Hi there. I wanted this to be a short post but apprently I am incapable of typing anything out briefly :o so thank you so much if you manage to read through all this!
Some background info - I'm 23, partner is 28. We have a 2 year old and a 3 year old. We both used to work full time and rent privately but in 2011 I started a full time degree. Prior to this we came to an arrangement with my dad to move in with him as we could not afford to rent once I had left work and he was struggling with his mortgage so it seemed a good idea.
We moved in with my dad and pay £650 a month rent... we have a bedroom for me and OH and a bedroom our sons share. We share the living room, kitchen, dining room and bathroom with my dad. He has a bedroom and a small office/living room as his own space.
My dad is 76, he gets pension credit and the lowest rate of disability allowance as he is disabled.
My OH is self employed and works around 14 hours a week as he looks after the children when I am at uni or on placement (shift work) so has to fit it around that.
I have an NHS student bursary of £600 per month which I use to pay the rent and a student loan of just over £3,000 per year which I use to top up the rent every month and contribute towards utility bills etc etc
We are currently really struggling with outgoings - the monthly basics we pay are ok - £650 rent, £50 debt repayments, £70 car insurance, £30 petrol, £150 food, groceries etc. However the gas and electricity bills are too much for my dad to afford which I think is because our house is so drafty over winter we have the heating on a lot, as well as using our log fire. In the summer the gas bill is fine.
Anyway in August my dads mortgage is going up by quite a lot. I don't understand mortgages myself but he pays interest and the interest rate is going up as it's coming to the end of a fixed term (if that makes sense to anyone else). He doesn't know for sure yet but has been warned by santander that it will be estimated to raise from around £500 a month to over £900. So after august we will be paying him more rent as he just cannot afford that himself.
He's been talking to other banks about switching mortgage but they have said no due to his age. He has also inquired about me and my partner taking over the mortgage and him paying us rent instead but because I am a student with no regular earnings and I do not graduate for another 18 months they have said they cannot do this.
We claim child benefit for both children - so around £20 per week for eldest and £13 for youngest.
We claim child tax credit and get £434 every four weeks based on our income.
We are not entitled to local housing allowance as we live with my dad.
I've spoken to our local Citizens advice but all they could say was use a website called turn2us, which when I went to use it said it doesn't work with students.
I've been on the government and hmrc websites for the last couple of days trying to work out if there is anything we might be entitled to that we're not currently claiming and to be honest I can't see anything that we're eligible for.
The only thing that I thought we might be able to claim (but I'm not hopeful) is income support, so I've filled in the form and I'm going to send it off with documents tomorrow.
I feel really stupid but just looking at these websites and all the different benefits and who is entitled to what has really confused me and sometimes you can't see the wood through the trees, you know? So I was just wondering if anyone on here could offer any advice, with any of it, even if we aren't entitled to anything else.
Oh and I've also signed up to my local hospital as a bank HCA but nothing has come up yet.
Thank you so much if you've managed to read all this x
Some background info - I'm 23, partner is 28. We have a 2 year old and a 3 year old. We both used to work full time and rent privately but in 2011 I started a full time degree. Prior to this we came to an arrangement with my dad to move in with him as we could not afford to rent once I had left work and he was struggling with his mortgage so it seemed a good idea.
We moved in with my dad and pay £650 a month rent... we have a bedroom for me and OH and a bedroom our sons share. We share the living room, kitchen, dining room and bathroom with my dad. He has a bedroom and a small office/living room as his own space.
My dad is 76, he gets pension credit and the lowest rate of disability allowance as he is disabled.
My OH is self employed and works around 14 hours a week as he looks after the children when I am at uni or on placement (shift work) so has to fit it around that.
I have an NHS student bursary of £600 per month which I use to pay the rent and a student loan of just over £3,000 per year which I use to top up the rent every month and contribute towards utility bills etc etc
We are currently really struggling with outgoings - the monthly basics we pay are ok - £650 rent, £50 debt repayments, £70 car insurance, £30 petrol, £150 food, groceries etc. However the gas and electricity bills are too much for my dad to afford which I think is because our house is so drafty over winter we have the heating on a lot, as well as using our log fire. In the summer the gas bill is fine.
Anyway in August my dads mortgage is going up by quite a lot. I don't understand mortgages myself but he pays interest and the interest rate is going up as it's coming to the end of a fixed term (if that makes sense to anyone else). He doesn't know for sure yet but has been warned by santander that it will be estimated to raise from around £500 a month to over £900. So after august we will be paying him more rent as he just cannot afford that himself.
He's been talking to other banks about switching mortgage but they have said no due to his age. He has also inquired about me and my partner taking over the mortgage and him paying us rent instead but because I am a student with no regular earnings and I do not graduate for another 18 months they have said they cannot do this.
We claim child benefit for both children - so around £20 per week for eldest and £13 for youngest.
We claim child tax credit and get £434 every four weeks based on our income.
We are not entitled to local housing allowance as we live with my dad.
I've spoken to our local Citizens advice but all they could say was use a website called turn2us, which when I went to use it said it doesn't work with students.
I've been on the government and hmrc websites for the last couple of days trying to work out if there is anything we might be entitled to that we're not currently claiming and to be honest I can't see anything that we're eligible for.
The only thing that I thought we might be able to claim (but I'm not hopeful) is income support, so I've filled in the form and I'm going to send it off with documents tomorrow.
I feel really stupid but just looking at these websites and all the different benefits and who is entitled to what has really confused me and sometimes you can't see the wood through the trees, you know? So I was just wondering if anyone on here could offer any advice, with any of it, even if we aren't entitled to anything else.
Oh and I've also signed up to my local hospital as a bank HCA but nothing has come up yet.
Thank you so much if you've managed to read all this x