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.

I am self-employed and so far, 18 month in... it hasn't made me any money. I am too short of confidence to get out there and sell myself hard and too newly qualified to do otherwise. The only good thing is that you can take as long as you like to get the hang of it and you get the self-respect of working (even if it does involve sitting at the kitchen table when you'd rather have some grown-up company on school days) and they still pay you the working tax credit even if you're as awful as I am at it.

Snap - DS is on school 3 at 6! Though one move was due to a house move to be fair. Though am considering another move for him as better options open once he has dx. It's well worth the fight to work though.

In theory, at least, the LA is supposed to give you extra help to find suitable childcare and has a responsibility to be putting in place suitable provision, though most don't seem to bother and our LA just squirms a bit when put on the spot. I tried a letter to the MP but it didn't have any effect. I do wonder whether a legal challenge would be worthwhile, but none of the charities I've talked to seem to regard this as a priority.

Another 3rd school by 6 (& a short spell in a behavioral unit lol!).

House move planned for next school year (subject to the vagaries of the property market)

Childcare? In my locale? Can you hear my bitter laughter? Annoys the hell outta me as until just a few years ago I was a higher rate tax payer, and it's the only barrier to my becoming so again.

I'm under investigation for the 2nd time this year, and my income support claim has been stopped while they wait for me to return an identical form to those I filled in earlier this year. I'm intending to send it back with a letter from the CSA confirming I recieve no maintenance & a copy of my son's school statement + diagnostic report this time, together with photocopy of my crisis loan form. It's disgusting.

When Universal Credit comes in, it will be harder to go self-employed as you will be assumed to be making at least minimum wage levels even if you aren't breaking even, and will base the tax credits you get on that. And there will also be stricter requirements about reporting income, expenditure and activity.

I can't find much detailed official information but there is this from a DWP annex on the UC

"Some self-employed people under Tax Credits report very low levels of income.
We know that in starting up a business that it can take some time before it becomes profitable. But once established we would expect to see a reasonable income from the business activity. So for Universal Credit we are considering introducing a floor of assumed income from self-employment for those registering as such. The floor will be set at the National Minimum wage for the reported hours; clearly profits above this limit may be received and reported. For those self-employed people who engage in only a few hours of activity, and do no other form of paid employment then we will expect them to engage with the conditionality requirements"

I'm not sure if the conditionality (to do jobseeking or work placements) requirements will affect those who are getting Carer's Allowance as generally they get exempt from job-seeking anyway. But it will affect the amount you'd normally get as tax credits, as they'll assume you have a higher income than you actually have (if you're not managing to make NMW).

I meant to put the link for that document, it's this one.