What can I claim?

marcarm

My housing benefit claim is being reviewed due to my eldest turning 18 and losing CB for him, so have sent all the docs they require. The advisor then stated that:

As we still have your earned income included on your claim, this is what we have been paying you Housing Benefit based on, as although I can see that you did tell us of your change in circumstances in October unfortunately, this was not followed up.



When I now remove your earned income, we would only have Child Tax Credit as your income and this is not deemed enough for you to live on. We also cannot pay Housing Benefit based on just Child Tax Credit for a long time, only temporarily whilst waiting for a benefit to be assessed or a job to start. We would therefore expect to see a DWP benefit in payment to you in due course.

I was made redundant at the end of August, working part-time.

Using entitledto, that states I am not eligible for IS, but using Turn2us it states that I am. I also applied for IS in July when I separated from my wife and she moved out.

I have a 5 year old and a 2 year old, both of which live with me and I claim CB for. I have a 19 year old who is working who also lives with me, and I stopped receiving CB for him in September.

So if I am not eligible for IS, which DWP benefit can I claim? My job options are very limited due to childcare etc, but should I be claiming JSA and limiting the hours I can work? Or anything else?

I'm getting different information from different places so not sure where to turn.

I could go to the CAB but I am recovering from a broken leg so getting places is not easy at the moment.

Thank you

pmlindyloo

What happened to your IS claim?

Did they refuse the claim? If so, why?

pmlindyloo

OK, so just reread your post and it seems that you were still working when you put in your claim for Income Support which is why you were not entitled.

Now that you are no longer working you should be able to claim Income Support as a single parent as long as you meet the means tested criteria - savings under £16000 - any savings over £6000 are deducted £ for £ for every £250 over the £6000.

Have you notified tax credits about your change of circumstances?

TELLIT01

If you are a single parent of a child under the age of 5 you can claim Income Support.

marcarm

Thank you, tax credits were told when I stopped working, and they adjusted my claim and my HB was adjusted so thought that was that.

It wasn't adjusted by much but did not realise I could claim anything else. I will do a phone claim tomorrow and see if they will backdate it. I just assumed that as they turned it down before that was that.

Not claimed benefits for a long time so not sure of the process, I know that is no excuse but as long as I can claim going forward that will be good