Are we entitled to anything?

[Howmanysleepstilchristmas]

DH has become increasingly disabled (multiple conditions) over the last year and a half and has had no income for the last year. He kept thinking it’d improve so didn’t claim, but has finally given in. UC allocated zero because of my wage, though we only have £800 a month to feed our family/ pay petrol for my work after bills/ mortgage. The account doesn’t mention the reduced capability for work bit, and they said that hasn’t been reviewed yet. He’s applied for PIP and ESA too, but apparently it’s 75 days for a PIP decision and wouldn’t be paid until months after if granted. Is this right? Is there any hope he may be eligible for something? Is there anything I’ve missed, or any help available sooner? I know we should have applied earlier but he’s never wanted to stop working and it felt like giving up.

Yes it’s taking a while at the moment, they do backdate a bit though I believe. Does he have any insurances that could cover about if he’s had to give up work? £800 for food and petrol doesn’t seem to bad though, unless there’s other things it needs to cover too?

Apply it will be backdated if he's successful, he might need to appeal, I don't understand why he isn't entitled to ESA though.

no decision on ESA yet.
is £800 not bad? School dinners are £50 a month each for the two dc, and weekly shops are £150-180, so that’s £100 to, well, zero left for petrol, clothes, haircuts…. anything that isn’t a bill/ mortgage/ insurance. Maybe I need to review my food shopping- I thought I was pretty frugal!

Hopefully he will get ESA . I don't know anything about universal credit sorry.

No, I’ve checked the life insurance and only terminal illness is covered. If it comes to it I could cancel that to save £80 a month. Already cancelled sky/ Netflix etc. Don’t want to cancel pet insurance and that’s really all that is left.

I think you’ll have to pare down your weekly shop to £100. It’s do-able and there are lots of threads on here and the internet showing you how. The ESA decision shouldn’t take that long.

Pip has a massive backlog yes. It could take months to actually get the award. But they back pay it from the day you started the claim.
I'm on it and my award has been extended several times as my forms are stuck in the system. But I don't mind as I'm already getting paid. So yes, you could be waiting a while.

Do your children need school dinner everyday?

Your shopping bill seems quite high - we’ve recently upped ours from £60 to £80 a week.

Oh and does your husband get freee prescriptions? If not look at signing up to the pre pay scheme.

That sounds tough and I have no idea if there is any help you can access sooner. For the kids it might be worth asking the school, would you be eligible for free school meals for example?

If not I think you could make some more savings e.g going without haircuts for a few months. Packed lunches....make a load of cheese rolls cupcakes and freeze them so its easy to just chuck a roll, cake yogurt and some fruit in a lunchbox in the morning.

Weekly food might need to become a bit mods boring and repetitive. Some cheap meals are -
Jackets with cheese and beans
Homemade veg soup ( can chuck in a can of beans or some lentils before blitzing. Can also serve with toasted sarnies. Snacks can be chopped apple and peanut butter or carrots sticks and hummus. Batches of spag bol which can ba adapted to cottage pie or chilli. Frozen fish is cheaper home made potato wedges instead of chips etc.

Also its summer so more opportunities for cheap days out with picnics rather than expensive indoor activities.

You can try for free school meals from your council, the application form will be on their website, you may need to reapply if you receive LCW on your UC or a Pip award if you don't qualify just now. Apply before the end of term so that you get the school uniform grant for next term.

If they had pack lunch whilst waiting for the PiP money you could do it a lot cheaper then £50 a month each. £150-£180 a week for food shopping is quite high, we tend to spend £120 a week for 4 of us which includes pet food and nappies, and we don’t try to budget.

@Howmanysleepstilchristmas the best thing you can do is write down every single outgoing no matter how small and see where you can save. Pip will be backdated but they are taking time to process claims. Good luck x

PIP will back date.
I would try and cut back on the food shop. Don’t cancel pet insurance as chances are if you do something will happen and you will have a huge vets bill (been there).

Don't cancel your life insurance if you can possibly help it. You would struggle to get a new policy if your DH is ill now and if you did his current conditions' would almost certainly be excluded from the cover.

We are a family of 5.

One disabled child (teen) and two primary age. DH and I.

We love Aldi and Waitrose. We don't have a budget as such and pick up absolutely everything we want at Aldi. It's about £180 a week including alcohol. We then do about £100 a month of odd bits from Waitrose. Say £850 all in.

If we had to go frugal for a couple of months, I'd lose the Waitrose and could very very easily get the Aldi for £125 a week. Closer to £500. Add your £100 for school dinners, then you've got £200 left over. That's fine. It's only for a couple of months.

Thanks for all the advice.
No option for packed lunch at our school unfortunately and free lunches only available if you receive benefits, which we don’t at the moment.
Any more cheap meal/ snack suggestions welcome- looks like I could definitely do better. I think I’ve been focusing on healthy cheapish food and not just cheap!

There’s an fb group called feed your family for £20 a week that has some principles that we follow. Aldi is consistent in its pricing but we often get some fab reduced items from the main supermarkets that often go in the freezer. Also there may be some random manufacturer offer at the main shops that makes an Aldi item less value for money.

Do a stocktake of all the food you have in the house and try and meal plan. We also don’t buy processed foods as it’s cheaper.

Why can’t they have packed lunch?

£800 a month for food and petrol is pretty good I think? At least short term anyway until he gets PIP.

you could try and get job seekers? Not sure if that’ll be possible with a PIP claim but it’s £90 a week and isn’t means tested.

Do you eat lots of lentils and beans as they are healthy and cheap? We base our diet around them. Red kidney beans taste meaty.

You may be able to get support from your local council https://www.gov.uk/cost-living-help-local-council

We have a couple of cheap meals a week like jacket potato cheese and beans, pasta bake, omelette. Then other meals are generally homemade things such as spaghetti bol bulked out with lots of veg and also a tin of lentils and we freeze some, cottage pie, sausage and mash, cheese days with different homemade sauces (tomato, mushroom, pesto). For snacks cheese and crackers with grapes or apple, or yoghurt pooled into bowls with cut up fruit. don’t buy pre made snacks. Breakfast porridge with fruit or overnight oats.

Has your DH been seeing his GP? If so, I believe his claim can start from the relevant time and the claim can be backdated (mine was).

He has, but no fit note til he decided to claim as no employer to give it to.

The fit notes need to be sent via the Gov website if he does decide to claim ESA. Hope it helps