To think the Job Centre are ruining my life?

[MrsSquishy]

Perhaps melodramatic (please no poor bashing or asking why we don't have savings as we are a student/ recent graduate, also just moved house) but...
Long story short- I'm a student though I pay half of rent, things for DC etc, DH works full time but has recently lost his job. He has since found another better paid job but isn't starting for a month.
Anyway, the night he lost his job we filled in the forms for Job Seekers, Housing Benefit etc realising that we would very quickly run out of money. Needs must, it's a safety net and all that.
DHdoes everything they ask, brings in all the evidence and attends all the meetings and workshops. Anyway, we wait and wait and eventually receive a letter asking for all the evidence that he brought in because the Job Centre didn't send it. DH schleps to the post box to post it. We wait again...they don't receive it. This time DH brings it into the Job Centre so they can send it again.
Later that day, a letter arrives from Housing Benefit- they don't have the evidence from the Job Centre. DH heads over to drop it to the council. They tell us it could be days (rent due tomorrow).
Today the Jobseekers claim finally went live and thus should be backdated. We finally relax, thinking we can do some food shopping and even pay our late council tax. No- it's hugely reduced because they've classed all of my student finance as income, though the vast majority goes straight to nursery for DC, though I did keep specifying that only £4000 pa could be classed as income.
Not only that but we weren't due anything for the first week of DH being unemployed ('waiting period') and now we won't receive anything from the time DH signs off until when he gets his wages after working a month because they 'don't do that anymore'. Four weeks with no money coming in and I have no idea how we will buy food or live. Even if Housing Benefit pull through, we will be well over £1000 overdrawn/ in debt.
That's it really. I just need to rant and vent

[PersianCatLady]

I can't remember what I got but it was not 6k a term. But it did take me over the limit for HB
Obviously it is too late to do anything about it now but I think you were given some really bad (or maybe just plain wrong) advice there.

[lucyandpoppy123]

Does your Uni have a hardship fund? I'm also a Uni student with a DD and have had to use this a few times.
How much is your overdraft? I am always at the end of my overdraft but as a student account at least it is interest free until graduation.
Really strange that they are counting the childcare grant as income - have you given them a full breakdown which says how much is loan, how much is grants etc you can print it off directly from the SF website

[DrCoconut]

I can't remember what I got but it was not 6k a term. But it did take me over the limit for HB. I seem to think I got about 3.5 - 4K (may be wrong) or so but I had to pay full time nursery out of that (I did engineering and had to attend daily), travel costs (I commuted to save money on rent and be near my mum for support) and all living costs so hardly living it up.

[PersianCatLady]

And I got dependants allowance and for my final year childcare grant so I was on more than average
I understand that as that was more or less the system when I was at uni but are you honestly saying that you got £6,000 three times a year?

I checked some of my paperwork and although the amounts varied from term to term the maximum amount I received for any term was £1,500 and the HB threshold around then was £3,000.

[TheProblemOfSusan]

Your university probably has a student hardship fund, or something similar, that can make grants or loans under extraordinary circumstances. It'll be administered by either the students' union or your student services. There will be staff there right now so it's worth a try.

The funds can be quite stringent so you might get knocked back but given your dependents and circumstances it might get you a few hundred pounds or so to help out.

[DrCoconut]

I started uni in 1999. I think the threshold was lower even relatively than now. And I got dependants allowance and for my final year childcare grant so I was on more than average.

[PersianCatLady]

They said that all money in an account is classed as savings and until it dropped below the threshold I wouldn't get any help
I don't understand this as you can have up to £16,000 in savings before you are no longer entitled to HB and the first £6,000 of your savings is not taken into account when calculating HB.

So are you saying that received £6,000 or more three times a year from Student Finance?

[Andbabymakesthree]

Drcoconut there are rules regarding income that it can't be taken into account as capital as well as income. So if you'd required a grant it would be disregarded for the period it was taken into account as income.

Yet still they get it wrong!

[PersianCatLady]

I'm not sure why you thought he could will receive jobseekers after starting a new job?
Under the old scheme if you had been claiming JSA for more than 6 months and then got a job, in some cases JSA was paid for your first 4 weeks of work to help you cope with waiting for your first pay packet.
However this would not help the OP as by the sounds of it her JSA claim won't be running for 6 months.

[PersianCatLady]

Forgot to add, I hope this is helpful to you.

[PersianCatLady]

As long as you started your course before September 2016 this is the advice on grants and benefits:

• Special Support Grant is ignored as income when your benefit entitlement is calculated.
  
• Maintenance Grant is not ignored and your benefits will be reduced further by this grant.

[PersianCatLady]

This is a very simplified explanation of how the JCP would work out your JSA payments as I do not know all of your information.

Unfortunately JSA couple rate for an entire year would be £114.85 * 52 = £5,972.20.

Taking into account you already have income of around £4,000 you would be entitled to around £1,972.20. This figure is dependent on how they have calculated your existing student income which can vary greatly.

Taking £1,972.20 / 52 would give you a weekly JSA figure of £37.93.

As previously stated these figures are very roughly calculated

[DrCoconut]

When DH was a student our tax credit for childcare stopped (the fact that our income was low enough to qualify was what motivated him to go and study to get better qualifications). Tax credits said we didn't need a childcare payment as he was out of work. Student loans said we didn't qualify for a childcare grant as I was working and could pay for it. When I was a student I was advised to claim HB as I had DS1. They said my savings were above the limit. I had no savings it was my student finance on the account. They said that all money in an account is classed as savings and until it dropped below the threshold I wouldn't get any help. The system could not accept that I was paid three times a year and that the money had to last four months, it wasn't savings at all. There are some quite bad flaws in student support for the less typical cases such as mature students with children, and also how it intersects with the benefit system. You end up disqualified from both.

[Vickyyyy]

As far as I am aware, student loans have always counted as income for JSA stuff. I didn't know they didn't do the 4 week add on thing anymore though, thats a bit stupid really as it puts even more barriers on people returning to work. RE. jobcentre not 'recieving' things, have had this so many times. They 'lost' my medical certificate 3 times in the same month..I know the postal service is shit sometimes, but its not that shit. My doctor got sick of having to reissue and got a bit snotty with me, so I got it faxed over and since then got them faxed each time, much to the disgust of the staff who had 'more work' to do because of this, but no way am I going to do without much needed income because they lose so many things at the head office :S Glad I no longer need sick notes as the tribunal decided that my very thick medical file including letters from consultants and specialists, along with scan results, blood tests and my previous operations to try and fix the problem...did infact overrule the opinion of someone who had never met me before and was a midwife in his previous job (thus not knowing anything about my specific condition) and he simply had 3 weeks 'disability training'. And lied (proven lies) in the report about things too.

[Andbabymakesthree]

Dani it's their training! I was the ones who did all the student loan claims because others couldn't understand how to do them... Then I left!

[DaniJade1990]

You are absolutely correct that some of the loan isn't counted, as long as it's a special support grant and parents learning allowance. Some people on here saying you can't dictate to them, well you can if you know they are wrong. I am a student also and they get it wrong that often with me I'm convinced they do it on purpose, or their training is just appallingly shite.

[GreatFuckability]

They won't count the childcare, because as far,as the dwp are concerned you don't need childcare when your dh isn't working.

[tighterthanscrooge]

What about a crisis loan from uni?

[tighterthanscrooge]

Can you apply for a crisis loan from uni?

[panegyricS1]

Could you or he get some temp work?

[Andbabymakesthree]

He's entitled to claim JSA up until the day before he starts new job as long as he continues to job search and sign on :-)

[Andbabymakesthree]

He's entitled to claim JSA up until the day before he starts with as long as he continues to job search and sign on :-)

[ghostspirit]

do you get childtax credits. housing benefit is paid in arrears it will be back dated.

although if he now has a job he will not need to claim job seekers now. you might be able to get some sort of help though depending on earnings.

[caroldecker]

this says childcare grants are ignored.

[Andbabymakesthree]

Income Support is a means tested benefit and therefore student income is taken into account when assessing entitlement. Normally Student Support Income is treated as income by the Department of Work and Pensions for 42/43 weeks of the year from the first benefit week in September (or from the first day of the course for first year students) to the last benefit week in June-(3/9/012-24/6/013and2/9/013-30/6/013)-you can therefore claim Income Support from 24/6/013-2/9/013 if you satisfy the conditions.

The Student Maintenance Loan and the Adult Dependants Grant, and Maintenance Grant are counted as income but subject to certain disregards –the Parental Learning Allowance, Childcare Grant, Special Support Grant are disregarded in full. Some University Bursaries are also disregarded.

For first year students student income is taken into account from the date you register, and for final year students your student income ends when you finish the course.