housing & council tax benefit help wanted please.........

nomoneyprobs

Hi, I'm a lurker and reader on most boards and everyones really helpful :T and I could really do with some advice from those in the know please, my story goes something like this.......

... I suffer with reactive arthritis, it comes and goes every few years, it flared up in september last year and is still giving me trouble now I'm a car mechanic and this obviously makes doing my job difficult, I went off sick in september and was awarded Income support ( they said I wasn't entitled to Incapacity Benefit ) I was also awarded full housing and council tax benefit.

My G.f works p.t and she has 1 child ( under 16 )

In december I was checking paperwork and noticed an old p60 had been filled in wrong and When I spoke with my tax office they ammened the records which inturn meant I qualified for I.B, great I thought, thats £20 a week extra and it helped greatly towards xmas, In january I was told from my council that the I.s had stopped and I had to reapply for c.t & h.b, I did that but now they are saying that I'm not entitled to any housing benefit and only £2 a week c.t.

so this leaves me with over £500 arrears in rent and £300 c.t :eek:

my income p.week is -

£88.00 o.h wages
£53.00 w.t.c
£44.00 c.t.c
£61.35 I.b
£18.10 c.b

does this seem like to much to claim any housing benefit? It just seems unfair that the total incomes only gone up by £20 p.wk but we're £60 p.wk worse off since getting I.b

any thoughts or words of wisdom will be appreciated because it's not looking good at the moment:o

stefejb

let www.entitledto.com do the number crunching for you - if you are entitled to anything it will direct you to how to apply
HTH

nomoneyprobs

Thanks I've been on there and it doesn't really make much sense to me...

dmg24

The above figures give you a tax free income of £265 per week, which is a lot more than some people in full time employment get. Your entitlement to HB would depend on the level of your rent.

What problem did you have with entitledto.co.uk? x

nomoneyprobs

The figures at the end made no sence to me, It said that I would be entitled to £25 per week h.b but that was only based on the w.t.c and the c.t.c, not the full amount... Now i've seen your post It makes sence that Our combined income is quite high, I'll check with the council tomorrow but I fear that they're right.

dmg24

Could I ask how much your rent is?

nomoneyprobs

Hi dmg24, thanks for your replies, I've spoke to the council today and we're not entitled to any h.b, but we do get a small amount of c.t.b, But as if by magic a miracles happened and w.f.t.c have written to us saying they've been notified of my change in benefit and that i'm now not working ..... I had already told them I'd stopped working in october but It hadn't been changed apparently:mad: so they've changed my estimated income for the year based on me now not working and we've had a top up of money from them :j :j It won't pay everything we owe the council but it'll make good inroads into it careful budgeting from now on will see us repaying what we owe and keeping on the right track money wise:D