Money sucks

[MummyPigHarryPig]

Hi I’m new here just after some advice :(

Things for my partner and I have got tough money wise. I am not currently working although trying to fins work. I’m in university and my partner is on minimum wage. Student loans don’t cover much and not very helpful every 3 months then nothing between April and October.

My 3 year old was going to day nursery only once week and we had to take him out after getting behind with the payments. They keep asking us for the money but we just can’t afford it. Since he’s stopped going his behaviour has gone terrible. Not sure if it’s a coincidence.

We are getting behind with the rent, bills and have no gas on currently so no heating or hot water.

We are entitled to nothing except child benefit as I am a student. I keep trying to apply for loans but not one person will help us. I am getting desperate.

We have asked family and friends for help but can’t keep doing this as it is getting too often.

My brother owes me £500 from a year ago for a car but we do not speak anymore and has since sold the car!

I am feeling so crap at the moment and I am sure other people are in the same situation as us but I don’t know what to do. We’ve had a court hearing come through for getting behind on the council tax but partner paid it leaving us with £20 until the 28th :(

Wish I knew what I could do!

Are you sure you’re not entitled to anything? Have you done the calculator: www.entitledto.co.uk/

Hi thanks for your reply but I can’t fill it in accurately as it doesn’t give results for a full time student :(

It doesn’t ask you if you’re a student so I’m not sure where you’re running into problems - you’d just put zero in for your income if you don’t have any. I just ran a dummy calc using your partner as the main claimant, with full time minimum wage earnings and it’s saying that you’d be entitled to tax credits and housing benefit.

Try running it again?

Speak to your uni as I was looking to start this year and they said that the would pay nursery fees for my children so I could attend. I thibk it was arpund 90 per cent of the nuser fees. You could also look for a pt evening job maybe?

Ask council tax if you can pay weekly if you need to so it prevents you getting behind. It’s the one bill you should always pay first due to it being a tax and court costs quickly turn to bailiffs turning up and costs escalating faster than any other unpaid demand

Do council tax know your a student? Do you get 25% of ?

Has your dp put in for housing benefit and council tax relief? If you apply then they will let you know if your entitled - apply now most councils you can do it on line and then it will start from today if you are eligible

students don't pay council tax. you have to get a letter from your uni/college to send to the council stating when your studies start and end and you will be exempt from council tax.

I never paid any council tax when at Uni, the bill only came through when my studies finished.

Her partner will need to pay council tax though, although he’ll get the 25% discount. Have you spoken to student services at the university?

Has your area switched to Universal Credit? Even so I'm pretty sure you'd still be entitled to something because your partner is working.

Have you tried phoning tax credits and actually asking them?

Your 3 year old should be getting the 15 hours which would cover 2 full days at nursery during term time-have you spoken to your childcare provider about this?

Surely when you applied to go to uni you worked out your finances/childcare etc?

You should get a parents learning grant (not sure what it’s called)
You should get childcare paid for either through a grant from the uni or through tax credits.
You should get housing benefit etc.

Why don’t you go to a citizens advice centre and go through everything with them, they will help you access the correct grants/benefits.

I missed that- your 3 year old should be getting 15 funded hours at nursery. Some private nurseries may want to you too up but a council led preschool should be completely free for the 15 hours.

Your partner should've phoned them to agree a payment plan, but it's a bit late now unfortunately.
Go to your nearest CAB for some financial advice. They can also issue you foodbank vouchers if necessary.
Also, stop applying for loans. You will only damage your credit rating and as much as it seems like a loan will fix everything right now you'll be worse off down the line.
Say you borrow £2000 at just 10% interest for 12 months, which isn't too bad if your credit rating isn't the best (I suspect it's not given your rejections) . That £2000 would be useful for now but then you've got to find approx £50 a week to pay it. If you're struggling now to afford food and heating, where's that going to come from?
Soon enough the payments will bounce, you'll have debt collectors at the door and you'll be in even more trouble.
I know the desperation you're feeling sweetheart but this isn't going to help you

What you need to do, is get in touch with cab. Stepchange can help too if you have unmanageable debts.

In the short term, look at your spending. Where is the money going? What's coming in and what's going out? What can you cut out?
Are you meal planning, ordering groceries where it's cheaper to do so? Eg if it's costing you £5 in travel expenses you're better off getting a £1-£2 Flexi slot.
Are your gas and electric providers the cheapest? Internet and so forth? Look at what you can cut down and do it as quickly as possible.
If you have debts go to stepchange they'll help you work out a payment plan that still leaves you enough for essentials.
Also, when your student loan comes through consider splitting it into monthly payments. So if you're getting £1500 every 3 months instead of spending it all at once, split it into £500 chunks.

You won't be entitled to JSA or some such but you may be entitled to some form of child tax credits (possibly wtc).

Is looking for a part time job an option? Even 0hrs. If you're not claiming benefits it could be a good option. You may not always have hours but fit them in whenever you can and it might help you make a dent in your outgoings. It's not ideal if you're claiming tax credits though as the system isn't set up for people on 0hrs which is crap but that's the way it is.

Hope this has been helpful, don't give any info you're uncomfortable with but mumsnet helped me a few years back by getting me to list my outgoings and helped me cut back. We were both living on £1100 a month (joint income) and it was so bloody tough but we did manage to cut back by about £100 a month and get our shit together.
Good luck

Evening all.

We've some reports from MNers concerned about this thread. So, as we usually do, we're putting our heads round the door with some important reminders.

Right now we can't see any evidence to indicate that the OP isn't above board. If we did, we'd remove the thread straight away. But the truth is that, sadly, we at MNHQ can't know with 100% certainty that any poster is genuine, no matter who they are or how long they have been here. As frustrating as it is, we're not able to vouch for anyone here.

So we always ask everyone to remember that not everyone on the internet is who they say they are – and remind folk not to give more to another poster, either financially (in cash or gifts) or emotionally (in time or care and support) than they'd be prepared to lose if things went wrong.

Sorry to hijack your thread briefly there, OP. We hope you get it sorted soon.

OK, current situation not sustainable so change needed. If you are behind on the rent and can't heat the house, you will be evicted if nothing changes.

Can you suspend your course and go to work? Can you tag team with your partner over child care with more jobs?

Lots of other good advice above so get on that phone.