*URGENT* Please help, i think i'm going to loose my home :(

melly84

Oh and i have still been making payments, £50 on thursday which is shortfall from housing benefit plus £3 and am going back down the council tommorrow to see how much i got to pay this week.
The thing is aswell, the council are supposed to send out award letter to them detailing the benefit i'm receiving so i'm thinking maybe they didnt get one or some?

Karmacat

I'm glad you've told your mum, Melly, that was the right thing to do. Don't know about the letter detailing your benefit, but I hope you have receipts for the money you've paid, like that £50. If not, do get it in future.

Hugs to you.

chevalier

Hi there
While I can only agree with the others about seeing the relevant people on monday. But I thought I would suggest some other ways of making money.
They are listed below, sorry its a bit long.
best of luck
chev
www.lightspeedpanel.com - this is a survey site, where you get points which turn into vouchers (you choose). May not help with the cash flow, but the vouchers could be saved towards birthday/xmas or given as presents.

www.ciao.co.uk - survey site that gives money. A bit fits and starts ie no surveys for a couple of weeks, then three or four the same day.

www.yougov.com - again paid surveys. However takes a while to get to the minimum payout level

www.mytns.com - again this is a survey site, but it pays you in points that convert into Nectar points at Sainsbury’s.

www.pigsback.co.uk - this is a points site, ie they give you points for buying things via their site. BUT you also get points for signing up for news letters (some of which are even interesting!), and also for clicking on adverts with pink borders. I have spent NOTHING with them but got a £10 voucher through this week (only been registered since January). There is also a thread in the freebies section, of https://www.moneysavingexpert.com which gives you all the daily answers to the competitions so you can have a better chance of winning on them.

www.mutualpoints.com - another points for clicks site. You can also buy things via their site and get points too. For a long time, I just clicked the links in the emails they send you, and that gets you 5 points. At 3000 points you get £20 I think. You can do searches via their site and that gets you points too.

www.quidco.com - this is a cash back site, so very good, for checking if any potential new insurers (ie if you have checked your contents insurance say and found a new provider), are offering cash back. Eg Lloyds was offering £120 cashback on new policies at one point (the offers do change). You can also get small amounts of cash again for doing searches via their site. You can earn 52p a day by doing this. Every little helps.

www.greasypalm.co.uk - another cash back site, where you can do searches and get small amounts of money. But it all adds up. I think you can get about 50p a day on there for nothing. Minimum payout is £20 I think, but you can sign up to survey sites via there, and get extra money that way for nothing.

Again more medium term money might come from claiming back bank charges. Also if you had an endowment you can write to your provider suggesting you might have been misinformed about its performance. Many people have got money back on that. There are articles from Martin on the main site about how to go about doing this.
If you are going to do this, it is wise to set up another current account first, with a bank that you have no debt with. Just to be on the safe side.

Are you in the correct banding for your council tax? Again there is an article by Martin on the main website about how to go about checking this. If you are in the wrong band and due a rebate, it is for all the year you have been living in the house since 1991, so this can be several thousand pounds back.

xxxxpurpsxxxx

I cant really offer much advise other than to maintain an almost constant contact with your housing officer (or similar) I have discovered in the past that they dont really want to have you evicted (especially as there is a child involved). It sounds like they are giving you an option to "ask them for help".

Also, by paying slightly more than the minimum shows the courts you are trying to clear the debt.

I wish you all the luck in the world xxx

melly84

Karmacat wrote: »

I'm glad you've told your mum, Melly, that was the right thing to do. Don't know about the letter detailing your benefit, but I hope you have receipts for the money you've paid, like that £50. If not, do get it in future.

Hugs to you.

yes i have receipst, i pay with my debit card on the internet so have conformation e-mails and bank staements proving payments made.
I'm going so cross reference the rent account statement with my bank statements and benefit letters and find the discrepencies i think, then at least i'll be able to see what went wrong an hopefully my housing manager will see i'm trying to make and effort and just got into a muddle.
She s going to be in the estate office tommorrow morning so i'll go and see her first thing, she is very understanding but obviosly there is only so much she can do, i can only hope i can hold off the court proceeding.

melly84

Morning everyone!
Well i went to the estate office, HO wasn't there so i called her.
It was basically what i thught, the council haven't been sending them the copies of award letters :rolleyes:
So basically she said to just drop her an e-mail explaining the benefit award each week and that should be fine, i keep copies of all y award letters so i said if she needs them i can drop them in.

She's not taking it to court thank god, so now i just got to make sure i keep regular contact with her.

What a weight off my shoulders!
thnx for all your replies guys.
Once i'm back at work i'll post a proper SOA, although i have been cuttigng down alot lately, like cutting out diet coke! i was spendnign near on £15 a week on that stuff :eek:

floss2

Just read this thread - glad it all got sorted out!

Having been in a similar arrears situation myself, the only thing I can add is to keep in touch with your Housing Officer - they are more willing to help if you are known to them (and not for being a bad 'un!).

Don't forget to post your SOA when you get chance

:wave:

Spirit_2

This sounds like good news I am pleased for you.

Two things:

1)It may help to do your SOA as things are now, to help make what money you have go as far as possible.

2)In a post you referred to expecting 'compo' money. Do not count on this money coming in. People are often disappointed as they expect or believe they will get more than they do and at times commit this money and it does not materialise. It really is much more realistic to plan for the worst and hope for the best.

Good luck

yellowmonkey

Well done :T .

It is nice to start the day reading some good news.

ym

Me_Myself_2

A good start to everyone's day.

Keep smiling.

MM