Who else is "Nouveau Poor" and only able to claim £60pw JSA until next April??

[Milliways]

Cos it sucks!

DS is claiming JSA but because we have earned over threshold for Tax credits this year we cannot claim anything else (even EMA for DD) until April!

I am still working 28hpw so some money coming in - but my money barely covers the Mortgage let alone other bills.

Hopefully by April we won't need anything, hopefully DH will have a job by then, but I fancy a bit of support from here sometimes with tips etc on eeking out our dissappearing savings.

FAQ - maybe. Good idea. We need to see what Insurance company decide anyway as if they write it off the loan car goes back and we eventually get some cash.

Presumably come April you will also get an income tax refund too.

Got anything you can sell? I would really consider putting one car off road and cancel the road tax & insurance if dh needs the car whilst you are at work he could drop you off at work & pick you up?

Depends how much your insurance and road tax are tbh.

Yes we will do a Tax return asap in April.

DH's Insurance was a lot (large car) bur mine will go up now as he is a named driver who has had an accident!

We did well at Christmas. We didn't buy eachother anything, and kids accepted this year was a cut-back time (they are old enough as Teenagers) and had lots of bits rather than any large thing. We don't buy for any other adults except our Parents and then only small things, so just nieces & nephews.

DD is applying to Universities now so we will apply for all student loans etc available if needed next year.

I really appreciate all the suggestions/advice/support. MN continues

with car insurance look at putting your voluntary excess payment up by quite a bit.

There are some links to car insurance (and gas & elec providers) comparison site on moneysavingexpert.com

Yes, thanks! I think MoneySavingExpert will be my new MN!

I wish you all the best Milliways. It's tough. My last partner was made redundant 3 times and I can remember how hard it was to make money stretch, and the constant worry about it all.

Have you booked to go to France next year yet, or is that on hold too?

Hi Surfgirl!

No, we wanted to do something different next Summer as it will be DD's last holiday with us before she leaves for Uni. Ho hum, if we get back to France I will be happy (we had a FAB time with Matthews at Bretignolles this Summer - best Teen site we have been to and RIGHT on the beach!).

Things are tight for us too - dh's campervan conversion business is slow at the moment, so he's taxi driving and I've increased my hours to 4 days per week to keep the income up.

But we do have enough Tesco vouchers to book a Siblu holiday at Whitsun, and we've found a site that takes tourers, so we shall take our campervan.

That's good - DH lusts after campervans, dreams of touring the US in one.

Hope things pick up for you both in the New Year too.

It's transformed camping weekends for us. We leave the van packed, throw a change of clothes in a bag and go.

When we arrive we park and open the wine.

And I get to sleep on a memory foam mattress and have a reading light.

And I can make breakfast while still in bed.

Call yourself a Camper!

Sounds fab!

re the bill for the car which is a write off, is it not covered by your insurance? failing that if it's on HP when XH & I got our car we opted for the additional insurance that if it was written off, and our own insurance didn't cover the value the second insurance would cover it for us if that makes sence? was all done in with the HP agreement thou.

Yes, it is fully comp insured, so we will only have to pay excess (which DH wants to claim of COuncil for having such awful road with that many accidents and no action!), and then whatever the new premiums are in Feb - if we get the car back.

It doesn't help much, but for any of you that are pregnant, don't forget that the surestart maternity grant can be claimed up to 3 months after your baby is born. So that would take you into April, which means that you can claim on the basis of your new tax credit award in April.

No RIven, Income Support is means tested on annual Income from April. From April till November we had 2 Incomes which have exceeded the Annual Threshold so we can have have nothing except the JSA.

Lou: Sooooo glad I'm not preganant as well!!

Milliways, who is telling you that "Income Support is means tested on annual Income from April"?

Personally I suspect that your weekly wage means that you are not yet entitled to income support, but I'm intrigued to this reference to annual income. Tax credits are based on annual income, but not income support.

To apply for Tax credits you have to state how much you earned LAST tax year (too much) and then if this year will be less (Yes) then what have you earned to date.

I am only on around £15k pa, so my income alone is under the thresold but factor in DH's salary to date, we have earned more than the annual threshold for Tax credits. We have phoned many a help line to see what if anything we can claim - Nada until April.

Seem STUPID that if you are made redundant in April, can claim straight away, but in November, you can't!!!

Sorry - mixing Tax Credits and Income Support. I think Income Support cannot be claimed until Savings gone/below a level? We have tried.

We are there with you, total nightmare, rubbish time of year to get a job anyway, December, but at the moment, looks bleak. Whole benefit system just a nightmare, can't work it out, haven't even claimed jsa because only just got the letter through telling me what my child benefit number is, why on earth we need to have this number to claim when it isn't a means tested benefit I don't know, ggrrr

Hope you get your claim sorted soon. DH finds it a nightmare at his weekly/fortnightly visits. The loos are out of bounds because of druggies. The staff are harassed and never seem to care about his evidence of job hunting that they insist you take.

We asked about the help with paying to get to an interview, but you have to apply in advance, so when DH had a phone call saying COme to London tomorrow, he phoned the JSA place and they said he needed to apply earlier but in circumstances could apply later. When he tried they said would only pay if they could phone the COmpany and confirm he attended - NOT the image that DH was trying to convey in his interview (Foreign Company as well) so we left it.

just seems such a struggle to get anything when all you want is a little help from a system you happily pay into when you're earning

Yep - sure does

Have a good New Year anyway