Advice to help my mum please?

[IneedYourHelp1]

Hi, always receive great advice of MN. Will keep it as short as possible without drip feeding. My mum does not work currently due to severe mental health issues, I don’t see her DR deeming her fit for work for the near future. She’s claiming universal credits, we sat down and worked out her outgoing yesterday, let’s say she gets £600 a month, her outgoings are completely gone on just bills and debts, it leaves her with -£3. This is without including petrol, food OR electric. I don’t know how to help her, I cook her some food every evening and take it over to her. Thank you in advance for any replies/advice.

Has she applied for PIP? Or even DLA?

She needs to apply for new style esa

I don't know much about it but isn't there an extra element she can claim under Limited Capability for work? or is that already included in her £600?

Is she entitled to PIP? Does she have a mortgage or rent, and does that amount include help with housing costs?

Can you list her outgoings? Has she spoken to one of the debt assistance charities for support in reducing her payments?

Does the £600 include rent payments? She should get that paid.

Has she been found unfit for work? Once you are passed the qualifying period and assessed then long term sickness gets paid at slightly higher rate than at the start.

If it doesn’t include food or electric or petrol does she have a lot of loans or debts? You should look into reducing payments if this is the case. It’s not much but should have some left for food unless her rent is huge

Realistically you need to be looking at the debt repayments and speaking to a charity about them as her income has substantially changed and unlikely to improve.

They can help work out what's realistic and present options for that to happen.

This may take the form of an IVA, but if your mum can't pay back the debt it's better to tackle this head on now rather than waiting for defaults and bailiffs to be a realistic outcome.

Also make sure she's claiming for everything she's eligible for, specifically PIP to maximise her chances of having enough money to cover the basics.

Does she live alone? If she does she can get 25% off her council tax.
Is she on a water meter? She may make a saving if she gets one and the local water company might have devices that means her consumption is further reduced.

@Eightandahalfyears

She needs to apply for new style esa

New style ESA would be deducted form UC pound for pound so she would be no better off by claiming it. Op - has she started the work capability process and been assessed ? Has she been sent a UC50 form to complete? Once assessed a s having Limited capability for work and work related activity ( LCWRA ) then she will receive an extra element on her Uc claim. The only other benefit to claim is council tax reduction and PIP if you think she qualifies for PIP.

@copernicium

Has she applied for PIP? Or even DLA?

New DLA claims are only for children.

Thank you for all the replies. She does get PIP as well sorry this was included in the calculations. I'm going to make phonecalls tomorrow to the debt companies to see if she's already paying the minimum amount, she sais she already is. Its like a vicious cycle that she can't get out of or win. Really good advice here that I will follow thank you so much!

Debt charities should be able help there is a difference between mim payments on a credit card and what you can pay with things like a debt relief plan where interest is frozen and v v low limit is paid off instead. You sound lovely trying support your mum.

@IneedYourHelp1

Thank you for all the replies. She does get PIP as well sorry this was included in the calculations. I'm going to make phonecalls tomorrow to the debt companies to see if she's already paying the minimum amount, she sais she already is. Its like a vicious cycle that she can't get out of or win. Really good advice here that I will follow thank you so much!

Does she get the LCWRA element of UC ?

You need to look at all aspects of her life
Housing
Car
expenditure

Seek help from debt charities such as StepChange or Christians Against Poverty, rather than going directly to the companies she owes money to, they will be able to negotiate a better outcome than you individually.

Have a look at the website of her electricity provider, there may well be schemes for helping people who are experiencing heating poverty. There is a calculation for what percentage of your income is spent on heating, and it sounds as though she might well be able to get help.

Also ask GP for a referral to a food bank, a couple of weeks of food would be a godsend to her while all this was being sorted out.

Second/third the debt help advice. If the debts are unsecured, ie not a mortgage or other secured loan, they're low priority and she should be seeking help if she cannot afford them after she has paid all her essential bills, paid for food etc.

he should not be cutting down on essentials to pay unsecured debts. These come last and if she doesn't have enough money left, that's the trigger for needing proper help.

What's her housing situation? I'm guessing if she's only entitled to £600 pm including PIP then she owns her house outright? If that's the case, and it looks like she cannot work in the short to medium term, the best solution could be to look at moving somewhere smaller and/or cheaper to release money to pay off the debts and top up her income going forward. But someone needs to look at the full picture to identify the best solution.

How old is she and what's her pension like?

Because if she's a homeowner she won't qualify for a Debt Relief Order and bankruptcy could lead to her losing her home anyway, and if her debts are more than a very small amount, a debt management plan could drag on for years too.

I agree the debt needs to be addressed. One of the charities should be able to help with consolidation/payment plan.

Could you post her outgoings to see if anyone has any ideas on how to cut them?

I’m just waiting for her to come over so I can get the exact amount of incomings/outgoings and will post. She doesn’t own her house, in fact she’s privately renting and even that is only £300 a month (we live rural, so she’s very lucky in that aspect- her landlord is her next door neighbor).
To try and answer some questions I already know- she is 46 with a poor pension.
She doesn’t get the LCWRA element- not sure why?
Her electricity provider is one of the things she’s in a massive debt with, they have just installed a smart meter and she said just going to bed and waking up costs her £3!
She’s just arrived so I will get exact figures and post soon, again thank you everyone!

If her rent is £300 and she gets pip her uc payment doesn't sound like it's correct. If you get the breakdown of the payments she receives you'll get better advice but it does sound like she's not claiming for something she should.

OK, if she rents so doesn't have any assets, although you mention petrol so does that mean she's trying to run a car? How much is it worth?

A debt relief order might be the way to go, which will get rid of the debts, but she'll still struggle on only £600 as that's not enough for rent, council tax, other bills, food and car bills.

I don't understand benefits enough to know if that entitlement is correct, I know it's especially low when people don't have dependent DC, but if she does get PIP, that does recognise that she's unable to work, so I would have thought she should be entitled to more than that, can she ask CAB to do a benefits check?

Is she entitled to the warm home discount towards her utilities? It's not much, but every little helps. Also have a look on Moneysavingexpert, there's advice on all sorts of things.

For example, if her illness qualifies as 'severe mental impairment' she can get a discount on her council tax. Have a look at:

www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/severe-mental-impairment-dementia-council-tax-rebate/

Might also be something useful here:

www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/mental-health-guide/

@IneedYourHelp1

I’m just waiting for her to come over so I can get the exact amount of incomings/outgoings and will post. She doesn’t own her house, in fact she’s privately renting and even that is only £300 a month (we live rural, so she’s very lucky in that aspect- her landlord is her next door neighbor). To try and answer some questions I already know- she is 46 with a poor pension. She doesn’t get the LCWRA element- not sure why? Her electricity provider is one of the things she’s in a massive debt with, they have just installed a smart meter and she said just going to bed and waking up costs her £3! She’s just arrived so I will get exact figures and post soon, again thank you everyone!

If she has energy debt then get in touch with the British Gas Energy Trust. They can offer grants for fuel debt to help clear the slate for those really in need of it. You don't need to be a customer of British Gas to be eligible for their help.

The grant is normally one off, but if it clears debt to zero that's better than losing £3 to the meter every day just in the weekly recovery rate for debt on the prepayment meter. Incidentally £21 a week for a debt recovery rate sounds rather high for someone in financial distress - the energy company should be able to lower it if British Gas Energy Trust can't help.

@IneedYourHelp1

I’m just waiting for her to come over so I can get the exact amount of incomings/outgoings and will post. She doesn’t own her house, in fact she’s privately renting and even that is only £300 a month (we live rural, so she’s very lucky in that aspect- her landlord is her next door neighbor). To try and answer some questions I already know- she is 46 with a poor pension. She doesn’t get the LCWRA element- not sure why? Her electricity provider is one of the things she’s in a massive debt with, they have just installed a smart meter and she said just going to bed and waking up costs her £3! She’s just arrived so I will get exact figures and post soon, again thank you everyone!

So if she doesn't get the LCWRA element you need to ask her if she has ever filled in a Uc50 form . If she hasn't then she needs to request one be sent to her asap. I assume she has been handing in sick notes ? Or has she been assessed and only been awarded LCW which does not get any extra money added unless the claim was pre 2017.

£300 is basic level Uc for adult not sick or disabled how much PIP surely even lowest care would be extra £80 month. She can’t be getting rent pip and UC all in for £600

I’ve no idea what my electric rate is not fixed or anything low and over night it’s about 25p from Midnight to around 10am. Are they debts on the meter? She must be on what £9 a day before she does anything

Are you able to help her monitor her new smart meter at all?

It's not impossible that the meter is faulty, and racking up much larger usage than she actually has.
It all must be a hugely stressful situation for her, poor lady.