Should I apply to the Family Fund?

[MiladyDeScorchio]

Ds is three and has autism. We've moved house and the garden is very unsafe. Big concrete steps and a sloping lawn.

We have enough saved to make the steps safe with fencing and a gate soon but it will cost £350.

Do the FF help with this sort of thing and if I hang onto receipts might I be able to claim it back? I know it takes a while for an assessment to be made.

It's still unclear whether or not they count housing benefit and council tax benefit as income. And helpfully, mine as been suspended as the council heard from my HA that I was going to do a mutual exchange and I won't be able to sort that out until Monday.

I'd appreciate any help really. The entire house need fixing, can't put cupboard locks in the kitchen, sharp badly-laid laminate, filthy sinks and bathrooms etc but I have heard that gardens may be one thing the FF can assist with

They include council tax benefit and housing benefit, Milady.

Yep. What they are doing is aimed at allowing parents with a mortgage and working to apply. But that disqualifies huge numbers of the 'working poor' & especially those of us with more than 1 child, because they don't factor in the number of children in a family.

Thank you.

It says on the website that the rules have changed so that they can include working poor families. But as Riven says, who will qualify now?

Do they count WTC? We get that as DH is working all hours but for very little profit.

C'est la vie

Also, disqualifies people disproportionately from the more expensive areas of the country, where cost of living is higher, because rents are higher, so HB is higher.

If DH and I move to Scotland (possible, waiting for circumstances), our CTCs would stay the same, but the HB would reduce because it is cheaper, cost of living would reduce because it is cheaper, yet we would then qualify again

I don't think they thought it through...

Yes Milady. It is

Net Wage
Carer's Allowance
HB
CTB
CTC
WTC

What makes it crazy is that we get £400 HB every 4 weeks, because our rent is high and earnings low. That disqualifies us from Family fund.

But if we moved to Scotland, we would only get around £250 per 4 weeks, because rents are lower. That £150 drop would bring us back into FF criteria, but we would be no worse off, because our rent would be so much lower.

Is it 23K or 25K Riven?

We applied for a hoiday in April (and awarded it) and it was 25K then. But we don't get HB or CTB.

Op, if you think you earn less than 23/25k with benefits, then apply.

A friend has just had a shower fitted through them, they gave her £400 and she just needs to keep the reciept for a year incase the FF ask for them. She also got £100 towards clothes.

Family Fund have a FB page and they seem to respond to questions posted on their wall, so it's worth putting queries directly to them. They're saying it takes about 4 months for a new application.

We get just over £23K by my calculations exempting CHB and DLA.

Would have qualified if we'd stayed in our two-bed house with sleepless ds in a cot in our room (well he still is in our room at the moment, he's adjusting to all the change)

We have moved to a place where the whole family hopefully will be healthier and happier but because of the increased rent we get no assistance to make it safe.

This is the sort of house it is: My lovely MIL paid for a thorough surface clean on moving day. We arrived to find the cleaning lady practically in tears saying that it all needed a steam / industrial clean. The removal men were making cat's bum faces at it too.

Dried dog shit had been left all over the garden. I picked up about fifty turds. So you can imagine the state of the place.

Ah well, it's the least of my problems. Thanks for your help and advice. I've been away for a few days and seem to be invisible on all the other boards!

Oh it isn't here, here is great as always.

But thanks Riven.

I do know your FB ID from other threads. If you'll accept a request from L.B I'd love it

Is it a council house? The council should have made the garden safe before you moved in.

Where do you live? My dad is very good at woodwork, he secured my aunts garden, made a lovely gate from scrap wood.

Contact the council, they should make th garden safe, do you have a SW, they are very good at kicking arse to get things like this sorted.

If council are useless try contacting the local probation service, they are often looking for work for people on community service orders. Don't worry they are very good at matching offenders with work in the right environment and are always supervised.

HA house in SE but because it was a mutual exchange we had to accept it "as is"

Ours was only four years old, kept beautifully new-looking and improved. To think, I was worrying that there was a small patch of grease at the back of one of the cupboards and the removal men had packed my scourer. I am a mug. The lavs were pristine and I even put a tablet down them before leaving.

(DH has just told me we should have all shat on the lawn in order to give the new people a similar welcome )

This house has had teenagers growing up in it and a son in his thirties living here. He assured his poor Mum that the attic and garage were clear yet they are full of crap. Useless man.

His dd stays every weekend and has done for five years yet at no time has anyone put a carpet remnant down in "her" room. It's all filthy floorboards.

Anyway. It will be okay in the end. Sorry to whinge...

anon that sounds good especially the matching of offenders to environments.

I need a good burglar with a special interest in stones and bits of wood I think

But seriously I'll look into it, thank you.

Yep another one ruled at due to big family and living in private rented place if wAs in council or Ha my rent be at least half here it's £1200 I get 1100a month so that'd 13k gone already.add in carers is and ctc fir 4 children

Did point out to them joe bloggs 4 miles up the road could have same income but council house so would q
get some help

the new income limits are:

· £25,000 in England
· £27,000 in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales

We don't qualify anymore either which is a bummer. Dh is self employed and only earnig 5k last year but with ca, wtc and ctc as we have 2 dc with sn we are £800 over the limit. It is crazy!

Im over the limit cos council couldnt give me a house due to me having no family in the area we live, we had to go private we moved here for the better health care for our children so now h.b pays £900 a mth rent for me and i have to pay £300 extra towards rent to... my house is our dream home now tho my kids have space to play or be alone huge garden that is fully enclosed and secure for them to play in..

But because of the rent and the fact i get dla for 3 of my children which in turn raises my tax credits we are no long eligible for family fund the extra we get in tax credits covers our extra rent tho so we are worse off even tho new house is worth it ten fold just shame we cant take kids away now this year due to the prices of uk holidays during school holiday times

We have just reapplied and just stayed under the limit by a few hundred pounds. This is because we have a mortgage, and so cannot claim HB or CTB, and I work PT so I cannot claim carers allowance.