Benefits !!!! up - Someone please help!!

Lisadp1970

Hi

I hope someone can help, as the halfwits at the jobcentre don't seem to know what they're doing regarding our benefits!

We have 2 young children and my husband lost his job 31st Jan this year.
We started claiming benefits on 14th Feb, which was £92.80 per week, made up of contribution based and income based.
We were told that our kids weren't part of the claim as we recieve £30 a week child benefit for them (WOW!) and that we could make up our benefits with Tax Credits, which we have only just got sorted out.

For some reason they have dropped it down to £62 a week even though in our letter when first claiming it clearly states the law says the minimum a couple can live on is £92.80.

My husband just phoned them and they first tried to claim it's because we've now got income coming from somewhere of £31.40, which we haven't, so they then try to claim that it's been reduced because we get Child Benefit!!!!!
!!!!!! - that puny amount is supposed to feed and clothe my kids!:mad:

To cap it all they are going on strike tomorrow so can't say when this mess will be sorted out, so please please please if there is someone out there that actually has any idea what has gone wrong, can you let me know?

Thanks for any advice
Lisa

alwaysonthego_2

Go to your local cab bwho will be able to speak to them on your behalf. You can claim a hardship payment from the dwp but if you are found not to be entitled to it you will have to repay it.

dmg24

Welcome to MSE Lisa!

Do you have any savings, as this would affect your claim?

lil_me

CB is classed as income and deducted from IS/Income based JSA isn't it? Well it has been on the cases I helped with a while ago

Lisadp1970

lil_me wrote: »

CB is classed as income and deducted from IS/Income based JSA isn't it? Well it has been on the cases I helped with a while ago

ON the original entitlement letter it says that £92.80 PW is what the law states a couple have to live on and is broken down to

Adults 2 £92.80
Children 0 £0

They are not taken the CB into account here as far as I know. Also why would they change it after we have been claiming JSA for a few weeks now?

Lisadp1970

dmg24 wrote: »

Welcome to MSE Lisa!

Do you have any savings, as this would affect your claim?

We don't have a penny in savings.

Our JSA is made up of £59 contribution based and the rest is made up of income based JSA.
I've been a stay at home mum for 4+ years now, so nothing has changed on my behalf and my Husband is still out of work.

We did receive a letter on 27th Feb informing us that from 4th April our rate will change to £62 per week as there will be a change to our income, but we thought that that was referring to a rise in the contribution side of the payment and wasn't expecting it to drop, I mean how the hell are 2 adults supposed to run a house and feed themselves on £62 a week!!!!

We have been claiming since 14th Feb and there has been no change to our income at all, I'm not working and neither is my husband.

It seems like the system is so messed up and confusing, nobody knows what's what!

kelloggs36

Child Benefit is deducted from Income Support as you would be getting too much. Your benefit should be £92.80 less £18.80 for child 1 and £12.40 for child 2 and more. What is left is your actual entitlement for Income Support. The deductions are correct. It is more noticable now than before because the child element is paid via tax credits instead of in your income support.

real1314

Erm, isn't CHB ignored if the claim is for the adults only? with CTC being the route, along with CHB for the child element.

They shuld just get the £92 I think?

OP you need to ask them how it's been assessed, although this should be explained in the letter. Do you get any Working Tax Credit at all?
Can you put up details of all your income?

jul22

Real1314 is correct. ChB and CTC are disregarded for IS and JSA as children are no longer paid for on new IS and JSA claims. Therefore, it might be an idea if you phone up and get an answer to why they are deducting this money from you and then hopefully get the arrears paid back to you.

Lisadp1970

jul22 wrote: »

Real1314 is correct. ChB and CTC are disregarded for IS and JSA as children are no longer paid for on new IS and JSA claims. Therefore, it might be an idea if you phone up and get an answer to why they are deducting this money from you and then hopefully get the arrears paid back to you.

We phoned them today and it sparked a major argument at the JSA processing place, they don't know what is going on either. They have emailed the processing department for an answer. The reason that we posted on here is because they (JSA processing) are all on strike tomorrow.
They reckon that we are getting £31.40 pw additional income from somewhere but they cannot tell us where. They keep mentioning child benefit but as we argued with them that benefit is to clothe and feed the children not feed the adults and pay the bills so we wait for an answer on Friday but are not holding our breath.

lil_me

Ah so on the newer cases where it's CTC paying the children's amounts it doesn't deduct from IS entitlements? I haven't dealt with anything IS with the CTC paid for the children so was unaware of that.

If it was £31.20 then it would have appeared the deduction was for CHB but appears it isn't as it's £31.40 they are deducting. Unless this is because there was no CTC being paid (OP mentioned it's only just been sorted) so was seen as other income? Only thing I can think of.