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WTC Question About Self Employment

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I work 10 hours at the moment, I used to work longer hours but had to do less hours at work due to rehabilitation from a car crash.

Now I'm back to my old self- work cannot give me any hours; I just wondered, if I started my own business, just repairing PC's nothing major, could I claim WTCs? As in work 10 hours and make the six hours up on self employment?

Do I have to earn over a certain amount? Or could I work for less than the minimum wage?

Just wondering really, thanks.

Can I pay council tax automatically off my JSA ?

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I'm just wondering if it is possible to have my council tax payments automatically taken off my JSA? I know this can be done with rent arrears and council tax arrears but what about my normal council tax payments?

Parents forcing me to move out...

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Its exciting and daunting, but its about time.

Currently I work casually (under a zero hour contract) and I have busy and quiet periods. My average income taken from a year comes to £400 a month. I am currently looking for extra jobs in my current organisation as well as possibly finding menial full time work and working my casual job on weekends.

My question is what kind of benefits would I qualify for and how would I go about it? Since I'm currently living at home but my parents are saying I have to be out in a matter of weeks.

I'm doing research on accommodation. If possible I imagine a council flat would be ideal due to the decreased rent (but I don't know much about that), I guess I'll have to find private accommodation for now while I apply to a waiting list? What if I want to move to a different borough?

If I apply for housing benefit while I search for better employment, will I have to find a place to live and cover the first amount of rent before applying?

I took the benefits advisor test and it says I might be entitled to income support too.

The other factor is my mental health. I have Bipolar II disorder making life really difficult month to month and sometimes day to day. I have a psychiatrist and therapist who could testify to my partial disability. I don't think it would necessarily prevent me from working full time but it could be very stressful and theres no way to know if I'd be able to keep it up, I guess I'd have to ask an advisor about that? I've had a couple of work incidents related to it already, one of which almost got me fired, but I let them know the explanation as I never declared my illness (didn't want to cast doubt in my abilities or be assigned less work).

Thanks for any help!

Alex

Advise about income support or esa please

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Hi, im after some advise please, i am about to give up work to care for my partner full time, i already receive carer's allowance for her, and she receives higher rate mobility and middle rate care.
Her esa stopped just after christmas as she had had the 365 days. We have been told by two different people that 1. i should claim income support or 2. my partner should claim income related esa.

Does anybody know which one we should claim?

Thank you in advance for any advise you could give me.

Dj

Child tax credit quickie????

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Does child tax credit change with earnings also? Or is it like child benefit and stay the same??? Hubby looking at changing job wages a few thousand more using the tax credits calculator the amounts tool the same... We don't get working tax credit....

can anyone help

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can i claim for washing my uniform i wear for work.

Muttleythefrog

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i know this isn't benefit advice per se but he helped a lot of people on this board.

He hasn't posted for weeks now, i hope he is OK.

Anyone know?

Can I claim tax credits with three jobs?

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Hi, I currently have three jobs. None are full time, one I work for the college and its a 30 hour contract term time only, which means I get paid pro rata. The other two are relief jobs, one being a zero hour contract. I don't get much work from the latter two. So can I still claim tax credits on the first job and how will it work out as I don't work 30 hours every week. It's just so confusing! Thanks, Paul

Child tax credits help

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I have just come out of a long term relationship and am totally confused as to what tax credits I am entitled to.

I am still in my own home and have 2 young children. I earn 14k a year working less than 30 hrs. My 4 year old has his 15 hours free at nursery, my 2 year old I pay £100 a week for 3 days. He is 3 in June and will then get his 15 hours free.

I don't have any savings.

When I did the benefit checker it was stating I was looking at approx 150 a week but having spoken with tax credits they are suggesting no where near this amount. I don't understand the big difference.

Can anyone offer any advice as to what I should be entitled to if anything?

Pension Credit & Universal Credit

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hi people,

I hope I am at the right place if not please let me know.

I have many questions and thoughts going on in my head at the moment so I will just stick to the first two if that is alright with you at the moment.
Mum has eventually asked me to get involved in their financial life. Dad is so proud, that he would never think of asking anyone for help, even me, saying that he can handle anything that the government throw at him.
Well he can't, he is confused and has given up, hence why mum got in touch with me.

Basically all of their problems relate to benefits for the older person and central to that is Pension Credit.

OK a bit of history. Dad is 63 & mum is 69. Dad claims ESA & DLA whilst mum claims the State Pension and AA.

Dad is in the Support Group of ESA and gets high mobility and middle care of DLA. Mum gets high AA.

I know mum has claimed Carers Allowance for dad but doesn't get paid anything as it is for less than her State Pension, so she has an underlying entitlement. Dad is refusing to claim Carers Allowance for mum as he says that he will be worse off if he does.

Having looked at the Pension Credit amounts, it seems that they should get the basic couple rate and the couple rate of disability premium, plus mum would get the carers premium. All in all that would give them a guaranteed income of £366.90 a week.

Dad has said that if he claimed for mum he would lose a half of the disability premium - £58.20, but gain the carers premium of £32.60. This would give them a guaranteed income of £341.30 a week. Is that right and if so why? They live with each other and nothing changes except they would lose £25.60 because dad says that he cares for mum which he does.

To me if this is right it sometimes doesn't pay for husband and wife to claim for each other as they lose out financially.


The second thing is all to do with Universal Credit. When is the best time for them to put a claim for Pension Credit in? I hear that it is coming in in April but rolled out nationally in October. Now dad won't be 65 until June 2014.

Do they claim it now before the new rules of one party not being of pension age and the other is and having to claim UC instead, or should they put off claiming it until after October when UC rules apply. I am thinking of what would be the best financial advice.

If they claimed Pension Credit now, they would, if my calculations are right and turn2us is right, with dad not claiming carers allowance for mum they would get an extra £58 a week, if dad did claim carers allowance for mum that would go down to £32 a week.

Now I don't know what they would get under UC if they waited until October to make a claim. Are there any calculators around that could help?

Thanks for reading

Helen.

DLA review

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Hi, finally got awarded DLA last June after appealing, i am on middle rate care and lower rate mobility. I had a bad fall in August and have ended up in more pain and with more trouble walking, really feel I deserve the higher rate mobility.

I'm reluctant to ask for a review because of the battle I had last time, is it common to lose your entitlement if asking for a review?

Many thanks in advance.

DWP payment code ?

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Hi I have just had a payment from the DWP & the payment code is CSHR Does anyone know what this payment is ?

Thanks in advance
Little miss

Housing benefit declined

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Hey,

I recently applied for housing benefit after a colleague of mine told me about it. I used the Turn2us.co.uk checker and it all seemed to be pointing in the direction of me being entitled to something.

I work full time as a bar tender on minimum wage, share a flat with a friend renting from a private landlord where I pay £375 and my flatmate pays £350.

I received the reply from the council today and the first page says "Weekly housing benefit £0" so I'm assuming I'm not getting anything.

Asked my friend in work who is in the same situation except he works only 30 hours/week as opposed to my 39 and he pays a bit less rent. He gets £100+/week from the council in housing benefit/working tax credits...

Basically I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with this, on the council websites it says housing benefit is to support people on a "low income"...is full time minimum wage not low?

Thanks for any help
Andrew

There is No 'Support' in ESA!

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My mum suffers the hell which is CRPS 24 hours a day,7 days a week,and must accept she will never be cured.
CRPS scores higher than amputation on the Mac Gills pain chart, scores higher than cancer+childbirth. The difference being,you wil recover from amputation,carncer and childbirth,CRPS pain is constant.
My mum was diagnosed three years ago, was caused after a botch-job operation to fix her shattered wrist.With CRPS, you must be diagnosed within the first three months to benefit and prevent this awfull beast from taking over your body.My mum wasnt diagnosed for six months,the doctors there were clueless.
Up untill the day of her fall, my mother has raised all three kids single handed, as well as having full time employment as an auxiliary nurse.
After the diagnostic of the beast CRPS, my mum was resieving ESA max payments.Months later she had her benefit dramaticly reduced, then dicided to appeal, and won. Just a couple of months after the same thing again,so she dicided to appeal again, and has recently been informed that she's no longer intiteld and should sign on job seekers if she cant go to work.
Just to get out of bed in the morning is a battle in itself,then theres all the pills, then the battle of seeing the day through when all the time,she is on fire,like acid running through her vains. My mother has no use of her hand/arm,and will never regain its use.Her CRPS is now spreding to her other arm,and will continue, untill its striped her of everything. She's always been a strong independent hard-working woman. Now, she has to relay on her husband(who's been forced to take early retirement to care for her) to help her dress, help her shower, even to open a jar of jam.
Yet according to the benefits agency, my mum is 'fit-for-work' so will not be given any help whatsoever. Im disgusted, my heart bleed's for her, she would love to have her independance back and be back at work. But instead she must accept that her life as she new it is gone, for good, and theres nothing she can do to change it. Instead, she wakes(if she was able to sleep at-all) and must plan how she's going to make it through to the end of that day. Its not fare, I want my mum to be given her life back, she doesnt deserve this, she is unable to lift and hold my 16 month old daughter,with her heart screaming to be able to hold her.
ESA is a joke, its taking from the ill health people, and given hassle free to the addict's that are waiting, palm open ,who have and continued to avoid employment,whom just need to feed that self-inflicted habit. How is that rite? Where's the sence in any of it?
More than this, the thing that fills me with rage more than this stupid system, and all the scrounging fraudsters who get an easy ride, is the treatment my mother resieved in her ESA appeal. Its not enough for these people that she's been striped of her life, her indipendance, her dignity. She them has to stand there being questioned about the little she 'is' able to do, how she copes with going to the bathroom, and how and in which way she manages to put her bra and bottoms on each day. Come on, why not just finish her off my laughing in her face then pointing to the door. Surely this shouldnt be acceptible, its an outrage, its cruel, its wrong. I cant stop my tier's and this shaking everytime I think of the dispicable way my mum has been treated. I doubt anyone of those people at the appeal had even bothered to find out about CRPS, They have no idea, you wouldnt wish it on your worst enamy.
How dare they,,How dare they!

Child benefit Allowance

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Sorry if I sound a bit daft, but on my pay slip I have two pay bands on my earnings, the first one is gross earnings, which is £45,xxx (A), then I have a figure below that (B) of which is an amount of what i pay extra into shares/AVC/pension, then below that I have a figure which says taxable pay(C), which is (A) - (B). £42,xxx. Going on what I understand about the system, I believe that I would be under the £50,000 threshold come my final wage for this tax year (C), even with a bonus included. Can someone confirm which amount the threshold is based on, as this has been an extraordinary year due to severe manning issues and overtime accrued due to this.
Also, as I will be no where near the threshold the following year, if I were to lose some child benefit this year, can I then claim the full entitlement for the following year? Or is it a case of once you lose some (or all for some people) you can never go back to full entitlement?

Fraud investigation-Tax credits

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Hi, I hope this is the correct place to post. I will try to explain as easy as possible.
In June 2011 I finished my term time only job as I was pregnant, I had not been working long enough to claim any sort of maternity pay/allowance so it was agreed with my employer that my husband would cover my maternity leave. This happened from September 2011 to September 2012 when I returned to work.
We switched working tax credit over to his name within the time frame etc and everything was fine. But, our employer had failed to change any of theor details over and still had me on their payroll. So all pay slips were in my name and payments are paid to a joint account.

Fast forward to yesterday and we receive a letter from DWP saying my husband was being investigated for benefit fraud. I called them and they were unable to give me or my husband any information over the phone and said we would have to wait for the interview on March 1st.

How are we supposed to prove that he didninface work for 12 months and didn't just claim working tax? The guy we worked with has said he will sign a statement saying my husband worked and I know some of our clients will do the same. I have contact our employer to ask for something in writing to say he did work but have had no reply and in all honesty I don't think they will do it as then they may get into trouble?

We are very very worried, very scared and have no idea what to do.

jsa change over

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Hi I am currently on contribution based jobseekers allowance. I sent off the form to change over to income based jobseekers allowance/ Although I have not received written confirmation I have phoned twice and have been told that it will change over to income based jobseekers allowance. This morning I have received a letter to say that my contribution based jobseekers allowance runs out in 10 days time but no knowledge of me changing to income based. Should I ring again on monday to check they received my form or leave it till I next sign on? I'm due to next sign on March 5th. My contribution based jobseekers allowance finishes on 2nd March.

E.S.A. letter ambiguous, anyone know anything?

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Hello,
I recently claimed for E.S.A.due to disabilty, received a letter this morning saying, "Your benefit is changing to Employment ansd Support Allowance" it doesn't mention whether I've been accepted on not, until half way down the page, when it says,"you have been placed in the support group". Now, I may be being very thick here, but this has confused me...Is this the award letter or not? I've had various benefits letters before and they usually make it clear at the beginning of the letter.
What makes me think that this isn't an award letter is that I haven't been assessed, just sent in the form and a rubbish letter from my G.P.(two lines) and a vague letter from my counsellor (Who doesn't work For the N.H.S.)...I had expected problems and that I'd have to appeal...has anyone else had a similar letter? What do you think?

Don't Understand Letter...very very stressed out

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I got a letter today from the DWP...why do these letters have to come on a saturday when I can't get in touch with anyone about it...I have fibromyalgia, Underactive Thyroid, possible bipolar/mood swings (as my doctor calls it)...so I am very very stressed and it's making me want to end everything...

The letter says Your Claim for ESA changes in Social Security Benefits

From 8th April 2013 the rates of Social Security benefits will change.

We cannot pay you ESA from 26th April 2013.

This is because you have reached the maximum of 365 days that you can get contribution-based ESA.

Then it goes on to say how they worked out my money and have included a sheet at the back with living expenses and stuff...I'm really confused. I have not even been sent any forms to fill in or anything.

I was told by the lady at my last job centre meeting that I would get more forms to fill in and it would go on from there...this is causing me so much stress it's making me feel ill and I have had a bad few months with my health too that I nearly ended it before. If they are allowed to stop my ESA just like that what is the point of anything! I'm not claiming anything else...just ESA. I could be entitled to more but I've always been too scared to find out. The CAB helped a great deal last time but they are difficult to get hold of...it's bad enough being ill all the time that I can't even live a normal life let alone the only monies i have to make that possible are going to be taken away...

single parent want te return to university

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Hi all,
I'm newly single and newly unemployed. I've never claimed any benefits as I've always worked so I haven't a clue about them. I would like to return to university to retrain in September.
Does anyone know what if any benefits I can claim as a full time student, single mum, with a mortgage?
I'll be claiming student finance aswell i.e. tuition fee loan (£9000 p/y), maintenance loan (£3823 p/y), special circumstances grant (£3354 p/y), childcare grant (85% of costs), parents learning allowance (£1000 p/y).
Thanks in advance
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