Hi, I signed on a couple of months ago after losing my job through redundancy. Because of the redundancy payment I am only entitled to contributions-based benefits. I get a JSA payment of £71 per week. Last week I was given a job application action plan and I noticed in the blurb that (according to the JobCentre) I do not pay rent or Council Tax. In fact I do live in rented accommodation and I do pay Council Tax. I asked the job advisor to change the statement but I was told it didn't matter and it wasn't changed. Am I entitled to 'contribution-based' housing benefits which would cover my rent (to some extent) and Council Tax? If so can I get it back-dated as it appears to be an error made by the JobCentre? Any advice would be most helpful.

Hi all, can anyone help me please as I am feeling slightly unfairly done..... My hubby is a fulltime student and he receives students grants,loans etc. We have 3 children aged 11, 9 and 9mths. We currently receive child tax credit and have been advised that the only help we can get benefit wise (apart from housing and council tax benefit) is if I was to make a claim for jsa- as I would have to be available and looking for fulltime work I have not claimed. I do not feel I want to go back to work yet and especially not fulltime. Now this is was narks me slightly...If I was a single parent I would be entitled to income support as my child is under 5yrs old and would not have a requirement to work yet. Now, my husband is at uni fulltime so this means I am in the same 'childcare' boat as a single parent would be so how come the rules are different for me!? I don't know if what we have been advised is gospel or if in fact I would be entitled to I.Support or even Jsa without all the requirements. Does anyone know if there are exceptions/exemptions to certain things in these circumstances?

Hey folks, If a court judgement to be issued does it means creditor such as payday loan company can hire private bailiff or similar person to instruct him to visit the house? Atm I am on electoral roll in 1 place and letters go there. I might be able to claim LHA in place nr 2 (paid for via cash) however if it means bailiff visits to the new place I might claim not as old lady lives there 1) Is there some min amount of wages that are not arrestable? 2) Can creditors apply to bank to arrest account and take LHA benefit money or they can not? 3) If I am on electoral roll in place 1 what are they likelihood of creditors getting new address solely via LHA benefits database. Do banks sell data to debt agencies? If i am to change billing address. Thanks in advance, Alex.

The government has been warned it must urgently fix flaws in its support system for successful asylum seekers, after a destitute child starved to death in temporary accommodation in Westminster. Further tragedies are increasingly likely as more asylum claims are processed while support funding dries up, organisations claim. Details of the tragic circumstances surrounding the death of ‘child EG’ and the unrelated death of his mother ‘Mrs G’ surfaced in a serious case review and a letter sent to the government by child safety experts at Westminster Council, a flagship Conservative borough. The case review found that the family had become dependent on ‘ad hoc’ charitable handouts despite a successful asylum claim because of ‘significant problems’ transferring the family from Home Office to mainstream welfare support services. Source: http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/care/child-starved-to-death-after-benefits-delay/6524052.article Very sad. A bit more: http://www.insidehousing.co.uk//6524061.article

Hello, I'm in a really difficult situation. I am currently on benefits, I have a child and I have to go back to Italy for a while (personal reasons), I don't know if I will stay there permanently, but when I arrive, I won't have any financial resources straight away. I will have to find a job, etc. and with a young child is not going to be easy. I am thinking about not notifying the dwp, hmrc and housing benefit/ctax benfit of my leaving the country, so I have some means to start with. If I don't do it, I won't be able to survive. I know is not I nice thing to do, I am a honest person, but circumstances are forcing me, it is necessary. It would be only for the first two or three months, but I'm afraid I could be caught, brought back to the UK and put in prison. How likely is that to happen? Thanks in advance. A desperate mother.

Hello. I have been receiving JSA (now income based) for a while now and have received a JSA2 form through the post from one of these centres. My circumstances are quite straightforward so i am ticking the "No" option to most of the boxes and have not changed circumstances apart from the fact that my dad, who is 80 and suffering from cancer gave me some money so that i would have no problems paying for his funeral & also get another car when i need one (my current one is 14 years old) and this has now apparently pushed me over the £6000 savings limit for full JSA. I knew that JSA cuts off over £16k savings, i asked them in the jobcentre ages ago and they said yes, but nobody has ever told me about the £1 per £250 over £6000 reduction, its not on any of the paperwork i was given, nothing. I'm not over by much, about a thousand pounds and only by a few months but i'm scared i'm going to be branded as a criminal for this. Also, is it right that DWP refer to "income" as money earned & returns from investments? Their wording is (purposefully i suspect) very vague and could mean whatever they want it to mean under the circumstances. My Dad has paid some utility bills for me (directly) in the past, we all know its impossible to live on 70 quid a week unless you live on cold baked beans, dress like a tramp etc etc. whats the powers that be opinion on acts of kindness like this. All advice and info appreciated. Many thanks

My daughter is a single mum with 5 children 6 and under. She is on income support, child tax credits, child benefit housing and council tax benefit. The other day she received a letter from the |DHSS to say in April she will see a cut in her housing benefit as the weekly benefit income is to be capped at £500.00 per week to single parents with children. I have just gone on line to read all about the new changes. She is entitled to local housing allowance based on a 4 bed house (rents from a private landlord). The maximum local housing rate in our area for a 4 bed is £160.00 per week. Her rent for a 4 bed is only £122 per week so she is currently getting full housing benefit. I have gone to the on line cap calculator and she stands to lose £53.00 per week. Whilst I agree that people on benefits should not be better off financially than those that go to work (she is actually getting more money than both mine and her dads monthly take home pay so I can understand the reason for the changes. we both work full time for our income) and this is the reason for the change, potentially it is people with 4 or more children who will be hit the most. ( I have worked out what she would get if she only had 4 children and she would under the new rules be getting £485 per week. That technically means that somebody with 5 children is only getting £15.00 per week more than somebody with 4 children. How can the government expect families to manage with a £200 cut in income per month. My daughter worked as a carer until the last person she looked after passed away. She found out just after she was pregnant with her 3rd child and so did not go back to work after this. She will be returning to work when all the children are in school but she still has 2 babies so getting 5 ready single handed of a morning is a nightmare so no chance of her returning to work at the moment. would she be entitled to the discretionary housing allowance if she cant manage losing so much money?

Stop and review the cuts to benefits and services which are falling disproportionately on disabled people, their carers and families http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/20968 Please sign and pass it on

hello , im looking for a little advice if possible about lloyds bank swallowing up my benefits . ive only just found out from searching these forums that the banks are not allowed to take monies paid in dwp benefits to cover charges . im going back to january 2008 - november 2008 when i was claiming benefits due to a serious heart complaint , the dwp paid my benefits straight into my bank account at lloyds then, lloyds immeadiately took all my payments to cover overdraft / credit card charges at the time i thought they were entitled to do this . but for my family helping me out financially i dont know what i would have done as i didn`t have so much as a brass farthing to my name . to cut a long story short i ended up losing my house ( could`nt pay the mortgage ) i moved into rented property , i also opened an account at a different bank and have my benefits paid into there now . what i would like to know is , is it possible for me to claim back the payments made to me by the dwp during that time and if so who do a write to ? my local branch ? or have i left it too long ? . any help or advice on this matter would be great as i would love to be able to offer my family some money back for all their help .

My employer and I appear to have reached deadlock on the issue of maternity pay and non-cash benefits. If anyone can answer the following queries, I would be eternally grateful! 1./ Are all salary sacrifice schemes classified as non-cash benefits? I (am not on mat leave until Monday 1st October) currently sacrifice £243 pcm for childcare vouchers and 6% of my salary (approx £122pcm) towards a pension scheme - employer matches this. As I understand, the whole 12% is counted as employer contributions and is classified as a non-cash benefit. I am not able to leave either scheme at will, there has to be either a lifestyle change, or I think I can leave the pension in April each year. Is this correct? 2./ Do non-cash benefits have to continue through the whole period of maternity leave, paid and unpaid? 3./ I receive some contractural pay (100% for 6 weeks and 50% for the next 12 weeks) - this is, obviously, available to be sacrificed - but my pay must not be reduced below SMP at any time. 4./ At no point during my mat leave is there enough contractural pay to cover the entire £365pcm salary sacrifice - does my employer have to make up the difference? For example, my monthly salary liable to Class 1 NI's is £1681.10pcm. This gives me an average weekly earnings of £388, which means in the first 6 weeks my SMP is £349.20 and contractural pay is £38.80. Therefore in October, a month containing 5 Mondays, I would expecting to receive gross pay of £1940 of which £1746 is SMP and £194 is contractural pay. What should happen with the childcare vouchers and pension payments? 5./ In the subsequent 12 weeks, my SMP is £135 per week and contractural pay is £59 per week. In a 4 week month this gives £236 of contractural pay and in a 5 week month this would be £295 - again, not enough to cover the £365 sacrifice. Again - I guess they take the entire contractural pay, but what about the extra bit? We are both quoting the HMRC guidlines on this, but interpreting them differently. To complicate things, I was TUPE transferred into this company on 1st July this year, and the new company accepted the old companies maternity policy (which is based on the HMRC guidlines) and again, we are both quoting this and disagreeing. Can anyone shed any light on this matter? A colleague of mine is in the same position, albeit already on maternity leave, and she will run out of time to file an employment tribunal claim on 26th October (3 months - 1 day since she was first paid incorrectly), so we really need to resolve this quickly. They are saying that I cannot expect to be paid more on maternity leave than when I'm at work, but my opinion is that it is a transferring T&C anyway, and the HMRC guildines are that this is what happens and it's unfortunatley generous to the employee under this particular set of circumstances. If I'm wrong, I will happily accept it, but I've read and reread the documents a number of times and I cannot see how they are reaching their interpretation. Help? Liv

My partner had to leave her job in mid-March this year, due to family illness and childcare issues. I wrote to my local authority benefits section to advise of our change of circumstances, and to ask what documentation was required for reassessing our benefits claim. A good 6 weeks later, after chasing it up, I received a letter stating I had to provide "bank statements, etc", very vague. As we were waiting for my partner's p45, we did not send documentation in. In May I received a letter stating our benefits were being suspended pending receipt of p45, bank statements, etc. In June I received a letter to say our benefits were cancelled. Now I know I should've taken action sooner, but I've been burying my head in the sand, and have actually been off work through stress, and that's the vicious cycle of debt and poverty. Despite contacting her old employer several times, and them trying to blame it on their accountant, my partner still hasn't received her p45. What can we do?

Hi everyone Wondering if anyone can help with this issue my son is currently faced with. He graduated in July this year with a first class degree and is now looking for work in his field. He was fortunate to get a month's unpaid work experience with one of the world leaders in his field. This is a massive opportunity for him and although it will probably not give a job with the company it will look fantastic on his cv. It's not a company that you apply to. They approach you so that's how big a deal it is. Sorry, forgot to mention the company is in another city over an hour away and about £55 a week in petrol. My son, prior to starting this placement, signed on at the job centre and was paid for the 2 week period up until the start of this placement. He was totally up front and honest with staff and told them about the month placement and asked if he could be paid job seekers while he was doing it. Long story short, but the dragon at JC said no way as it was not a placement organised by them. Now no disrespect, but this is such a specialised field that there are no placements in this field organised by the job centre. My son did say at the time that he would be applying for jobs and would attend interviews during this period but the guy was not interested. Yes, he could have lied and called up and made excuses on signing on days but he's more honest than that. So, he did his work placement and we paid his travel, accommodation, etc. Not that we could afford it really, but he couldn't not do it. At the beginning of this month when he signed on again he actually met with a very helpful lady who said that she totally understood his situation and that he should apply retrospectively for the benefits he had missed due to work experience (my son spoke to her about the recent Despatches programme regarding the Job Centre wrongly penalising people who got of their backsides and organised their own work experience). Anyway yesterday my son received a letter stating that they had "looked at your backdated claim and decided that you have not satisfied the labour market conditions for job seekers allowance from 29 July to 2 September 2012" and that "We have also decided that you have not shown good cause for the delay in making your claiim from 29 July to 2 September 2012. This means we cannot backdate your Jobseeker's allowance" What?? There was not delay .... he tried to claim and they said he couldn't! And, what does it mean he hasn't satisied the labour market conditions"? Then, today another letter arrives which states: "We have looked at your claim again following a recent change. We cannot pay you Jobseeker's allowance from 29 July. This is because we recently told you that a decision would be made about a doubt on your efforts to find work from 1 August to 2 Sepember 2012. We have now decided that this doubt no longer applies". I think that they need to go on a course to learn plain English but I think what it means is that: "You chose to try and get a job by taking unpaid work experience but because you got off your backside and did something we aren't going to give you the benefit of the doubt and because you didn't lie or take a morning off your work experience to come in and sign on, we don't believe you were really looking for work". Actually, my son did apply for jobs during this period of work experience and can prove it, Sorry for the rant but I'm really angry about this and plan to speak to our MP about it but before I do this I wondered if anyone on here could give us any advice on action to take. Of course, he will appeal but it's like wading through treacle - they just don't get it!!! grrrr. Thank you muchly if you have managed to stay with me until now J x

hi can anyone please help!!! myself, my partner, and 2 teenage boys (both under 16) have had to return to uk after living in spain for 7 years. (my partner 3 years). we are in the process of having our house in spain repossessed. in the last few months that we were there we were having to sell our possessions just to survive. in the end we had to sell the last of our furniture in order to be able to travel back to uk as we had nothing left to live on out there. we have now been back for 2 weeks and are staying with a friend. we have one room between the four of us. we applied for jsa and have been refused. they say we have to have lived here for 8 weeks before we can even apply. we have also been told that we cannot claim any child tax credits for our children for 8 weeks. nor housing benefit. this means we have no financial help whatsoever and have to live in one room with our teenage boys for at least another 8 weeks. (we are two women). i dont understand why we are being treated like this. i cant believe that they wont even support the children. we are looking for work with no luck so far. does anyone know of any other benefits we may be able to claim. my children are waiting for a place in a school, but i wont even be able to buy them a uniform. please help!!!!!

Just a quick question. I know that if you win at an Employment Tribunal you have to pay back any welfare benefits you have received. Does the same apply if you settle for an award brokered through ACAS or if you settle with a copmpromise aggreement?

The question is - When attempting to negotiate with a Bank/DCA/Solicitor/Court etc regarding amount you an afford to pay off a debt, should any benefits you are in receipt of be included in your Income figures ? The reason for seeking clarification is that whilst it is illegal for benefits to by taken at 'source' by virtue of having them directed straight to a Creditor, is it then also illegal for them to be taken into consideration as valid Income to pay a debt when included in an I/E Statement ? Logic would say that if the benefit/s are not allowed to be re-directed (because they are the entitlement of the recipient) then should they still be allowed to be redirected after they have been paid into your Bank account , by virtue of the fact any surplus shown on an I/E statement might be entirely made up of the Benefits paid in. ?

:|Hello all, Im new to this forum, so am hopig im putting this in the correct place and really hope somebody out there can help me! I have Fibromyalgia and have been recieving DLA at high rate for both mobility and care since year and half ago. I was recieving ESA cont in the WRAG group,based but this ran out in april under the 365 day ruling. i was not entitled to income based as my partner worked more that 24 hours a weekAT the moment i am now waiting to hear back from JCP as i had to put in a change of circumtances letter as my health had deterioted alot so was hoping to be put into the support group. we are also now recieving £55 per week rent allowance and £10.25 council tax allowance plus £14 working tax credit. He was recieving £340 per week before tax (£280 net) Now things were running smoothly (tight but copable) until my partners boss announced yesterday that he was going to have to cut my partners hours to 3 days a week which takes him down to 24 hours and roughly £170 net wages. My question is would we be entiltled to income based ESA ( because hours are 24 and wages lower ) or is he still working to much and earning to much? would we be entitled to more WFTC , council tax and rent benifit, carers allowance etc . I have been on various benifit sights and they all seem to work out different , or it misses a benefit out etc . Please help somebody, im really really panicing now as on top of all this my partners ex wife has decided to go through CSA for the child maintenance (of which we were already paying £50 per week to her direct) . Thankyou in advance Tina x

Help / advice urgently needed please. My situation is this. I moved overseas some years ago with a partner who left me shortly afterwards. Unable to speak the language, get work etc over there, I put the house on the market and returned to the UK (2010). I claimed Income Support as a lone parent and declared the house so that everything was above board. I had to provide the sale doicuments to prove that i was actively trying to dispose of the property, and intended to remain in the UK. All was ok until this week when the benefits seem to be doing a complete overhaul of everyone I have had 3 forms to fill in this last 4 weeks, all with only a week deadline so no time to seek advice or help. All about the property. I again sent off the original documents that prove the house was placed on the market. The property was placed for sale at less than the value at that time, and later reduced again within that year. The DSS now want a new valuation, current documents to prove the house is still for sale and more evidence that i am trying to dispose of it. and all in english!! I am gutted... English documents from overseas are not going to happen, and i cannot afford a translator. Also i cannot afford to go to the property to do any maintenance, legal work etc.. I can do some online with the agent, but am worried now. Property is not selling anywhere, not here in the UK or overseas. The DSS are threatening to stop my Income Support if they do not approve my benefit to continue. this would mean my housing benefit would also stop. I have 3 young children (one of whom is disabled) and I am worried sick. I have done everything by the book, and yet i feel hounded to the point of illness. My children have had very little time with me over the last 4 weeks because i have been spending hours filling in one form after another and struggling with my own health problems on top. Any help or advice is appreciated please.

I had been receiving both JSA and Housing Benefit for over 12 months. My landlord is private and I actually pay much more than I receive in Housing Allowance (£55 a week). My council has stopped paying HB on the 4th of May. I have received so far no written notification about it. Two weeks later I called the HB centre helpline (in Birmingham you can't just drop in, you have to call the call centre) and a lady told me that payment had been suspended because the DWP had notified a change of address, which by the way has never happened. So I assumed the fault was on the DWP side and the Council did what they had to do and suspended payments. I then sent them a letter with all documents showing I still live there. They replied to me a couple of days later saying they had acknowledged receipt and they would let me know of the outcome, anyway without confirming the suspension nor mentioning any reason for it. Now, 5 five weeks later, I still have no written explanation and no money coming in. Next week I'm going to call them again but I would like to know from you if the Council behaved correctly and if it is better to write to them and complain. Did they have to notify me in writing? How long have they got before reinstating payments? Thank you for your attention. San_d

There is the possibility I my leave at end of month and get a pay off from my employer because of a disibility grievance. I have an operation at the end of August which will probably stop me working for 2-3 months. I doubt I will get anything like dla but also I obviously won't be able to job seek until I am fit again. OH works part time 18 hrs/week. What, if any benefit could or should I claim?

Hi, I wonder if someone could shine some light on my situation. I currently receive ESA and full housing/ council tax benefits. I live alone and my partner lives in company accomodation and this will continue (for the forseeable future) after we get married. My question is... even though my (future) wife wont actually be living at my address, are my ESA and Housing/tax benefits going to be altered or stopped? Thanks in advance:???:

I got a letter: I already know they're reducing my Housing Benefit to £90/week (central London) - this will happen in a couple of weeks time. They told me this ages ago, i'm not sure why they are now coming to see me? As the HB will be lower than my rent, will they make me leave by private landlord? I had assumed they would be okay if I just made up for the deficit myself, somehow. (My rent is, and has been, lower than HB for some time. In a few weeks time it will become much, much lower) They want me to arrange an appointment for them to visit. Which is fine, I just need to tidy up! My bedroom is messy and needs to be cleaned. I would have been so embarrased if I had been in, earlier today.

Hi Everyone, I've read loads of threads/posts where the above muppets have been reported to Trading Standards and the Office Of Fair Trading etc. Has anyone ever received notice that action has been taken against them, I know they are still upto their old tricks cos they are still sending me letters. Cheers Wooks001

Hello all. If any of you have read my other thread http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?355576-Am-I-able-to-request-a-change-of-duties&highlight=plantar+fasciitis you will know that I have been suffering from plantar fasciitis for several months now. Unfortunately, after putting up with the agony of the condition over this period and attempting to change my duties in work, I am seeing little if any improvement in the condition. I have recently had a verbal warning from work due to the time off I have had to have with the condition and if I take any more time off on sick in the next 6 months, the matter will be escalated. As a result of this I can't see any other option but to resign but, as someone that has always worked, this is something that to be honest scares me and have to knowledge of. I'm hoping someone can give me some advice as what sort of benefits I would be entitled to claim and how much it is likely to be? Would there be a waiting period before I can claim if I resign (as although I can no longer do my current job I'm sure I would be able to do work which involves sitting down which is something I would be actively pursuing). Some information that may help: I have been in my current job for around 7 years and have been in continuous employment for around 11 years. I live with my partner. She works full time but is only on NMW. I have joint custody of my young child (this is something arranged between ourselves not a court) and lives with me 50% of the year (although all benefits for her is claimed by her mum so I assume that she wouldn't count) If there is anything else you need to know then please let me know. Thanks for any help.

I have been on benefits for a while now and have a business idea which would involve selling somthing o ebay, it is somthing I already possess (i.e. I'd be making something out of raw materials I have access to) so I wouldn't be buying it in to sell on but I would be hoping to sell enough of it to make at least what I get in benefits at the moment, which isn't much. If this were to be viable I could potentially come off benefits however I'd like to be able to test the viability of the product in the market first before speaking to anyone offical just to see how it goes down. Where do I stand legally with this? The last thing I want to do is to be commiting benefit fraud and end up in trouble I have very poor health and working from home is really my only option as it would allow me to accomodate my health problems and I just don't feel I can rely on the government to assit me anymore as they see determined to take everyones support away and I feel very concerned about the day when I have no benefits and yet nobody will empoly me due to my poor health. If I just sell one or 2 items a week for a month or so to see if people like them and keep the cost low so I am earning under a certain amount would that be ok? Is there an amount you can earn without declaring it, say £10 or £15 per week? I just feel this would allow me to test the water without making a commitment to something which may not be as viable as I think it is. Any advice would be great!

Since March 2010 my wife who is now over 60 has been on SSP and then ESA which stopped in April 2012. In early 2011 she went for an ATOS assessment and moved into the ESA support group. As she has osteoarthritis in her hands, wrists and lower arms there is almost no chance of her working again. When her contribution based ESA finished in April she never applied to move it to income ESA or whatever they call it. As I am on Pension credit I notified the relevant department that she no longer received ESA and they adjusted my Pension credit payment. In essence we get a bit less than when she was on ESA. Today she received a letter advising her to attend another ATOS medical in two weeks time. Perhaps they think there is a miracle cure for osteoarthritis? She contacted them to advise she was not claiming JSA or ESA and asked if she still needed to attend. They told her that she would not be getting any NI contributions paid and to notify Jobcentre. We assume that they would have checked before increasing my pension credit. She has in excess of 25 years contributions, but less than 30. Should she apply for income support ESA or are her contributions enough for her state pension? What should we do?