The Garden Fence - proper Old Style support and chat!

Hard_Up_Hester

I love porridge, I'll eat everybody's share with golden syrup on.
We've visited the dry dock and booked a weekend for blacking.
My underwear couldn't get any more economical, I've given up wearing any!

pollyanna_26

Sorry NM when you were talking of your son with some help from yourself considering buying I thought he had some savings too .

You'll be aware of rules on Deprivation of Capital and I'm not sure how giving your son the money will be viewed . Are you factoring in the back payment you are owed into these figures ? As far as I am aware that is not treated as savings but back payment .

Do your savings at present top the allowed amount for HB ?

It may be possible to help your son move and use some of your savings to pay towards your housing costs for a while .

The obvious thing is to put the situation to a benefit advisor . As you're no doubt aware it generally requires a Decision Maker to make the judgement .

As you'll know you can replace worn out white goods , furniture etc and spend on disability aids and other health costs . It isn't my area of expertise although I have some knowledge .

I personally don't see any wrong in living frugally and keeping a security cushion for when things go awry with benefits . It's commonsense ,

In view of your health it seems reasonable to me that you seek suitable housing for your needs and if that involves helping your son into his own home I don't see a problem .

The powers that be may take a different view to mine . At the end of the day you were entitled to the benefits so living carefully and watching the pennies for peace of mind should not mean you may as well have blown the lot .

Maybe worth posting over on the forum where Housing Benefit Officer posts . Rules and circumstances change all the time .
polly

pollyanna_26

I've just read your post again NM and noticed the bit referring to the £2,800 sum which seems to be starting off your sons savings towards a home in the future . I would shelve that idea for now . You are free to make a will if you have money to leave in the future . Delaying claiming housing benefits until your savings are at the correct threshold to qualify in future would be more sensible and far less worrying for you .
You can make a gift to your son to help with his deposit if the flat is suitable . Mark it gift at your bank and let him hand it to the landlord through his own account , It's a normal thing to do .
Part of any move should be much needed stress relief for you so help him once and then learn to look clearly at your own needs .
polly

nannywindow

Karcher. Please accept my sincere apologies as I have only just caught up with this thread. I can't offer any advice but I am sending my love and support.
nan xx

mardatha

I like porridge made properly, with water and salt and a good glop of single cream on top. But I can't eat breakfast, never eat in the morning unless I'm out and have tea and cake.
Since I was diagnosed I've mostly lost my appetite, food smells nice then I try a mouthful and don't like it. Between that and the LCHF diet my weight stays steady. I do agree with VJmum re fat - I like butter and cream, hate dry food. If you cut out carbs then you need fat for energy. I wasn't into faddy diets but when we tried it on the RV or his diabetes the results were amazing.

nursemaggie

Polly it was meant as a Joke not a serious question. He has enough money to pay six months rent. When did you last walk into a home with just your toothbrush and clothes?

He would not have enough to set himself up even for for just cooking and cleaning. I remember going into my first flat having spent our first weeks housekeeping on store cupboard items and having nothing left for food. He has already written his a list of cleaning things. He has not started on store cupboard stuff yet. Of course he does not just need a bag of flour he needs something to put it in. It really adds up.

I do not yet have enough to delay housing benefit more than a week or two. They look at your bank accounts, your savings and your current account. They add the two together and count every bit of it as your capital. The amount you are allowed to have has gone down not up. I don't know what they think you have savings for they are still counting the same money as you had in your bank account ten years ago. They count all the payments in including your pension, your, housing benefit if you already have it (they just re do it every time you move) If they did not count it like that I would not have lost my benefit for DS starting work.

Maybe the law does say that if your children are still at home when you become eligible for Housing Benefit they cannot ever leave home but I can't quite see that.

My savings do go up and down all the time because no one spends every penny they have coming in that month. Some you spend more some you spend less. I just think it is odd there is not an allowance for a months spending.

I do not want to start off a new place with more money than they allow before they start counting every £1 over £10,000 as income. OMG that kind of increase would be illegal anywhere. If you go back and reapply when you have spent it they then want to know what everything was spent on. You lose out for a month anyway which then will have taken you well under having the £10,000.

We actually worked out 10% deposit on for buying a flat. I would top it up to the maximum I was allowed to give him per year without HMRC coming after him for 40% inheritance tax if I die within 7 years of giving him it. No one will pay tax on my estate there will be very little left after the bills are paid and my funeral is paid for. If I pay for my funeral now I will not have £10,000 anyway. I just thought I would be too busy to do that now.

pollyanna_26

NM I've been battling a sudden unwanted windows update which having installed shut everything down taking a long reply I was midway through on another thread off into the ether .

I've only returned to briefly to the Fence to check if karcher has posted but noticed your last post .
I confess I didn't realise that part of what you've posted was meant in a jocular fashion . Not your fault or mine just a misunderstanding as I was reading your replies and taking things seriously .

Anyhow usual Dr , shopping etc tomorrow so I'm trying to watch Vera and head to bed . Too many late nights lately .
Sleep tight all and hugs to karcher and any who need them .
polly x

Slinky

Coming out of lurkdom just to post that it makes me so sad to see people struggling with their weight and limiting their food intake to try and keep it down. Please do seriously take a look at low carb high fat eating as a possible solution. I know high fat sounds scary, we've all had it drubbed into us for years that fat is our enemy, eating fat makes us fat, we'll all die of heart attacks if we eat fat.

3 years ago I was struggling, I'd reached 10 1/2 stones; weight was creeping on at about 1lb a year which doesn't sound much but it all adds up and seemingly nothing could stop the increase. My diet was almost exclusively carbs - cereals for breakfast, toast for lunch followed by a low fat yogurt, something with spuds, pasta or rice for dinner.

Now I eat full fat Greek yogurt and fruit (usually cherries, blueberries, raspberries - frozen in winter, fresh in summer) for breakfast, or a Full English. Lunch will often be a home-made soup which will be a bit carby but that's OK. Dinner will be something like cheese omelette with 3 eggs and fried in butter, spagless bol (like spag bol only with cauliflower rice substituted for the pasta), chilli and cauli rice, the lists are endless of things I'll pair with cauli rice. Salads in the summer with meat or eggs or cheese.

If I get hungry between meals I'll have a chunk of cheese or a handful of nuts (not peanuts). Every day I eat chocolate! 74% cocoa chocolate.

All this has enabled me to drop to 9 stone 1lb. My blood pressure has dropped and is normal for the first time in about 15 years. My husband has also lost over a stone. Most interestingly this weight has gone from the stomach region which is the most dangerous place to be carrying weight.

I praise the day a friend told me to read 'Escape the Diet Trap' by Dr John Briffa. This explains how it's not eating fat that makes you fat, it's the carbs when eaten in combination with the fat. The carbs are easier to turn into immediate fuel, so the body burns the easy carbs and stores the fat for later. By not eating carbs, the body has to burn fat for energy instead. Carbs are also responsible for spiking insulin levels - why have we got a Type 2 diabetes epidemic? It's those pesky carbs. As somebody further up the thread said, LCHF helped with diabetes in their family.

Anyway, I've said my bit. For years I followed the standard way of eating we're encouraged to and it got me nowhere I wanted to be. As my friend said who recommended the book, she was encouraged to discover more about LCHF when looking at the weight of the nurse in her surgery who was recommending only eating tiny amounts of cheese etc. The advice hadn't worked for her!

Softstuff

Thanks for the encouraging post Slinky, low carb high fat is what I'm doing. It's really gratifying to see how well it's worked for you, great work! :T I'm following the Dr Mosley 8 week blood sugar plan, low carb, high fat and calorie restricted for 8 weeks, then I plan to 5/2 still with high fat low carb. The advantage to me is the lack of hunger. Curiously enough too, I was able to wave away a cake at work today, because I simply didn't want it. I don't say that to be virtuous, it was quite unsettling to me really, I don't think I've ever not wanted a cake in my life, but I was just full and didn't feel like I needed it :shocked:

Slinky

Good for you Softstuff. Don't be discouraged if no weight is lost in the first few weeks, it takes a while for the body to adjust, stick with it and it starts to come down. A tape measure is your friend - measure your waist and see what happens. I've gone from a 12/14 down to 10 in trousers