curious!

[ellenjames]

Hi i have been on entitled to and it says we are entitled to more than what we get.
Basically we are family of 5,3 children and husband works fulltime earning 18000 per year. I dont work so no childcare.
Our rent is £450 per month and council tax is £128 per month, currently we get roughly £490 in tax credits pence of which are working tax.
On entitled it says we are eligible for housing benefit of £120 per month and £20 per month of council tax benefit and more tax credit, something like £600 i think.
Does this sound correct or too much? We are really struggling for money at the moment hence me checking entitled website. Any input appreciated x

The entitled to site is only as good as the info you out in. Do another calculation, double checking the info you put in.

If similar results make a claim...you have nothing to lose.

Meant "put in" not out in!

The housing benefit changed last year - dh works and earns approx £20000 and we went on to entitled to before xmas and it said we were entitled so we applied and we get £30 per week but no council tax. Although the entitled to website said we were entitled to more than that. worth applying imo

sorry to be really dumb but where do i apply for all these things tax credits will sort itself out at the end of the financial year as to whether we are owed anything but dont know anything about the others x

entitled to says we're entitled to £20 council tax benefit per week but in reality it's 5p. I would def apply for housing benefit and council tax benefit you have nothing to lose by doing so.

plus does it make any difference that we pay child maintance i assume it doesnt but we pay £160 per month if it does x

No I don't think it does certainly not for child tax credits. Is the £160 the correct amount that you should be paying or is it a private agreement?

You need to ring your local council for an housing benefit and council tax benefit application form in the morning.

yeah its the correct amount i didnt think think it did thankyou will find a number to call in the morning x

Our council receptionist told me "if you don't get jsa you don't qualify" which is a load of rubbish, ignore anything they say get the form and fill it in pronto! Hopefully you will get something even if it's less than entitled to say.

"ignore anything they say get the form and fill it in pronto"

Couldnt agree more Cargirl!

not just me that had that experience then, I was gobsmacked and am tempted to write in and complain. The ONLY reson why we don't qualify for any benefit is because I receive maintenance for dd1. My husband has a decent salary but with 4 children we would qualify if it weren't for the maintenance.

cargirl - do you know about maint being disregarded after 12 Apr?

The only reason i dont get benefit is tha fact that i work for a living and pay taxes

Cargirl-you seen my post?

Also maintenance stopped being taken into account in October 08 for housing benefit....hang on wanna check that.

Yep 27th October 08- housing benefit dont take maintenance into account.

2 Nov 09- Child benefit not taken into account.

Intercoursethepenguin - Alot of people who work and pay taxes are entitled to some help if on a low income

Hopefully you will qualify now cargirl! When taking into account that after csa payments are gone we only have £16000 per year we are skint! But dont mind paying for the children, am not moaning about that! They are fab stepkids and they are entitled to the money so thats not an issue!

I also got told that off dh's wages we would not qualify but filled a form anyway. From November they dis regard child benefit and from april they will also disregard maintenance. I did complain - didn't get me very far

Really, I shall apply for my 5p then!!!!

Hmmmm intercoursethepenguin I did work for many years but the work bully gave me a breakdown so I've had a 4 year break and I'm now looking to return to paid work. Have done voluntary work, dh pays lot of taxes too thank you very much!!!! If he weren't a civil servant on shit wages with no decent pension either (that has been taking from him after 15 years of paying into it and paying extra) then we wouldn't qualify for a little bit of help towards our extortionate council tax!

TBH Cargirl you should have complained- the worse kind of benefit advice is misadvice from officials.

I was once told I wasnt entitled to a benefit by a call centre- to which I replied..."really..do you have Secertary of state (SOS) authority to make that decision? No I didnt think so...I have processed this benefit for the last 8 years so please dont tell me I am not entitled to it. You arent benefit trained and it is not your job to advise people on benefits. Even if I told you something that meant I was clearly not entiltled to it your job is still to send me a claim form to enable me to receive a offical SOS decision letter. Now please just carry on asking me the questions before I have to make a complain about misdirection

That happened THREE times...like I said never beleive a word about any benefits unless they have been asssessed

haha penguin very funny and not helpful, but thankyou for an insight i was so unaware of! Not that i have to justify myself to you but my husband works shift work some days some nights never the same and including weekends one child goes to school full time and one goes to the school nursery afternoons only, i live in a small town and dont drive so basically i cant work til this oct when ds1 starts school full time. Then i will only have ds2 to find childcare for. Plus where i live there are very few jobs, let alone ones with child friendly hours.

excuse the Typos!

There for the grace of god go I.....

I shall wait until they've assessed it and then complain. This person is a general receptionist though and nothing to do with the housing dept at all!!!!!!!!!

Also dh will not be getting a raise next year (yes it's fab being a civil servant) and presumably they put the allowance rates up each April and C tax is going up to, May go up to 50p per week

The fact she is a general receptionist makes it worse.

Dont think any of my former colleagues in the CS are likely to get a rise this year either...bloody disgusting as the perks of being a CS have been eroded and the pay is rubbish compared to the private sector. Plus there is no job security anymore...