Hi just looking for some advice,
A few years ago myself and my partner were both unemployed as we were made redundant, we claimed job seekers for a while and housing benefit, when my partner returned to work our housing benefit stopped. I continued to claim my contribution job seekers for 6 months and then when this was up i was told i was no
longer entitled to anything as my partner worked.
On the day i signed off the worker in the job centre told me i was not entitled to any job seekers/income support and we were not entitled to any housing benefit or council tax benefit, he also told me I would not be entitled to the pregnancy grant (I was 5 months pregnant at the time of signing off, we also have another child who was 2 at the time).
We have then gone on and struggled on for the last two years on my partners income and child tax credits, I have stayed at home with my two children as returning to work does not make us better off due to childcare, travel expenses etc. To be honest we have managed for the first year and my partners income did increase slightly but over the last 12 months things have been really tough. We have over the last 6 months had to use credit cards to pay our bills as we just don't have enough money coming in to cover everything and we are getting to a point where I don't know how we are going to be able to carry on paying everything.
Then a friend happened to mention that they receive housing benefit, they are a couple who both work and have no dependent children so i was surprised at this, i then decided to look back in to housing benefit and it would seem that for the last year at least we should have been entitled to £83 a week housing benefit and £5 a week council tax benefit. We have fallen in to difficulty paying council tax a couple of times over the last year and not once has anyone mentioned to me about claiming or that we might be entitled even though i told them i did not work and it was just my partners income.
Obviously I am now filling in a claim form to send today but what is the likely hood of them back dating it, i haven't been ill or anything to stop me claiming, i was just mis-advised but i don't have any proof of this other than the name of the person at the job centre, if they backdated our claim it would clear the debt we have racked up paying our bills and would get us back on an even keel but are they likely to just say tough? What should I write in the part where they ask why I want it backdating?
Any help appreciated, thanks
A few years ago myself and my partner were both unemployed as we were made redundant, we claimed job seekers for a while and housing benefit, when my partner returned to work our housing benefit stopped. I continued to claim my contribution job seekers for 6 months and then when this was up i was told i was no
longer entitled to anything as my partner worked.
On the day i signed off the worker in the job centre told me i was not entitled to any job seekers/income support and we were not entitled to any housing benefit or council tax benefit, he also told me I would not be entitled to the pregnancy grant (I was 5 months pregnant at the time of signing off, we also have another child who was 2 at the time).
We have then gone on and struggled on for the last two years on my partners income and child tax credits, I have stayed at home with my two children as returning to work does not make us better off due to childcare, travel expenses etc. To be honest we have managed for the first year and my partners income did increase slightly but over the last 12 months things have been really tough. We have over the last 6 months had to use credit cards to pay our bills as we just don't have enough money coming in to cover everything and we are getting to a point where I don't know how we are going to be able to carry on paying everything.
Then a friend happened to mention that they receive housing benefit, they are a couple who both work and have no dependent children so i was surprised at this, i then decided to look back in to housing benefit and it would seem that for the last year at least we should have been entitled to £83 a week housing benefit and £5 a week council tax benefit. We have fallen in to difficulty paying council tax a couple of times over the last year and not once has anyone mentioned to me about claiming or that we might be entitled even though i told them i did not work and it was just my partners income.
Obviously I am now filling in a claim form to send today but what is the likely hood of them back dating it, i haven't been ill or anything to stop me claiming, i was just mis-advised but i don't have any proof of this other than the name of the person at the job centre, if they backdated our claim it would clear the debt we have racked up paying our bills and would get us back on an even keel but are they likely to just say tough? What should I write in the part where they ask why I want it backdating?
Any help appreciated, thanks