining, I dont remember when I rang them only it was about the time I received the letter. I dont know who I spoke to apart from it was a woman. I dont remember what time of day it was. Oh and my phone number is blocked for outgoing calls, the chances of them finding it are extremely slim.

Your right the process is very wrong though, bearing in mind the amount of people who have children hitting 16 or whatever this month, a letter stating the procedure and what may happen would have been very welcome.

Jonj1611

And thank you I appreciate your help. I have struggled with the complaints procedure in the past. That's good to know about the conversation recording though as I know what I was told, but then your made to feel like your going mad when you ring up and say but I was told............

Anyway thanks again

nannytone_2

im really sorry but people meed to accept some accountabiliyt.
if you benefiyt is a few days late then your whgole world falls apart?
child related benefits are extremely generous... so save a few quid rather than spending every penny as it comes in!

Jonj1611

I would love to save money but I can't I have bills etc to pay.

And yes when you are expecting something and it doesn't arrive then it does throw things out, be nice to have savings, but like many people the money goes out as soon as it comes in.

Anyone with income, working or not would be concerned if the money didn't show up or was less than expected, if you never got your wages at the end of the month, I very much doubt anyone will just say, thats ok, I am sure it will be paid soon! Instead they would enquire as to where the wages are. If their wages are short, how many people then ring up and complain to the wages office or the manager???

But just because people aren't working or getting benefits doesn't mean they should be any less eligible to expect things to work smoothly for them.

nannytone_2

and a single person on £72 a week JSA has bills.
people with children get more than 2 adults ( £113 a week) so surely you can budget better than they can ?