Good news..changes to maintenance payments and Income Support

[onadietcokebreak]

Good news for anyone who is not entitled to Income Support because maintenance payments exceed the amount payable.

From April 2010 maintenance payments are fully disregarded when assessing Income Support claims. It has already been disregarded when assessing Housing benefit claims from October 08.

If anyone has previously claimed and been turned down it may be worthwhile making a claim again in April.

Hope that helps some people.

www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/m-37-09.pdf

Just realised you dont need to pay a mortgage x

Para 23 of above doc.

Thanks onadietcokebreak. I dont actually have a mortgage to pay thankfully. My ex developed properties & we had a fairly large house almost mortgage free, so I was able to buy a small house for myself & my girls with my settlement. I am very grateful to have my home, but its an expensive millstone round my neck with the constant upkeep costs. Half the time I wish I was in rented with no worries. (Silly though it sounds)

My ex pays as little as he can get away with.

The last 2 no's of my ni are 59.

Wedneday payday so claim from 14th April. Although to be honest anytime from end of march you can claim. Just make it clear that that you are claiming in advance due to the maintenance and let them work out when you are entitled to.

Agree own home can be a millstone when it comes to repairs but at least you arent at the mercy of a landlord wanting you to move.

If you get I.S you will also get full council tax benefit (if you dont already)

I meant the 15th....(been a while since I did this) Just reclaim from end of march/beginning of April. Will then allow for delays in processing

Cool. Ill give them a call sometime end of March or beginning of April. Avoid the probable rush of new claimants.

You are right, at least I cant throw myself out. Lol!!

Thankfully I already get full CTB. Its a big help.

Many thanks for all your advice. I still can hardly believe this. Pinch me someone.

Am glad that this post helped a few people and I am going to make sure as many people that will benefit from this change know about it come end March/ beginning of April.

I know some people dont agree with this change but this thread wasnt about opinions. It was about informing people who this change will benefit.

Having worked in benefits for years I have seen the numerous failings of the system. I never agreed with maintenance being taken into account from the adults allowance when CTC paid for the child.

I also saw the hassle and hardship customers had if the NRP never paid and the long wait for benefit to be readjusted. It was also costly to administer these changes and there will be cost savings with the new changes.

Some Lone parents who had maintenance were also regularly held to ransom by the NRPs re access and other issues with the threat of maintenance withdrawal. If they didnt receive the money they knew the hassle of reporting the change.

For those who think benefits is a life of riley I can assure you its not. Short term it may be managable. Long term it gets harder. There will always be people who work the system. However the majority of people are just normal hardworking citzens who for one reason or another have fallen on hard times.

onadietcokebreak thanks again for bringing it to our attention and it will make a HUGE diff to me,not only for the extra money but for the opps for help/training back into work which i've been denied 'til now

the thing which get me most about all of this- what happens to the childrne whose absent parents dont pay maintenance? i have 4 dc's and dont get any maintenance at all, this is because the father is a complete asshole waster who cant keep a fucking job for more than 3 weeks. so, why is it fair that my children have to live on the poverty line, when someone else can get IS as well as maintenance from their ex?

Thought id bump this one up as its almost time for the ruling change.