Really struggling financially - what can we do?

[SkintyMcWinty]

Name changed for this, but I am a regular

In a nutshell my husband was working a job where we relied on overtime, which was fine. I then got ill so he had to quit his job for 2 months to look after me, and we got into arrears with most bills as benefits took a long time to sort out, mainly the mortgage and a loan. He has now started working again, but is on a wage of just £16,500 a year, taking home about £1,100 a month when are bills alone come to about £1300, before food, petrol and 'extras' (clothes, days out, dentist etc.) He cannot find a better paid job, his wages in this job go up to £18,500 soon and he has a chance to move up the company and he enjoys the job. There is no chance for a second job as he is on 24/7 call, one day off per week which varies (he is only told the night before). I cannot work as I have 2 young children and am really too ill to do anything much, even taking in ironing. As much as I don't like it, I feel we need to see what we are entitled to benefit wise, but it's a minefield. I am currently on DLA, get child benefit and I think working tax credit. Is our income to high for income support and council tax benefit? Are you entitled to housing benefit if you have a mortgage? We cannot go onto intrest only as we have to make 3 full payments in a row (we are still catching up) and we have to prove how we will pay of the mortgage when it is finished (ie. savings, investments) which we cannot. I am really worried about what we are going to do, bills keep flying in from everywhere - we got a £479 water bill through today, and a £142 electricity bill a week ago. We have cut back on luxuries as much as we can, getting rid of sky, stopping the gym but there is nothing else we can do.

Sorry this is quite long, thankyou for bearing with it.

Are you claiming child tax credit? Have you notified them of the change (reduction) in income as you could be entitled to more?

If you are claiming working tax credits, I believe that you don't get child tax credits, you get WTC if you are working(in your case your hubby.
My advice would be to make an appointment with your local job centre plus. I'm on a career break at the moment and claiming financial help for the first time ever. They've been quite helpful, though it can take a few weeks.
You can get housing benefit for a mortgage, but you have to be on income support for 26 weeks before you can apply, or 39 weeks if you've remortgaged...I'm in a similar situation at the moment, but don't have anyone else to shoulder the burden with.
Good luck though. They can't have what you ain't got.
One thing I can say in a positive light is this; ask someone to buy you or lend you the book ' The Secret' and read it.
All the best.

the author is Rhonda Byrne.

Go and use the website entiltedto dot com and see if you are entiltled to anything - no harm in that

You should be getting child tax credit of around £80 per week

Also contact these people

www.cccs.co.uk/

They are a charity and will not benifit from helping you - if that makes sense, they are there to purely help you and advice you. I do think though they will only help if you are more than 8k in debt.

Ring them anyhow and tell them of your situation about your mortgage as they were very good with me when a family memebr was in court having house repossesed and offered lots of advice.

Def entitled to Child Tax Credit even if you are getting Working Tax Credit - you claim as a couple and it's based on combined income and takes into account how many children as well. With 2 children and someone on DLA it could be quite a bit - about £4K per year on earnings less than £20k I think.

Crikey! I think I'll get onto them again myself, they told me I couldn't have both even though I have no earned money coming in.
Thanks for that, and good luck SkintyMc.

Yes you're definitely entitled to child tax credits aswell as working tax credits, your dh will get an extra bit on top of his working tax credits for you being disabled if you get the higher rate care component of dla too. Also did you know that you can claim for childcare from the tax credits even though you're not working? You being on DLA allows this. I don't know if its something you'd want to do but even just to give you a couple of hours break sometimes

Good luck

Thankyou so much, I shall look into all those options. Childcare element sounds great, being a SAHM I really could do with few odd hours break but cannot afford it. Thanks again.

Don't lose hope. Prioritise your mortgage, make sure you make those payments.

Call the water board and ask if you can spread the payments across a few months. Explainn that your husband's salary is going up soon.

Things will get better.

Hope you feel better too.

have you swapped gas / elc / phone / braodband providers etc to the cheapest?

try uswitch to see what you can save

also take a look at 'money saving expert' site (google it) which has LOADS of tip and links to just about every possible way of saving money!

You don't get childcare element unless bopth of you are working more than 16 hours a week, so SAHMs don't get it.

You should certainly get child tax credit - it should be around £80 a week - look here and fill in your details.

www.entitledto.com/

Colditz you can get childcare if one parent is working 16+ hrs and the other is disabled

what about setting up Direct debits for the utility bills?

Paying an amount monthly doesnt hit you so bad as paying a bulk amount each few months

Can you spread the Water Bill over a year by d/d, and others . It is also very high for one year could you go to a meter instead. What bills does your £1300 allow for ?