catch 22

ironlady67

I have today been told by tax credits that as my daughter is only doing 6 hrs at college I am no longer entitled to child tax credits for her, she was 17 on 12th Aug. The course she is doing is a level 3 NVQ she also did full time level 3 last year NVQ

my partner works 17 hrs a week and gets £442.58 per month.
I get EESA of £221.70 per 2 weeks
I also get the lowest rate of dla

we have a son who is 14 also.

My question is, if the tax credits are taken away from us and the child benefit for my daughter, surely there should be an alternative until she is in work???

would go to CAB for advice, but a lot of the volunteers don't seem to be as clued up on this sort of thing as they maybe ought to be. Also I phoned jobcentre pluss, who were no help either.

We cant afford to loose around 50-60 a week

Any help would be gratefully received,

tomtontom

Can she not get a job?

Housing_Benefit_Officer

Does she do any Guided Learning Hours? If so should these be added to her college hours?

missapril75

Somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind is the idea that although under 18s no longer in "full time education" are generally out of the benefit system, unless they are in special groups, it was possible to receive JSA as a job seeker (whether in part time education or nothing at all) even where not estranged from parents IF parents were on low income benefits themselves.

So unless there are additional hours that can be added as suggested above, it might be worth a JSA application under the hardship rules for under 18s. These are NOT the same JSA hardship rules for those with sanctions and claims from under 18s are a specialist area, not for general DWP staff.

Ordinarily, your level of income might not count as "low enough" for her to qualify for JSA hardship(U-18) but your own disability might have a bearing on that.

Whatever they are calling the youth services these days (Connexions?) would be a good place to start.

ironlady67

she is working around 6-8 hrs a week @ 3.70 per hr

its a zero hr contract. She is also looking for full time work. That is why she has gone on to an evening course at college.

What is guided learning? her course id NVQ level 2 specialist techniques in beauty

Housing_Benefit_Officer

ironlady67 wrote: »

she is working around 6-8 hrs a week @ 3.70 per hr

its a zero hr contract. She is also looking for full time work. That is why she has gone on to an evening course at college.

What is guided learning? her course id NVQ level 2 specialist techniques in beauty

I meant Directed Study. Sometimes the course is made up of Guided Learning (i.e. under a teacher/lecturer in a classroom) and Directed Study where someone could be at home spent on activities such as reading, research, learning in the workplace etc.