DP was retired on grounds of ill health last Friday. He'll receive a small pension but it will barely cover rent so we'll need to claim benefits too.
This Friday he'll receive payment in lieu of notice, worth about £4K plus untaken annual leave, about £1.5K. We really need this money to pay off some debts as we won't be able to meet our repayments now our income has gone down. We had no idea we would be in this position just 6 months ago.
Does anyone know if we can claim Housing Benefit and ESA straight away or if we'll be 'banned' for the 12 weeks that the PILON payment covers?
Also, will this money be classed as income for Tax Credits purposes?
I have googled but it seems that there have been recent changes regarding whether PILON is treated as income or capital and I'm confused.
I feel sick with worry about all this. Can't sleep and don't feel able to talk to DP about it as he is very depressed (understandably).
TIA