CAN ANYONE HELP WITH INCOME SUPPORT QUERIES???

[justonemorecookie]

Hi.
just needed some help with income support queries really. my husband and i are on the verge of splitting up. i would have to leave as the house comes with his job. Ive looked into private renting with my dd and work 16 hours a week, but was told i could be better of cutting my hours a little to claim income support. help. x

income support atm is £59.15 a week you can keep the first £20 you earn after that it is taken of your IS. But with this you get all your dental, prescriptions and eye tests free so if you just get a little bit of IS it makes it worth while. Most councils will put you as a prioriity as you will be homeless with a depandant. I dont konw what HB you will get for a private rented accomodation although with most councils if you recieve IS all or most of your rent is paid for you. HTH all the best. Let me know how you get on.
xx

The difference between 1.what you will get on IS plus earning £20 per week on top(you can keep this) plus housing benefit, and 2.doing your 16 hours like you are with (I imagine) tax credits, will be negligable.

So you will probably be better off on IS as you will, as poster above said, get free dental etc, plus free school meals which you don't get on family tax credit. Oh, and you can keep the first £10 of any maintenance you might get.

I get free dental, prescriptions etc via tax credits - probably because my income is so low (I live on a student loan which is about the same amount as IS) but have a friend who works part time and gets them too. Might be worth talking to someone like citizens advice before making a decision?

So is income support £59.15, I dont get anything for my dd. And you dont get any other credits or benefits? I understand I would get all my rent paid, and prescriptions etc. And your saying I get £20 a week of my wages (is that all im allowed to earn). Thats not a great deal to live on at the end of the day is it. What about bills and running a car etc.
All im saying is at the moment im working 16 hours a week and getting roughly £500 a month. I phoned tax credits and told them this and what my childcare costs would be if i left my husband and with that they said i would get approx £252 a month working tax credits and £372 child tax credits (which I would have to pay my childcare costs out of). So with my child benefits and child maintenance from husband I would be getting roughly £1500 a month. I know I would only get a percentage of my rent paid for if i rented privately but still its a hell of a lot more than income support.
Dont get me wrong, I am just so confused and want to do whats best for my daughter, and am also so scared of doing it on my own. xx

You will still get all your child tax credits that you get now, plus your IS of 59.15 plus £10 of your maintenance, plus Hbenefit, plus child benefit, and you can earn more than £20 but they will take anything over £20 off you so not worth it.

BTW how much maintenance do you get? If it's more than £70 a week, don't bother claiming income support as you will be no better off...they will take all but a tenner of it back off you.

Dont jack your job in cause you think you will be better off on IS as the longer you are out of the work force the harder it is to get back into it, you can still get housing and council tax benefit whilst working 16 hours, you will get to keep the whole lot of maintenance, and you will still be able to claim for prescriptions if you are on a low enough income as you dont just need to be on a means tested benefit to get this, look at this site and play with some figures www.entitledto.co.uk

Yes, cos of the fact that you can keep all maintenance without tax credits taking it into account(as I said before, depends really how much this is exactly, the maintenance) the above poster has given good advice.

If you work less than 16 hours you wont get any help with childcare fees so you'll need to factor that in.

Usually working 16 hours and claiming WTC leaves you better off than IS as you get to keep any maintenance as well.

Thank you all so much for your advice. I am going to Citizens Advice this morning as they have all the calculaters on the computers so they can give me different scenarios. I think personally i will be better off working 16 hours a week still and claiming working tax credit, child tax credit and getting housing benefit,.
I think its all wrong, as I phoned the council and they couldnt give me an approximate figure as to how much rent they would pay if i rented privately. They said I needed to find a property first, but how can i find a property when i dont know how much I can afford, Its all wrong I say. xx

cookie, ask the housing people what their rent ciling is for a 2 bedroom ( or whatever you are looking for) before you set your budget. They should tell you that as they are nringing inthis thing where they set an agreed rent for the area and any difference you are liable for yourself.
That's the problem I have at the moment ( £130 difference a month currently) and you'd still be liable for that on IS I'm told. Worth thinking about when you look for somewhere.
Surely though if you tell the council you have to leave and the house comes with his job then that makes you homeless and you can get bumped up the housing list a bit?

i would probably be put in a hostel then.

Hi Guys

Just need advise for a friend. She's recently split from her partner. She's applied for Income Support, she's been turned down, apparently because the Child Benefit is in her ex's name. She has two kids 2/5. Is there anything she can do? Can she appeal? She got the letter today and is very down.

...I'm sure maintenance does not effect income support (since a change was made in 2010)...

I think child benefit must be under her name, her ex shouldn't be able to receive it anymore. so she has to change it to hers. she can get advice and help from citizens advice bureau.