20 year old son in financial difficulty

Echo23

Hi, I'll try to keep a long story as short as I can but I'm really worried about my 20 year old son. He and his 18 year old girlfriend insisted on being independent and getting their own rented flat last summer despite my reservations that they simply couldn't afford to. My son works for Tesco but only has an 18 hour contract. He does do overtime where possible but sometimes there is no overtime at all. He roughly brings home 500-800 pounds per month. His girlfriend lost her job not long after they moved in together and hasn't managed to get another job since. The financial strain is crippling my son and I'm worried about his mental health. What I'd like to know is would they be entitled to any benefits whatsoever? Income support/ Housing Benefit/Council tax benefit. They don't know where to begin looking for help. Any advice would be most welcome. Thank you.

CakeCrusader

Hi.



The best place to start is here; https://www.entitledto.co.uk/ He needs to fill in his details and it will let him know what he's entitled to claim at the end. If he needs help with any forms then the CAB is his best bet.



Best of luck to you and your son, his girlfriend could do with checking her benefit entitlement too.

tacpot12

I'm made some guesses based on the information you have supplied and used the free Benefits calculator at https://www.entitledto.co.uk. This suggests that they should be able to get about £500 of benefits. This is made up of Universal Credit (roughly £490 pcm), which his girlfriend should be claiming, and Council Tax Support (about £38 pcm).

John_G_Jones

On top of checking the benefits it’d be a good idea for your sone to work to get a full-time contract and then to progress in the company. His girlfriend needs to work out what she is doing wrong, as being able to get no job at all at her age is really not normal.

Echo23

Thank you so much for your help, can I ask do they need to apply online or visit their local jobcentre?

pmlindyloo

Echo23 wrote: »

Thank you so much for your help, can I ask do they need to apply online or visit their local jobcentre?

They apply online.

https://www.gov.uk/universal-credit/how-to-claim

[Deleted User]

They could also try and get an appointment with CAB or welfare rights for advice

calcotti

tacpot12 wrote: »

I'm made some guesses based on the information you have supplied and used the free Benefits calculator at https://www.entitledto.co.uk. This suggests that they should be able to get about £500 of benefits. This is made up of Universal Credit (roughly £490 pcm), which his girlfriend should be claiming, and Council Tax Support (about £38 pcm).

For UC they both have to claim not just the girlfriend. Both claim individually and the claims are linked so that the entitlement is then worked out as a couple.

They both apply online. During the process the first claimant gets a linking code which the second claimant uses to join the claims. After claiming online they each have to make appointments to attend the JobCentre.