Benefits confusion, can anyone help? Please?

[sweetiepie82]

Okay

I'm getting more & more confused & actually, a little bit miserable. Any factual advice would be greatly received (and please without judgment) :) ...

I am currently living with my partner of nearly 9 years. We have 5 children dependent on us & we are totally fed up with living on benefits. It's not the way we ever wanted to live, circumstances just made it this way.

Anyway, we haven't worked for a long time & my partner had to drop out of University in his 3rd year so has very little work skills. I want to study an Access to HE course & go to University to study my passion of computers. My partner wants to go back to college to start a BTEC in IT which is 2 years.

We have decided that for this year he will stay home whilst I study my college course, which is full time, and then he'll join college the next year.

Now, I currently receiving Employment Support Allowance & I now realise that if I study, this will stop! This means that we will be, just over, £150 a week down & therefore not able to get by :(

I'm so frustrated, because if I was a single parent then I would get all the help necessary (I don't mean that I want to be). How can I ever get off benefits if they stop our money when we actually want to do something.

It should be more straight forward when I attend Uni & my partner is in college, but for now I'm totally lost, confused & really disappointed.

Has anyone else been in that situation? Is there anything that my partner can claim for himself & the children whilst I study? I just cannot believe that there's such a hole in the system, there has to be something :(

Thank you for reading this & I hope someone out there knows something :)

Can't help I'm afraid. I can only suggest that you go to the Jobcentre or CAB, and actually talk to people who know about this sort of thing.
Good luck, sorry I cannot be of any help

Do you have any children not at school yet as money is available for training sometimes, there are grants available if you have older children and april is a good time to find out about them but it will involve some digging for information, try the colleges, and advice centres, councils anywhere really, you will have to ask.

Would it be any more straightforward if he went back first? He would then finish sooner to help support you. I realise that there might be other factors, but worth investigating. As pp said I would go to cab with all of your benefit details and see what they say.

Even if you were a single parent you wouldn't get 'all the help neccessary' because if you are on ESA then you are not fit for work and if you aren't fit for work the DWP would argue you are not fit to study either and if they think you think you are then your claim for ESA will be cancelled and you will be moved onto JSA.

You may need to come off ESA and your DP could perhaps make a joint claim for JSA (is he part of your claim to ESA?) but you would need to check if you would need to meet the conditions of JSA i.e be actively seeking and be available for work as well as him.

You will get Tax Credits x 5 and CB x 5.

Go to your local CAB - they will tell you exactly what is what.

I'm a single parent doing my first degree. I get housing benefit and don't pay council tax, but that is it as far as benefits go - apparently I 'earn' too much to get Income Support, as my student loans are classed as income. Some students can get Income Support, but I think that is only if you can't get other grants/loans etc.

There is a grant that I was paid incorrectly (and am now having to pay back, grrr) called an Adults Dependent Grant which you can claim if your partner is ill/out of work. I'm not entirely sure how it works, but it might be worth looking into?

FWIW, I get a Maintenance Loan, Maintenance Grant, Childcare Grant, Special Support Grant and Parent's Learning Allowance but as I said, I'm a single parent so I don't know what you'd get but worth googling? Or ring student finance?

polly Not all of your grants count as income for income support. See www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/On_a_low_income/DG_070816

Not all of the loans count as income but the ones that do add up to more than the minimum amount for Income Support.

Plus, this does not apply to the OP who is talking about college.

Haleandpacemaker Presumably single parent undergraduate students would get child tax credits?

Hi Migsy1.

Single undergraduates with no other source of income should be entitled to child tax credit and child benefit, but not working tax credits (as the childcare grant covers childcare).

The exact entitlement will depend on the income of the individual.