Crisis Loan - what should I/ shouldn't I do?

[wotuhohohoinat]

Things have kind of reached emergency level in our place and we are applying for a crisis loan tomorrow. Well, I am. DH printed the forms from the internet at work on Friday and we are going to fill them out later today. Is there anyone who has successfully applied for one that can give me some advice about what to expect please?

I had a look on the net and found a number to ring to apply if I lived in Ireland I've got the forms all filled out and I am taking them in today. Everyone send positive thoughts my way!

Well we finally found a number to call and they said they couldn't help us because we chose to pay the rent instead of using the money for food. We thought we were doing the right thing by ensuring the rent was paid.
We're going to take the forms down anyway to the jobcentre and see if it makes a difference. Surely we can't be left with nothing? I have a child to feed FFS.

Does anyone know of anything else we can do?

Surely we can't just be left without food for 3 weeks?

Have you applied for the ESA yet?

Oh and if you pay rent then have you applied for housing benefit too?

Have a look at your payslips over the last year - is there any mention of SSP on any of them (especially in the first 6 months from when you were off ill)? It is very likely that you have already been paid your period of SSP. You need to phone your payroll department and ask. You will need to find out dates from when you received your SSP.

You then need to make a claim - preferably for incapacity benefit if your SSP expired before 27 October, otherwise for ESA.

Phone 0800 055 6688 to make your claim - today.

thanks, LadyMuck, will do

Success?

And with the crisis loan, did you actually apply and get turned down, or did they manage to persuade you not to apply (which is their favourite tactic).

Well, DH applied first and was turned down. He waited for them to make their decision and they told him that we shouldn't have paid our rent if we knew we didn't have enough money for food. That's awful because our landlord relies on our rent to pay the mortgage for the house and it would be so unfair to get him into financial trouble too.

So we went to the Job Centre and they said they don't deal with the crisis loans at all, but she gave me a number to call for benefit help, which I will call tomorrow, with the nuumber you gave me.

It's odd that you can print off the forms for a crisis loan but there is no-where to take them.

When we got home I rang the crisis loan people and told them the situation and applied in my name, and they said yes and gave us some money to last 2 weeks, which I collect tomorrow from teh Job Centre.

On my payslips, it appears I was getting SSP until mid-December, and my union have said that work should have sent me an SP1 form before it ended, which they didn't. I rang them today too and they are sending it.

Glad you have something sorted. Don't delay is getting an ESA claim sorted (and look at housing benefit and council tax benefit too).

Will do. Thanks for all the advice - it's such a complicated system.

You need to confirm with your employer your SSP end date and remind them they have a legal obiligation to send you a SSP1 form as you will need it when you ESA

If the end date is after oct 27th then yes ESA is the right benefit, if end date is prior then its IB.

have a look at ESA on

www.direct.gov.uk

yes the system is complicated and i have many years experience of working within it and sometimes it confuses me!

They had 'forgotten' to send a form. They aren't very competent. (it's a local council, so no surprise!)
My SSP end date was 15th Dec. I'm so glad for MN - you can always find someone to give advice.

Thanks for the link to the website, AYM. It explains it clearly.