DS and I need to survive on £64.30 a week for the foreseable future... Can anybody explain to me how to do it before I shut myself?

[Biobytes]

Yes, just that. I can not imagine how I can pay the mortgage, services, let alone food in that money.

Any hints? after looking for a job without success for 10 months, I'm feeling like other than turn myself to casual prostitution I have no idea how to survive.

(Obviously, I'm not serious about starting working nights, but I'm very very desperate!)

You will not have to pay council tax as mainataince is not counted or Tax credits.
You should still be able to apply for income suport, you will not recieve any until April due to mainainace, but after then it is being discounted.
You need to apply for IS in order to get help with the interest part of the mortgage.

If I were in your position I would arrange a mortgage holiday until April.

Then you will have
Money from Ex
Tax credit
Child benefit
IS
and council Tax benefit ie no bill

Life is tough on benefits, always counting those last pennies

you need to get onto the IS to get them to implement chasing the csa for your ex - as he isn't paying they do need to pay...

income support gives you automatic entitlement to council tax benefit, yes, but on the income you've stated you should still qualify - something's gone wrong here. Ring up and clarify with the council.

Mortgage holiday till April is an excellent idea.

That's where my luck gets bad. I was claiming income support, my circumstances have not had changed, apart of my current account being in overdraft at the moment. But they have said they made a mistake and I shouldn't have been receiving it.

So the IS has been interrupted and someway I suspect that will take me off the list to have my mortgage interest paid for me.

You can do a rapid reclaim if you were recieving it in the last 2 weeks, and it should not affect the mortgage interest payment - well it didn't with me

Go on entitled to

Will contact them first thing tomorrow morning.

They have obviously made a huge assumption that you are in full receipt of maintenance hence saying you shouldn't of been receiving IS. As the supposed maintenance is £70 you would be worse off anyway as IS + the £20 you can keep is more than the £70

You need to claim IS telling them you are not in full receipt of maintenance (I assume as you said "according to the CSA calculator", there is nothing formal set up ?) then let THEM chase your ex for the maintenance

Bio another option is to contact the CAB,they will be able to help you with the paperwork,form filling etc and help in accessing the correct benefits payments for you.If you have them on your side they can also lobby the benefits agencies etc if you are having sdifficulty in geting people to listen.HTH.(tHEY WILL PROB NEED TO HAVE PROOF OF PAPERWORK RE YOUR CLAIMS,MAINTENENCE ETC THOUGH.)

if the OP was getting £70 she should be able to keep £14.30 of her IS (£20 gets disregarded - leaving £50 which is taken off the IS.

plus the length of time you have to wait before getting the mortgage interest relief was reduced to 13 weeks earlier this year. Assume it's still the same now

Were you keeping all the maintenance from your ex and the income support? That might be where the confusion is coming from. You cannot keep more than £20 a week maintenance without having your income support reduced. It's actually classed as benefit fraud.

You should be able to go get your child benefit, child tax credits, income support and £20 a week child maintenance.

It sounds like they are saying you will not qualify for Income Support WHILE receiving £70 a week child maintenance, which is correct.

So it would be more worth your while to just ask your ex for £20 a week child maintenance, get all the Income Support and the housing/council tax benefit that comes with it ... as opposed to just the £70 a week maintenance.

At least that way if your ex doesn't pay you your maintenance that week for whatever reason, you will still have the Income Support etc/

Oh no, I'm dead sure I declared how much I was getting on maintenence as the person who interviewed me in the Job Centre commented on it.

I have an appointment with them next week, will let you know how it goes.

Thanks again.

Hi,
I have not read the whole thread, but wanted to say- make sure you always ask about consessions for entertainment/lesire centres. It really helps. You have got to get out occassional to avoid sliping into complete depression.

How have you been doing lately?

"It sounds like they are saying you will not qualify for Income Support WHILE receiving £70 a week child maintenance, which is correct. "

No it's not IS is £64.30 a week. She can "earn" (or get) an extra £20 a week on top of that without it affecting her IS. Anything over £20 is deducted from her IS. So with £70 CSA money, £20 is disregarded, leaving an "extra" £50 - which is taken off the IS - meaning she should still get £14.30 a week from IS.

I understand that. I didn't word it properly. I meant you cannot receive the full £70 a week maintenance and full IS at the same time ... which is correct.

Personally though, I would rather get the full amount of income support and a smaller amount of maintenance for the time being, because you can depend on the IS being paid every month. If her ex messes about, she could end up £70 a week down until Income Support is sorted out again.

See the Job Centre Lone Parent Advisor, and see the CAB, because what you're getting isn't right.

As for the maintenance - whatever he's been assessed at, it's what you actually get that will affect your payments. And re that, phone the CSA.