Housing benefit refused...

p1ngu

I worked out our benefit entitlements recently on entitled to as my partner has just started a new job. The entitled to calculator says almost half of our rent should be covered so I applied through my local council.

They got back to me today saying no. I'm not sure why this would be? Do some local authorities only take into consideration 2 children in regards to their living costs? We claimed in the past and this was not the case then. If it is then I don't understand why the lady who filled the form in with me didn't mention this when she asked how many dependants and I said 5.

Should I ask them to look at it again?

Housing_Benefit_Officer

New claimants can still receive a child addition for more than 2 children if the children were born before 6 April 2017 and you have a Child Tax Credit (CTC) notice to show your local authority.

They will only include 2 children until they have the child tax credit notification.

p1ngu

They have seen all info of wages, tax credits etc. They also had me listed as receiving carers allowance but I am not in receipt of that. I don't totally understand their calculations - disregarded income etc.

Housing_Benefit_Officer

p1ngu wrote: »

They have seen all info of wages, tax credits etc. They also had me listed as receiving carers allowance but I am not in receipt of that. I don't totally understand their calculations - disregarded income etc.

Do you have underlying entitlement to carers allowance (i.e. entitled but income too high to qualify).

Can you type out what their notification says re applicable amount, premiums etc...

p1ngu

FINANCIAL DETAILS
Your weekly earned income £0
Partners weekly earned income £268.22
Any other income £499.87
TOTAL WEEKLY INCOME £768.09
Disregarded income £148.76
Less expenses £0

INCOME USED IN CALCULATION £619.34


The amount you need to live on;

Couple £114.85
Young person 15 yrs £66.90
Young person 12 to 14 yrs £66.90
Child under 11 yrs x 3 £0
Carer premium £34.95

TOTAL APPLICABLE INCOME £283.60

These are not all correct. I could PM our income and details if that would help?

They did include living expenses of the younger 3 children on the council tax reduction but again we were awarded £0. Online calculators say almost all should be paid. Very confusing.

Thanks.

p1ngu

More info...

I am a stay at home mum so no earned income and no childcare costs.
Partner works 30+ hours a week. £268pw.
I receive £260.10 child tax credit pw & £55.42 working tax credit pw.
Child maintenance at £46.15pw (I thought this wasn't taken into consideration).
Child benefit £75.50pw.

I don't receive carers allowance but I used to. It stopped in January. Maybe they found this info off an old claim in their system?

[Deleted User]

You have over £700 a week of income (£36k a year) - wouldn't the benefit cap come into play here?

p1ngu

I have no idea, hence why I asked here. All calculators say we are entitled to help.

IAmWales

camelot1971 wrote: »

You have over £700 a week of income (£36k a year) - wouldn't the benefit cap come into play here?

Sadly not because one of them works. The system confuses me very much, there are people having to survive on £70 a week, and others receiving ten times that and still expecting more.

pingu do you need more money? If you need help with budgeting the Debt free board is very helpful.

TELLIT01

If you believe the figures used by the council are incorrect you need to call them to clarify.

p1ngu

If we are entitled to help then we will take it. I'm not on here to discuss people living off £70pw etc. I would work too if it would be worthwhile but unfortunately it would make us worse off and the stress of childcare would to a pain.

Yes our income sounds a lot but when they take into account the amount of money the law states we need to live on it doesn't leave a huge amount. It only really leaves enough to cover rent and council tax. So are we expected to have a hard working parent who gets a rubbish wage to never have any spare money for other things besides necessities?

We got help with our rent in the past with a similar income so that's why I was confused, plus the fact that most online calculators say we are entitled to it.

Yes we chose to have 5 children and that's expensive. We were financially better off in the past and unfortunately my partner had to change his job to a different one that doesn't pay well but a job is better than no job right?