Off to the jobcentre to discuss benefits etc...(help?)

[bronze]

Going on monday with dh who is signing on. They will also be going through what we will be entitled to with us. What do I need to take with us?
Do I need to take details of tax credits, council tax etc?

wow added it up
I take back what I said about it being so much hassle it cant be worth having a benefits lifestyle
hope its not for long though

It's a Scotland thing. Up here the water bill is paid in with council tax, so all the council tax part is paid but you pay the water bill part that's on the same bill, iykwim. It's done separately in England I think.

we'll actually be better off (wont tell dh that though)

and thats before looking into school lunches etc

this system is a mess

just one last thing does the fact we wont be claiming housing but our insurance will pay the mortgage mean that the insurance will count as income?

'we'll actually be better off (wont tell dh that though)

and thats before looking into school lunches etc

this system is a mess '

it is.

we'd be better off claiming.

don't have a mortgage, though (HA flat).

though we'll only be better off if they don't count the insurance as income
anyone?

DWP Decision Makers' Guide:

"28105 Insurance policy income should be taken fully into account except for income from a
mortgage protection policy."

so will will be better off

thank you all for your help

I feel so much better now knowing we can get by until he gets another job

Butterball that explains the council tax then.We pay for water separately from the council tax so you will get full council tax rebate.If you are not in scotland.

I'm not sure if you can still get help with your mortgage to cover the shortfall with insurance payments.Your DH will have to look into that when the time comes.They may cover the interest and the insurance cover the rest.But like i say i'm not sure about that because we have a council house.

So can anyone explain then why, if you have worked, you get less help for the first 6 months?

Or have I still got it wrong? probably lol

no plum I read it as that too

I'm not going to argue though seeing as I think the allowance we will get is plenty by half

Hi.

I really dont want to get into a debate about the whole system because I have had a lifetime of arguements about it.

If you are a couple and the parnter doenst work (or works less than 24hrs per week) you claim JSA income based. This is approx £102 pw

If you have worked and you satisfy the contributions criteria then £64 (ish) of the £102 is your partner to keep for first 26wks and cant be eroded by any earnings etc. Ie the JSA will be a min of £64

After 13 wks you may be entitled to mortgage interest...again some of partner earnings thats taken into account may eat into this.

After 26wks its fully income based...then partners earnings are taken fully.

Hope this has helped clear things up...

Its hard to understand I know.

Mortgage protection policys have a whole set of complex guidance around them.

This is brief and I mean brief.

Compulsory Payments direct to lender are fab. Very little work needed for them.

If you are ever looking to get a policy from a benefits point of view get one that is paid compulsory to lender with no option of being paid direct to you!

If your mortgage protection policy doesnt met all your mortgage after 13wks DWP may help with the remaining unmet costs.

If your policy is paid direct to Customer then there are certain things that happen.

Ie policy £500
Mortgage £400,

From excess of £100 building insurance allowed and cost of policy.

Then I think the rest is taken into account.

Its complex and been a while since I done one. Sorry

If you are in receipt of Income based JSA, IS or ESA then you should be entitled to full council tax in England unless there is arrears.

Juneybuney

The capital limit is £16000.

The tariff capital is applied at £6000...£1 for every £250 or partof

eg 7000 is £4 deducted each week.

our policy is less than ou rmortgage but Im kind of hoping he'll be employed again before 13 weeks is up

the details say
If you make a claim under thi spolicy and also apply for any means tested state benfit the dwp/ben agency may treat some of th eclaim payment as income when calculating

and

we will make calim payments to you account or to {mort co} for them to reduce the amount you owe under your mortgage agreement, whichever we decded. When we have made these payments, we will no tmake any further payments for the same claim

So I'm still not sure if it will decrease our benefits or not. Seems unfair if it does but there we go

Plum

If you havent worked and your partner was working fulltime or less than 24hrs and earning more than £112 then the non working person would get nothing.

As least by having worked they can get £64 for the 26wks.

In the case of when having partners who were part time workers they can they applied for income based part after 13wks for mortgage help to be considered.

If the partner was in full time work there would be no help with mortgage.

Bronze you should be fine....its less than the mortgage.

TBH without the policy you would have been unable to pay mortgage for first 13 wks and still receieved no help.

The 13 wks was only reduced in Jan 09...prior to that it was typical of no help for first 39wks. Although 13wks is still long enough it better than before.

thanks

I keep going calm
and then panicking again

Seriously bronze - you will be fine.

Ring JC tomorrow and make sure you have an appt soon and find out about changing it to Income based. Dont not assume they will sort it without you asking x

onadietcokebreak thanks for that! that makes me feel better

I still dont get it . sorry coke , I know you are trying to explain, its just too confusing for me.

dh spoken to cab on phone and they say contribution based. Which is what we thought originally according to the jocentre+ site.
Dietcoke- what made you say it should be income based?

DH has worked and paid NI for the last umpteen years.

Who is contribution based for if not for him?

Bronze...you dont work do you? Do you have any income?

No? Then its Income based as he needs to be paid couple rate. £102- of this £64 will be the contribution based JSA.

Even IF (and it is a IF) any of your mortgage protection policy is taken into account as income then he will still receive as a minimum £64 (which is he contribution based JSA)

I have 11 years experience processing claims and look at the wider picture. CAB often dont do that...arrgghhhhh!

When JSA assess the income based claim they look at whether the contributions is satisfied. If it is he is automatically entitled to that part of it.

They then look at topping it up to the couples rate of £102 (this aprils rate)

If there was an income of say £30 that was taken into account then the top of would be only £8.

However if the income was £60 then there would be no income based element payable as it would be more than the top up. The customer would still remain entitled to £64 (cont JSA). It wouldnt be reduced to £42.

Does that make things clearer?