What benefits am I entitled to? Pregnant and Unemployed.

mistymemo

Hi,

I have recently found out that I am being made redundant from my assignment I was employed on a FTC on. I am due to give birth in August to my first child and will not be working for a few months. The problem is that my husband who although earns 29k a year, has a lot of credit card and loan debts he is paying off. He has tried to minimise the payments without getting blacklisted but the banks are refusing to let him pay any lower. He pays £68 for one credit card and £112 for another as well as his loan which he pays approx £300+. After this as well as paying for the bills and council tax etc, he is left overdrawn and not able to afford rent on his own.
Am I eligible for housing benefits just until I am back at work after 8 months? We desperately need advice as the Council is looking at his wage and refusing to help as they believe he earns too much for help but most of his wage goes out on mandatory payments which he cannot minimise.

Thank you

Dullville

mistymemo wrote: »

Hi,

I have recently found out that I am being made redundant from my assignment I was employed on a FTC on. I am due to give birth in August to my first child and will not be working for a few months. The problem is that my husband who although earns 29k a year, has a lot of credit card and loan debts he is paying off. He has tried to minimise the payments without getting blacklisted but the banks are refusing to let him pay any lower. He pays £68 for one credit card and £112 for another as well as his loan which he pays approx £300+. After this as well as paying for the bills and council tax etc, he is left overdrawn and not able to afford rent on his own.
Am I eligible for housing benefits just until I am back at work after 8 months? We desperately need advice as the Council is looking at his wage and refusing to help as they believe he earns too much for help but most of his wage goes out on mandatory payments which he cannot minimise.

Thank you

Absolutely brilliant..29k a year and still trying to ponce off the state..Get real will you, the council have said your household income is too much so what advise do you expect on here that would be any different..Deluded.

maggy50

He needs debt advice perhaps he could have help from CAB .
Beine pregnant and having time off work with no pay is not easy will you get maternity pay ?

TELLIT01

For any Income Related benefit they will look at your partner's income without any real regard for outgoings due to debt. The view is that a lifestyle choice put him in this position and it's not the responsibility of the state to support that choice.
A hard lesson for you perhaps as the debts are possibly not your direct responsibility. I suspect either Maternity Allowance or Statutory Maternity Pay are likely to be the only things open to you.

When_the_going_gets_tough

Your husband needs to get some debt advice. Rent etc are priority debts, credit card debts are not. As has been said most benefits are based on the household income, not just your income. It may be that your husband will need to enter dump or consider other debt solutions.

mistymemo

Dullville wrote: »

Absolutely brilliant..29k a year and still trying to ponce off the state..Get real will you, the council have said your household income is too much so what advise do you expect on here that would be any different..Deluded.

Thanks for your comments as if you know us or our situation really well. You may have read too many Daily Mail stories and watched too much of Benefit Streets or you have absolutely NO clue what it is like to live in London. Ponce off the state?? I have worked in full time employment since I was 17 years old and not once claimed benefits even when there were gaps between different jobs. And as a woman I have EVERY right to having a child and expect some help from the government especially when David Cameron promised he would help hardworking families such as ourselves. The fact that my husband is in debt is due to his personal reasons. Before you are all condesending, judgemental and self righteous, realise that there are people out there who having paid their taxes for years and provided a service to their community deserve some assistance even for a few months. LOSER.

mistymemo

maggy50 wrote: »

He needs debt advice perhaps he could have help from CAB .
Beine pregnant and having time off work with no pay is not easy will you get maternity pay ?

Thanks for your advice. I have definitely considered seeing if my husband has any way of bringing down his debt payments as £300 for a loan payment seems too much and I am sure that even for a few months he can maybe pay half of this until I am able to go back to work and pick up from where I left. It is just that a one bed flat in London can be too much for one person to afford so just wondering if the Council could help until my baby is a few months older? :-)

Dullville

mistymemo wrote: »

Thanks for your comments as if you know us or our situation really well. You may have read too many Daily Mail stories and watched too much of Benefit Streets or you have absolutely NO clue what it is like to live in London. Ponce off the state?? I have worked in full time employment since I was 17 years old and not once claimed benefits even when there were gaps between different jobs. And as a woman I have EVERY right to having a child and expect some help from the government especially when David Cameron promised he would help hardworking families such as ourselves. The fact that my husband is in debt is due to his personal reasons. Before you are all condesending, judgemental and self righteous, realise that there are people out there who having paid their taxes for years and provided a service to their community deserve some assistance even for a few months. LOSER.

Loser...:rotfl: please tell me exactly what you should be entitled to bar maternity pay or JSA when you've got a husband who earns 29k?
Bravo for working since you were 17, don't think your are unique on that front!
So you think you should be entitled to more hand outs just because your husband is in debt, I bet the council laughed you out of the building when you submited your life story about your debt situation and your husbands wage.
If you can't afford to live in London, move!

Londonsu

mistymemo wrote: »

Thanks for your comments as if you know us or our situation really well. You may have read too many Daily Mail stories and watched too much of Benefit Streets or you have absolutely NO clue what it is like to live in London. Ponce off the state?? I have worked in full time employment since I was 17 years old and not once claimed benefits even when there were gaps between different jobs. And as a woman I have EVERY right to having a child and expect some help from the government especially when David Cameron promised he would help hardworking families such as ourselves. The fact that my husband is in debt is due to his personal reasons. Before you are all condesending, judgemental and self righteous, realise that there are people out there who having paid their taxes for years and provided a service to their community deserve some assistance even for a few months. LOSER.

So what I have worked for 45 years ( longer than you by a mile ) and if I lost my job I wouldn't actually get income based JSA or in fact any benefits at all because my Husband gets a pension that he himself worked 45 years to earn.


Your only right is CB that's all and any contribution based benefits like JSA for 6 months, other than that the tax payer owes you nothing

TELLIT01

mistymemo, the way the benefits system works doesn't help those who have worked for years and contributed to the finances of the country. It is far more interested in providing assistance to those who won't take responsibility for themselves.

10pence

I will try to keep this post as non-judgemental as possible. I work within welfare rights so the information is based on realworld experience not some TV or shabby newspaper.

To keep it simple there are two types of benefits: means tested - such as housing benefit and council tax support and non-means tested benefits - PIP/DLA.
To confuse matters JSA and ESA can be either income or contribution based.

You enquiry will take into consideration of the family (household) income - what your family spend that income on is irrelevant when it comes to benefit entitlement.

You, as a family need to sit down and start sorting out your finances as if you're struggling now how do you think you'll cope with an expensive new baby?

There are far more options when dealing with debts then ever before, read this LINK for further information.