to be shocked and confused that no income or only C/B = no entitlement to C/T or H/B help?

[Jamillalliamilli]

I hate the word entitlement before I get screamed at, but that?s the official language being used.

You have ?entitlement? and get help, or you ?don?t have entitlement?, and don?t get help, and it?s all judged on income.

But child benefit is disregarded as income, and therefore if that is all you currently have, there is no income and therefore no entitlement to help.

So if a person has no current income other than child benefit, they can?t get help to pay rent or council tax, and will get evicted if they can?t sort out an income from somewhere in time, and build up a debt of unpaid council tax in the meantime.

Is it an individual council choice or the same everywhere?

Did I understand right that DLA on it?s own if awarded, would also be disregarded as an income? (head spinning and don't want to ask any more)

Am I stupid to not know this and be reeling?

www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/index.cfm?request=c1265175

It's a shame you can't get your son to cooperate, if he is entitled to DLA as well. I also have a son on DLA and get it myself, and I can get IS and carer's based on my DS's DLA, which means I can avoid the whole nightmare of Atos and claiming ESA. So much easier to claim as you aren't subject to checks or sanctions and it's pretty much automatic as long as MRC DLA or above is awarded. It is well worth looking into being his appointee if possible as well.

Birds CAB 'sorted it out' in the first place and it resulted in son wrongly getting CTC as disabled, and I now owe HMRC over £4000. My appeal has got nowhere as they can't find the CD's that would prove it wasn't anything I did wrong. On the plus side apparently I also can't be prosecuted for the same reason!

My landlord isn't known for sympathy and I'm already in trouble there for being paid in arrears.

I don't actually know what the changes in HB really are, or if they affect us. I'm afraid I've given up a bit, I'm very close to being surplus to requirement soon anyway.

Do you have a charity Welfare rights organisation near to you?

It sounds as though you need someone to go through this properly.

Google 'your local authority' nil income form and see what you find.

Is there any charities conected to your, or your son's disability?

Sorry I'm behind in answering.
Erik thank you good idea, will try that. :-)

Charlie I was (apparently wrongly) put on IS after coming out of hospital,while I adjusted to disability and looked for work.
Then told wrong benefit and went to claim JSA as still unemployed, but was refused as too disabled and put on ESA. Had medical put in support group.
Later told they shouldn't have done that and I had the right to return to IS, and then be transferred. Didn't bother as would only end in the same place.

Son is in full time education and SEN and statemented to be home ed, and doesn't see himself as disabled and would tell anyone there's nothing wrong with him.

Birds, welfare rights one's here have been massively cut, housebound ones gone, carers organisation no longer in existence, and other areas refusing 'cross border' help. Just CAB which I struggle to access and am rather wary of at this point.

NAS for son, I'm in limbo, just lots of neurological damage following accident.

oh my God - so not entitled to ESA and then told you can't claim JSA?
Welfare rights and MP NOW!

FUCKING ATOS!!!!!

It was the other way round tbh, not entitled to claim JSA and ESA has fallen apart because of ATOS.

I used to work for HB and you can still claim for the gap period betwcaimans a/jsa/is claims you just have to show (via bank statements etc) that you were receiving nil income for that period. If you ask for a reconsideration and it is granted they will backdate your benefit and HB/ctb can still be paid anyway.

Erik, I've not found a nil income form, but I have found out that disregarding Child Benefit as income was brought in a few years ago, and was supposed to HELP make people eligible for H/B and C/T, not specifically prevent it.

THANK YOU.

Woah. That was supposed to say between jsa/ESA/is claims!

The child benefit is a red herring. Just complete the nil income form as fully as possible and make sure you take it to a housing office in person and get a receipt!
I swear I know more about benefits than half the benefits employees out there!

Thanks tallhotbrunette, and everyone who's responded, please excuse me if I've missed any posts, and struggling to keep up, and must go and sort out dinner.

Oh I see you didn't find one- well call your Hb office tomorrow and ask where you can find it.

Erik I will try and go in person tomorrow and ask for the form.
Thank you, it did seem really weird that anyone would help people with a low income, but refuse someone with a lower one!

Yes, I think someone is talking shite! I have heard so much utter bollocks from various benefits employees, it's no wonder people get in messes.

Yes, you should be entitled to hb and ctb on nil income, but the council will not pay it on this basis indefinitely. Their reasoning is that no one can survive on nil income for long so you should be getting IS or JSA or ESA sorted out. If it goes beyond a few weeks and you haven't got an income from the DWP then they will be wondering how you are meeting your day to day needs. The assumption is that someone else must be supporting you and you haven't declared it. So there is some logic behind it. It is terrible that this wasn' te

sorry posted too soon - terrible that this wasn't explained to you

Yes golden is right, but if you can evidence the ESA claim etc you should be fine.

Goldengreen, they didn't ask me but reality is they'd be sort of right. I'd saved long term for son's 18th birthday in a couple of weeks and he's accepted it being used for survival instead.

yet another person who needs to call comunity legal advice.

op the info you have been given is wrong birds is compleatly correct

Thank you all for your explanations and advice, I?ve taken it all and have a CAB appointment in two weeks.

I couldn?t get an answer about nil income forms, and they didn?t wish to put in writing that no income meant no entitlement.

But I did get put through to someone helpful who didn?t want to comment on either issue, but spotted an ?entitlement? to CTC for son, minus claw back, which is a qualifying benefit for CT and H/B, regardless of how much it is.

There?s been an issue because his educational situation?s unusual without a named school or college, and they (and me) are waiting for a copy of his SEN statement renewal to prove him in full time Level 3 education.

That?s now rectified and therefore I need to put in appeal for backdated CT and H/B as our ?qualifying? income being CTC and this is probably sortable.

I?ve asked the Job centre if as suggested, I?ve been sanctioned. I haven?t, just my claim closed because ATOS said I didn?t send/they didn?t receive the medical renewal form.

I asked them if it would be correct that when I asked them for a reconsideration of my case, they should have reinstated my claim, but at assessment level basic payment ? They said it was.

(When I originally asked for the reconsideration and asked how long it would take because I had little to live off, reinstatement of the claim, or any interim payments, where never mentioned, despite me asking for advice and what the repercussions of taking either of the options where. I was told she couldn?t advise me and I just had to choose one.)

I asked why this hadn't happened, and at first was told I hadn?t contacted them.
Then after I went into exactly what I?d been told and done, they acknowledged I must have.

They then ?found? a record of me calling them in response to their letter saying ESA was cut off and my ?options were explained,? ?to ask for either reconsideration, or start a new claim.?

But there's no record of my decision, (reconsideration) or action taken by them, but ?it could have dropped of the computer? and it?s ?difficult to notice because it?s on a different system.?

In other words from the point they told me I?d been cut off and I responded and asked for a reconsideration, I should have been put on low rate ESA, while a decision was made, but it may now not be possible to prove I asked for any action to be taken, and if council bloke hadn't told me a load of bollocks and you lot hadn't told me that was what it was, I'd have never known I should still be getting some help and am being wrongly denied it.

Another department will call me tomorrow.

Again, thank you all.

op the tax credit claw back and appeal info you have been given is wrong. the onus is on them to prove it was your mistake if they lost paperwork thats there prob not yours, also you do not have to actually recive dla for a child to get the disabled child element you just have to be able to qualify even if you dont claim. so i would force that.

how old is your dc? with regard to dla, he does not have to concider himself to be disabled if he has a diagnosed medical condition diagnosed by a nhs (not private) professional that makes him disabled under dla's criteria infact a refusal to accept it can be concidered as evidence in support of his differculties. you also may not need him to contribute towards the form at all.

Socknickingpixie, I want you to be right but HMRC are absolutely adamant that you do have to be in receipt ofDLA to qualify for disabled child tax element to be paid, :) and it is specifically because he was not, yet was given it, that it was deemed an overpayment.

They wrote to me asking if he was in receipt of it or not, and I phoned up and said not. They thanked me for being truthful with them and said he shouldn't have been getting it and it was therefore an overpayment.

If you can show me how I can show them this is wrong, please do go for it.

They are also adamant that I must have at some time said he was receiving DLA, as that is the only way they would have paid DCTC. I know I've never said this, there's no reason why I would have.

He's 17 cusp of 18, diagnosed ASD Gt Ormond street, and has other unspecified connected difficulties, such as poor core balance, so falls frequently etc, big hyper-mobility problems, but no longer seeks help, can put his own shoulders back in, after a few hours, finds pain preferable to clinics and hospitals.

He now only see Dr's once in a blue moon as emergency treatment, as he wont go alone.

His SEN statement and disabled swim card's, are the only real evidence of how different his needs are, outside of me saying it's a full time job, if he won't admit the situation, and tbh, if you sat down and talked to him, I'll bet he could convince you there's nothing 'wrong' with him, but if your in 'authority' he will either hide from you, or attempt to 'pass' by nodding in whatever places he thinks are appropriate. So someone wanting to find out what's underneath could because he'll say yes to anything if the tone suggests a yes to be good, so someone who wants to prove him not needing help has no problem.

I've sat and watched him agree with a policeman that he may be confused and nothing has happened to him, when the evidence to the contrary was all over bloody you tube. :(

I can explain until I'm blue in the face how odd and uneven his profile of can't do, and can do skills are and how sadly different his life as a young man is, and how very vulnerable he is, but to many people he just looks like an academically intelligent but failing, real life stupid, intense, lazy, sometimes out of control, spoilt, unthinking, arrogant, mummy's boy, because when you look at and listen to him, you simply wouldn't guess that he really can't do, or not do, or work out how to do x or y, and would love to. :(

People around me love to tell me they can't believe if I leave him in the freezing water, unfed, or with a pan on fire long enough, he won't just apply knowledge and be magically fixed and normal.
One of his siblings is severely brain damaged, and she's honestly an awful lot less work.