Benefits question... (Please give me a reason to be brave and go!)

[fastasleep]

Do any of you guys know what kind of benefits I should be getting?... I'm 18, had Theo at 16... left school at 12 (ahem ) I'm pregnant with my second... DH earns about 22k... at the moment I just get child benefit, I have a feeling I'm owed something else? Oh I've never ever had a job

Just to add to my patheticness I can't bring myself to go to the benefits office... official type people/places scare me

[Aimsmum]

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[Mosschops30]

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[starshaker]

you may find that you will be told to go to social office as they deal with benifits other than jobseekers if u dont want to go just give them a call

[jessicaandbumpsmummy]

most job centres now do all benefits now i thought

[starshaker]

maybe its different in scotland but i was told to phone social to find anything out

[expatinscotland]

Dang, I WISH we were earning £22k! I wouldn't bother about benefits then. They're a PITA - especially tax credits. I'll be glad to see the back of them

At £22k I don't think you'll qualify for WTC. You could get some Child Tax Credit. BE VERY, VERY CAREFUL about making copies of EVERY single thing you send in - the orignal application, etc. B/c if they screw it up they'll came back to you years later demanding loads of money.

No Job Seeker's Allowance if you're living w/a spouse or partner who is working.

[Aimsmum]

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[expatinscotland]

We have an appeal launched, but pending appeal, yes, we are paying them back for their cock ups.

Will be SO happy when they are NO longer needed. Honestly, I'd rather scrape by then live in fear of getting their threatening letters.

[expatinscotland]

Aims
You should appeal if they made an error that resulted in overpayment. Scots families have been hit with huge bills for this and our MP has been most helpful regarding ours.

[Aimsmum]

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[nutcracker]

Fastasleep, I don't think you'll be entitled to anything other than CTC.

Dp earns £14500 and we only just get WTC (£8 a week).

You should definatly get CTC though.

[expatinscotland]

Aims
Only two months? Income usually has to rise quite a bit - £2,500 for it to alter your entitlement.

[Aimsmum]

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[expatinscotland]

Not necessarily. I'd write your MP and ask him/her to look into it. Ours was caused by clerical errors they made keying our initial application into their computer system - e.g., keying in that DH was on JSA, thereby inflating our income some £2800/pa; keying in that DH was on high care component DLA and eligible for the disability element of WTC, which he never has been on either one and didn't work outside the house when we first filed for tax credits.

I tried to get these changed over the phone - and fortunately kept records of every time I phoned and everyone I spoke to, but it finally took a recorded delivery letter to get it changed.

Fortunately, I also kept a copy of the original form we sent in to prove we'd answered all their questions truthfully, and THEY were the ones who screwed up.

[expatinscotland]

But we're so bloody tired of all their cock ups, DH went back to work nights and weekends to pay them off and get them to stop paying us for good. I made sure I sent them a recorded delivery letter to tell them to STOP paying us.

We're so poor, we're probably still entitled to CTC, but you know, after all we've been through, they can f'ing keep it and shove it up their a**ses, cuz we're sick of having them come back years later and saying, 'You owe us this, you owe us that'. We'd rather just not deal with it at all and that way we at least know how much money we can count on to live off of.

[Aimsmum]

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