Lone parent advice

[glitch]

Hello,
I was wondering if anyone else has been in a similar position and could offer any advice.
I am now a lone parent, my DS has ASD so we claim DLA and carers and I work 12 hrs a week.
I have just applied for Income support and was hoping for help with mortgage interest payments and council tax benefit.
I have just been turned down IS as my wages take it over my applicable amount.

Does that mean i can't get mortgage payment help? (strangely council tax benefit has been granted at the full rate) Will being refused IS also mean my claim for CTC will be refused?
Am I allowed to resign from my part time job and put in a claim again?

I am so confused about the best thing to do.
Thanks for any advice at all.

Hi there,

sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I'm pretty sure you won't get any help with your mortgage interest unless you are in receipt of an income based benefit, such as IS, or income bases JSA.

Council tax benefit is bases on income so this is why you will qualify for that.

Income support is reduced if you are in recepit of CA, and as you work also, this 'wage' will be the reason why you have not been awarded IS.

CTC will not be affected whether you recieve IS or not assuming your income is not over the minimum theshold.

IMO, unless you have the means to pay your mortgage out if your current income, then you should think about stopping work and claiming IS, which as a carer you can do, then you should be entitled to help with your mortgage. (I appreciate this is crazy, you should be better off IN work, but unless you can work more hours, in your case it would seem not)

Gosh, that is what I was afraid someone might say. How crazy. I guess I'm handing my notice in tomorrow then.
Should I put in a new claim once my notice period is up or before?

Yes... very crazy!

A word of caution, I would go and check with CAB regarding how a claim for IS would be viewed when you had given your job up, before you actually do so. However given that you are now a lone parent with a disabled child and in receipt of CA, the easy answer would be that you now have no support to enable you to work.

Good luck...

I'm fairly certain that a claim for IS would have no problems if you handed in your notice, you aren't subject to sanctions in the same way as those on JSA. The only issue would be if you have savings which would take you over the IS threshold. I am a LP and carer on IS and my office does seem to understand that being a carer means I'm unable to work. I have to go in for a work-focused interview about twice a year, but that is just to check my details and they don't put pressure on me to return to work.

It's a crazy system I agree that they won't offer help unless you are out of work! But you have to do what's best for your family and it's definitely best for your DS to keep a roof over his head.

The wait has since been reduced to 13 weeks, here you go...

www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/BenefitsTaxCreditsAndOtherSupport/On_a_low_income/DG_180321

There are two things on the horizon that make it a bit unclear as to which is the best option in the longer run. The first is the changes to Council Tax Benefit which are going to be decided at a local level but it is looking as though nobody of working age will be able to get full CTB fairly soon - but hard to predict where the axe will fall as it will be a proper postcode lottery. The less imminent one is that this government has sworn that they will make sure that anyone who is working will be better off than anyone who is not. Not sure how they're going to do that, but it's what they seem intent on. If it's possible to drop your hours so that you can claim income support, or if your employer's supportive maybe taking a year off and reviewing later, it might give you the option of working more again if policy actually changes the way they're saying it will?

I'm in a similar situation and my mortgage is small so I find that the combination of Working Tax Credit and money from a lodger (lodgers don't count as income against tax credits) leaves me slightly better off than I would be with IS/ mortgage help. The rub is with the lack of legal aid for me which, so far, I've got away with but which might force me onto IS if the battles with DS's school continue, and also the fact that my boiler is about to die and I can only get the cost of replacing it covered if I'm on IS - there is no way I can afford to replace it myself, so I'll probably have to pack in working this winter. Being self-employed is useful as I can stop and start work though.

Thank you everyone. My resignation letter is written so I will hand it in tomorrow. I just can't get over the fact that I can't afford to live if I keep my job. Crazy.
PipinJo I so know your pain with work. I'd love to have my old career back but I just can't figure out how I could do it.

I think it is now a 12 or 13 week wait before you can claim mortgage interest payments. I hope it isn't much longer or I will be in real trouble.

imogen have you tried asking the local council for a discretionary payment towards fixing the boiler? They may consider this under the Childrens Act as child is child in need. Also a sick or disabled child cannot be expected to live in a house without heating.

apologies imogen Yakka see comment above.

waiting time for mortgage interest payments.
It looks like its 13 weeks. Google "adviceguide"to get the CAB advice home page and in the search box type "mortgage interest payment ". Lots of other information on that site regarding benefits. A very useful tool to see your likely financial situation is the benefits calculator in the Turn2Us website

Use this calculator... should give you some answers

www.turn2us.org.uk/benefits_search.aspx

Hi PipinJo, I did have decent savings, but did a two year uni course (self funded due to previous degree) to retrain into something with a pretty much guaranteed local govt job, with a good chance of a term-time only post so possible to fit round DS. But lg recruitment is now frozen and, though I was given a nod in to a job that did come up locally, DS and affordable childcare don't mix. I shouldn't have spent the money though it was fun, helped keep me sane and may come in handy as DS gets older, though by the time that happens I may as well just go back to my original career.

It's frustrating isn't it that you wind up feeling so trapped. The cost of retraining is utterly insane too.

I have a long term plan to become self-employed and wanted to do a couple of courses to gain a bit of boost in the area I want to go into. Nothing high powered, just a part time booking course. Summat to keep me occupied during school hours, as renovating my flat has to be done gradually to avoid DS melting down. Since when was a mere NVQ2 £1400 ffs?

Long term I figure going it alone in self-employment is the only way to really have a life, get out of the poverty trap and care for DS.

Woucher had a TEFL course for £45 instead of a few hundred that can be done online. Gonna do that and volunteer at a class for refugees one morning a week next term. Totally unrelated to past or future career plans but will help minimise that godawful sense of isolation you get if you stay home too long. Teaching english as a foreign language might possibly get me a few private clients in school hours? I dunno I went for it cos it's all I can afford to do right now tbh.

For a government that claims to want everyone in work retraining costs need to be looked at again very seriously. As a nation we can't keep importing skills why so many languish on the dole.

have the carers allowance rules changed? i wanted to do a college course last year, was told by carers i'm not allowed to do any course and claim carers, even if course was only 2hrs a week, also got told i can't do any voluntary work, i got this in writing from carers allowance to show mp,
my dd is at residential college now during term time so i can't claim any benefits, so i have no money coming in and if i want to do college course now i can't as i can't afford fees.....just be aware that if you have breaks in caring for someone and start looking for work you can't claim jsa or any other benefits, can't even claim my prescription cost....(sore point) if you have asthma, diabetes, thyroid probs, you can get free prescriptions, if you have a heart condition where you need tablets every day to keep you alive (like me) you have to pay for prescription

course i wanted to do was p/t course 3hrs a week.