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pensioner & housing benefit

August 19, 2018, 7:27 am
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At the moment someone on full state pension (c£633 per 4 weeks) can also receive housing benefit towards rent on top of that (here about £90 a week).
However I have read that housing benefit is being abolished, and combined within universal credit. However isn't universal credit a working-age benefit, so what of the person of pension age?
If the 'allowed income' for one person under universal credit (c£80/week) were applied to them, then wouldn't nearly half of the pension have to go to rent?
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Working Tax Credit - Hours allowed for self employment

August 20, 2018, 1:29 am
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Hi,

I am just checking I have this right.

I will be trying to increase my hours from 16 to 30 hours when my last child leaves home.

Part of the week I work self employed as a house cleaner. My question is can I count the time travelling between two customers? On a Friday I spent about 40 minutes travelling from one client to the next.

When I was trying to work out where I could increase my hours, it would increase my travel time by about 2 hours between customers. I was checking here:
https://revenuebenefits.org.uk/tax-credits/guidance/how-do-tax-credits-work/self-employed/
Under Calculating Working Hours
"travelling for the purposes of the business, but not from home to their business premises"

I would feel better if I could find this information on HMRC or gov.uk

Thank you in advance.
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Benefits carry on period

August 20, 2018, 3:26 am
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If a DLA claim comes to an end, then will carers allowance suddenly come to an end as well. Or is there a carry on period for a shorime?

What about housing benefit, does that carry on for a little bit? I think there used to be the case
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ESA contribution based length

August 20, 2018, 5:05 am
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Hi
I know there is a limit of 365 days if in wrag.
However if you have been in conts based support group since the end of assessment rate, but then have a new assessment and placed in wrag, would you still have 52 weeks paid on wrag or would it be less the 13 weeks you spent on initial assessment rate, or because youve already had over a year in support group does it stop the minute you are moved to wrag?
Hope thats makes sense
Thanks
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Universal credit advice

August 20, 2018, 5:05 am
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Hello, wondering if anyone can provide me with some advice.
My wife was made redundant while pregnant a few months ago and she was paid her maternity in a lump sum. We were advised to make a claim for universal credit as it’s in our area now. When applying we have to declare how much savings we have.
I wondered if the maternity lump sum has to be counted as savings when applying, we have it in an account beside out savings account and take out how much we need to get through the month.
Tried contacting both the UC helpline and citizens advice, who couldn’t help us...
Any advice is much appreciated
Many thanks
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Maternity Allowand and Universal Credit advice

August 20, 2018, 5:36 am
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Hi

I am 4 months pregnant and was working as a primary teacher at a school for 2 years. My current contract is due to end on 31st of August. I have been given 1-year fixed term contracts since I started working at the school. When they found out I was pregnant they did not renew my contract.

Based on benefits calculators I am entitled to Maternity allowance, however, I would not be able to claim maternity allowance until the end of October. I did not want to apply until the end of December as then it would cover me until end of August 2019 and I would hopefully have found a job for September 19.

Would I be able to do that?

Also I have been told that I have to claim universal credit as I live in a universal credit area. will that affect my claim for maternity allowance?

I was planning on doing some supply work for a teaching agency but I can be slow and is not guaranteed work. But I am also worried it will affect my claim for Maternity Allowance. Will it be seen as a new job? If I am not working for 13 weeks I will not be able to claim MA. Is this correct? If I claim jobseekers if I cannot get permanent employment will that also affect my MA claim?

If anyone can help me it would be much appreciated. I haven't claimed any benefits for years and it all seems to have changed. I can't get through to CAB or any helplines to ask all of these questions.

Thanks in advance.
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housing benefit non dependent and Dla,

August 20, 2018, 5:46 am
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my wife claims disability living allowance and if my son (non dependent moves in whom is working) will it affect our housing benefit if my wife gets mobility component (lower rate) and Care component (lower rate), ive looked online and although on certain sites it says it wouldn't affect the housing benefit because she gets the care component, when i asked the council by phone they said it has to be the middle or high rate so does anyone one know who is wrong and who is right?
thankyou
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Compliance interview dwp

August 20, 2018, 6:53 am
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Hope someone can help. Was called in for a compliance interview after a malicious call saying I was working and had substantial savings. I showed them my bank statements which showed I had 7800.. I'm on esa and was told by the interviewee that over 6000-16000 they reduce it, and a week later my esa was reduced £20. I'm not working but she asked for further backdated statements, which I supplied and they lost them so had to supply them yet again in March. These were logged. However I am still waiting for them to tell me how much overpayment there has been and what happens next. All they tell me is that they're still going through paperwork. .in August! I don't understand what's taking so long when they've had the relevant bank statements since early March. It's just extra stress I don't need atm as I'm long term ill :(
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Universal Credit - Can it be a good thing?

August 20, 2018, 7:40 am
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Bit of a back story first....

We are a family of 4... 2 adults (married, either side of 40) , 2 kids age 5 & 9... no-one has disabilities. I have a steady and secure full time job which is about 17k/year, my wife doesn't work but is thinking about getting back into it now that the kids are getting older. We are currently on HB, CTC, & WTC.

Our area will take new UC claims next month so i have done several calculations and realised we'd be about £150 better off per month under UC which is a significant amount for us.

There's been so much doom and gloom about UC and i fully understand that there have been problems. I've seen stories about people being worse off but i wonder if there's more to their situation than they make out.

I'm great with budgeting and i have a spreadsheet for our finances because my wage and our benefits all come in at different times of the month. I think a lot of problems are caused by the 5 week wait for the first UC payment but surely if you budget correctly, this shouldn't be a problem?

So our two options are that we can either stay as we are under the old benefit system and eventually migrate to UC in a couple of years or take the plunge and switch to UC now and have more income. Another advantage of UC is that we'd keep more of any extra money we earn such as my wife starting work or me doing overtime.

So do you think we should go for it or not?

Please don't bother with comments such as "Don't trust the government" or "they'll just screw you over" because i've heard it all before.
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Severe Disability premium

August 20, 2018, 8:52 am
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Hello.

This is to help my mother. She is an older woman who has mental and physical problems.
She currently gets ESA Support Group, higher PIP mobility rate and higher PIP daily living component.
It is my understanding that she should be applicable for the Severe Disability Premium(SDP). No one gets carers allowance for her.

The complication here is her living situation. SDP requires a person to live alone, unless the other person also receives a qualifying benefit. My mother lives in a house with another person, her ex-partner. They haven't been together for five or more years as partners. The only reason she is still there is because her mental health problems include agoraphobia and very severe social phobia, she literally had nowhere else to go and as yet the local council housing lot haven't even put her on the housing list in the lowest banding (despite letters from her ex-partner saying he wants to kick her out). She pays board, and would pay towards rent too if it is necessary (although that would make me concerned the housing body would have another reason to declare her "adequately housed"). The feller in question has wanted her out of the house for years and she lives there under sufferance, a seperate bedroom, buys her own food and pays towards bills.

So my question is, does this count as having non-dependants over the age 18 living with her, even in the situation I have described?
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PIP Tribunal Date

August 20, 2018, 11:22 am
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Hiya this is my first post so please bear with me

I Had a Pip Tribunal Date come through and had a hospital oppintment which I had waited a long time for and was unable to attend the hearing, so I wrote in and requested another date and gave dates that I am unable to make, I go away for 2 weeks at the beginning of October to Greece, Here’s the problem I arrive back into England the day before the hearing. I have epilepsy and I am appealing the daily living as I only get standard rate atm but I was awarded enhanced the previous 3 years but my epilepsy has gotten worse, my partner is a full time carer and we also have 3 children who we like to take on a holiday to treat them as it’s not always easy for them having a parent with epilepsy, my mum and Dad are also coming out to ensure we are all safe and to help out with my seizures, I know I will have a tan and I’m worried it’s going to be judged the wrong way in the hearing!

Has anyone else been in a similar situation or have any advise for me, I don’t want to spoil the children’s holiday, Thanks Ting
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Childcare voucher help

August 21, 2018, 3:41 am
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New to the forum so apologies if this has been asked. My husband has moved to a tiny company who refuse to provide childcare vouchers. I have been a member of my scheme for many years. Is there any way of getting tax relief on childcare costs from his income too? I've scoured all the websites, comparison calculators etc but can't find the answer. It looks like we can't have me in my firm's voucher scheme and him in the government scheme. Is that correct? It seems unfair if that is the case! Thanks in advance.
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We've made a decision about your overpayment

August 21, 2018, 4:07 am
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Hi guys

After some advice. Over the last 18 months we've been overpaid tax credits by £6200. We didn't realise at the time that we were being over paid.

A year ago at the end of March I got a new job having previously been unemployed. I rang tax credits and informed them of my new wage for the year.

We then renewed in July and again I am certain I informed them of my wage and new job.


We then had to contact them about something to do with child tax credits as one of our kids has gone into 6th form. They then said we may be due more money

Instead a few weeks letter we had a letter saying we'd been overpaid the money. Had no idea.

I contacted them and they sent out a form to fill out and send back and mentioned that they could listen to recordings.


Anyway, while we were on holiday a couple of weeks ago we received a letter "We've made a decision about your overpayment"

And they have said the decision is correct and we have to pay the overpayment back. We can find every form we've had except confirmation on tax credits from last year.

They haven't confirmed they have listened to calls and they haven't said anything other than we should have told them (Which I believe we did).


Can anyone advise on what our next steps should be?

Should I start the ball rolling with paying back a minimal amount until a final decision is made...... OR is this THE final decision?


I believe that I did give them correct information.


What should I do next?


Thanks in advance.

Jamie
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Childcare Vouchers For Those On or Close to Minimum Wage

August 21, 2018, 4:33 am
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Hi,


I have a dilemma which I think is crazy given the whole principle of the childcare vouchers scheme.


My partner is working where she has a few salary sacrifice schemes coming off, i.e. pension, saving schemes, etc.


However, we recently applied for childcare vouchers and her employer has stated that she cannot get the full allowance as it would take her below the minimum wage. I find this absurd, as surely the scheme is in place to help those who are worse off. What this is saying, is if you are on minimum wage then you are not entitled to the tax benefits which come with childcare vouchers?


Surely this cannot be correct. Any help would be appreciated.
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ESA/PIP Overlap

August 21, 2018, 7:40 am
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I know that ESA and PIP are completely separate benefits, but can they be used to evidence each other for similar descriptors?

e.g. If you were found to meet this PIP descriptor due to distress/safety concerns

Quote:
9. Engaging with other people face to face.
d. Cannot engage with other people due to such engagement causing either –
(i) overwhelming psychological distress to the claimant; or
(ii) the claimant to exhibit behaviour which would result in a substantial risk of harm to the claimant or another person. 8 points.
could you use it as evidence for meeting this ESA Support Group descriptor?

Quote:
13. Coping with social engagement due to cognitive impairment or mental disorder.
Engagement in social contact is always precluded due to difficulty relating to others or significant distress experienced by the individual.
Or would the claimant need to prove they met the exceptional circumstances/substantial risk of harm descriptor?

Also, does anyone know if there's a set definition for social engagement under ESA? I know the definition for PIP, but I wasn't able to find one for ESA.
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Working over 16 hours (JSA)

August 21, 2018, 9:39 am
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Hello.

I am currently on JSA and I've got myself two-nights worth of work starting tonight.

It is only for two-nights, 22 hours in total.

My question is, do I need to sign off or could I stay signed on? because I don't see the point in signing off today and then making a reclaim on Thursday which will put me behind on JSA payments for a couple of weeks.

I am due to sign on Thursday, should I just do the work and then tell the jobcentre at my interview about the work I've done or will they stop my payment for the past 2 weeks?

I really need this payment this week as I owe money, so I don't know what to do, should I just not bother to work and everything will go through as normal or risk going to work and then for the DWP to stop my payment and then for the next week and more I won't have any money until I get paid for this job.

I hate JSA. Why is it that my area (Newcastle-under-Lyme/Stoke-on-Trent) is being discriminated against because we're not a '"full-service area". If I was on UC this thing wouldn't happen as you can work over 16 hours... It's a joke :mad::mad::mad:
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Income Support and short college course

August 21, 2018, 9:59 am
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Hi everyone

Just after some advice as benefit calculators don't take into account students and I'm not sure what I should do in my situation.

Until the week before last I was employed full time. I get PIP and due to the severity of my illness and how it affects me so much my partner gave up his job to help me as we were struggling to find a carer to arrive here for 5am in the morning, to work for an hour and come back when I got back from work at 7pm. I now need help with most aspects of my personal care and due to having weekly bladder instillations at hospital I can sometimes need to pee about 40 times a day which is massively affecting my life and left me unable to do my job. My union and employer agreed there aren't any reasonable adjustments they can make to my role so I've given up my job for the time being. I do hope to work for myself one day but something more therapeutic that I can do at my own pace and it won't matter how far I am away from a bathroom, or that I don't have someone around to help me move around. I have been sewing as a hobby for a few years and it's something I want to continue with as a career. I'm not trying to get rich, just feel like I'm doing something!

My partner has made a claim for IS and is getting CA. I found out today that the IS claim has been sorted so I can sort out HB, CT support etc. I don't want to claim ESA, even though I'm certain it would be ok, because it would be contribution based and I am struggling to pay for some things I would be entitled to on an income based benefit.

I have never completed a degree but it's something I want to do in future. I can't commit to it at the moment, even distance learning. I've looked into doing some short courses at college that are 2hrs a week over 8 weeks, to brush up my skills. Now the problem is these courses are full fee courses, meaning there is no funding for the course fees, nor living costs. This is all fine because it's my birthday soon and my family said they want to pay the £150 for the course. However, I don't know how this will affect the IS or HB claims, or if it will at all. There will be no change in income whatsoever as it is essentially a tutorial but I'd be enrolled at college for the duration of the course. I'm not even entitled to a student card. They also do similar courses at our community centre. I tried asking income support and was told that I should enrol on the course and call them back with a change of circumstances which seems a bit silly. My partner had a meeting at JCP and due to constantly being with me due to risk of aspiration from esopageal problems he has no requirement to look for work or train at the moment.

As there will be no other sources of income from the education, and it is not the carer doing the course, would it be safe to say it won't affect the claim at all? Obviously I would keep them updated if I enrolled but don't want to mess everything up by doing something when I don't know the outcome.

Thanks in advance for any advice
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SSP & Unpaid Time Off

August 21, 2018, 11:08 am
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Hi,

I have been placed on a long-term leave of absence at work, covered by notes from my Doctor. There was a period of confusion over my pay (4 weeks full pay, 4 weeks at 50% then SSP thereafter). August's payslip should be the first one which is only SSP - 4 weeks at £92.05, so £368.20 before my pension contribution is taken off.

However, this month's payslip shows a take-home pay of £168.50. I don't fully understand the way payroll works (and have reached out to my HR Manager), but it looks as though they've done it this way (approx figures):

Earnings £1700
SSP £400
Unpaid time off £1900

They've added the earnings and SSP then taken off the unpaid time off - what is this? I asked HR about this figure last month and it is an "aggregate total" but I haven't had unpaid time off, certainly not over a months worth!

Any help understanding would be great.

Thanks,
Karen.
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Advice on ESA Tribunal letter

August 21, 2018, 2:26 pm
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hello i am in the middle of my esa tribunal and i submitted 3 years of medical records.
today got a letter from the tribunal was further evidence by the dwp titled the secretary of state response to further evidence. in it the letter states that dwp does not beleave my submitted evidence suficant enough to change there mind. is this normal? should i be worried. i also sent them evidence that person assessing me was not trained in Mental.
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benefit questions in general

August 22, 2018, 5:32 am
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hi i just need some advice or guidance
my partner and i are loomy poarking to move in together
I am currerntly on ESA which ends sept 3rd when i go back to work which will only be part time. once i go back to university i will go on to a student contact
my partner currently gets PIP due to a degenerative spinal condition he has and is the process of applying for universal credit at the moment.
i am unsure of any benefits i will be entilted to if any when i go back to work
we are also unsure how housing benefit will work also.
the places we are looking at are all privately rented. but my partner would be the one to apply for housing.
we are unsure when we could apply for it how we do it ect.
any help or suggestions on anything iv mentioned would be greatly appreciated
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