Im annoyed on my friends behalf! Please tell me she can get help!!

[tammybear]

Maybe its just me, maybe! But I think this is absolutely stupid to put it without swearing! This is her situation. She's 30, 20 weeks pregnant, has a 5 year old ds and a 2.5 year old dd. Shes got a house through housing assosiation. Father of dd and baby no.3 had an affair which friend found out about. He left. Still sees children. But (and this is the point where I get even more angry on her behalf of her situation) she isnt entitled to any benefits!!!

A guy said she cant get income support, which I think is just stupid as I got IS when I was a SAHM with dd. So cos of this, she is unable to get housing benefit to keep up with rent payments. She is getting child tax credit but thats not enough to live on. She is going to CAB to see if they can ring up on her behalf, and Im gonna go to Job centre and get an income support claim form (someone please correct me if thats the wrong place to go to get one, i was just told that it comes from there)

Please can someone give me some advice that I can pass on to her? Her ex is refusing to help pay for rent etc even though his dd is still living with her. Although father of ds1 is being helpful and so are her parents. Thanks.

how on earth can she not be entitled to IS? does she work?

sorry, also who said that she cant get any benefits? CAB should really clear this all up for her. what a shit of an ex by the way.

no shes not working. shes a SAHM with two kids, another on the way. and she was told on monday her benefits have been stopped. im not sure which benefits these are, just what my mum told me. i just think its absolutely ridiculous. how do they expect her to live?

She should be able to get Maternity Allowance - also probably Income Support as she has 2 kids. The Jobcentre should be able to give the relevant forms - they should also be able to give the forms for Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit. Once the IS has been assessed and is in payment, the Housing Benefit should follow.
The benefits have probably been stopped for a minor reason, such as not returning a Review Form, not providing a piece of information requested or not turning up to sign on. She should contact her local DWP office asap to find out why.

Oh also, she should contact the Housing Association to let them know she is trying to sort out her benefits. Then when she goes into arrears they will know why.

the benefots dept WILL stop her benefits as her situation has changed.

it is her responsability to chase up the benefits agency fill in the relevent form and make sure they are back dated. the longer it takes for her to do this the more money she will end up owing in rent as HB will only backdate to date of claim.

you can tell the H/A whats going on - but its not going to make much difference. there are standard proceedures and she will get taken to court once she has not paid rent for 2MONTHS.

she need to go to CAB. she needs to contact shelter as they have legal experts and a letter fro them can vastly change a given situation - say to the housing association or to the benefits department - and she can ask someone at the CAB to be an advocate for her and on her behalf if she gets muddled with forms

she has spoken to H/A, and they have said to her that she doesnt have to worry about the rent this month although of course they're gonna expect it at sometime. i think from the sounds of it, that when her situation changed, she was then told she couldnt get IS although she wasnt getting it before as she had her ex at home with her. Im gonna talk to her tomorrow and find out more.

well its noce someone should say that to her on the phone - however i think you should let her know that legally in 2 months she will be taken to court and eviction proceedings will take place.

please remember to get her to ask for peoples names and for the things people say to be sent to her in writing - so for instance if someone toldher not to worry about the rent - then she was being kicked out beucase she wasn't worrying - but she couldnt prove it - she would be stuck

make sure she gets her forms and filled in ASAP. she should get chilkd benefit, tax credits, income support/incapcity benefit/maternity allowence (only one). she will also be asked to fill i na section to sayshe will allow the CSA to chase up her ex. she will be given housing benefit forms to fill out, but also speak to local council for the rigth forms, i have never used the ones that go with the IS pack.

wish her luck. if she can fill in teh forms in the office tomorrow, then make sure she takes ID, bank statments, kids birth certificates, tax credit letter etc. the more info u take down the 1st time the less likely it is to be filled in incorrectly.