Please help. Will lose home for me and my son

[Tahera01]

Hello.

I was told to join mums net because I might get help. I hope this is the right place to write about this.

I am a 38 year old single mother. My son is 6 years old and registered disabled. He receives a disability allowance and I get a carers allowance for him. He gets one to one tuition at his school. He did go to school from 9 until 1 which changed to 9 until 2 and now 9 until 3.15 as from this week.

I work 16 hours per week and earn 110 per week from this. I am contracted for 8 hours per week with 8 hours per week being overtime each week. I never earn over 110 per week.

I have a letter from dwp in March 2015 saying my careers allowance means I can only earn 110 per week maximum. But I just got another letter saying my careers allowance is cancelled because I earn over 102 per week. But nobody ever said 102 before. It was 110. My careers allowance is now being stopped.

I have got a letter saying my housing benefit and council tax is to be stopped also, and I am being investigated for fraud. I don't know why. I don't know if it is the same reason as the carers allowance idle if there is something else I don't know about. I could not go to the interview when the letter said but I will be going soon to see them. In the mean time I have 110 per week to pay my rent, council tax, bills, food, travel expense, and all other expenses. This won't even cover half of my rent.

I haven't done anything wrong and I'm not good at this sort of thing. I'm afraid of what will happen. I can't afford legal advice.

I have attached the letters. Can anyone give me advice please?

Thank you

Tahera

The other letter as it only let me add 3

That's good you have the original letter stating £110 per week

Did you attend the interview on 17 Seotember that I see mentioned. What happened there?

I wonder if they made a typo on the original letter? If that's the case I'm sure this can easily be sorted. I'm assuming you haven't had any other income from elsewhere during this time? Did you attend the meeting?

Thank you for replying. I did not attend that as I had work at that time.

I have called them and they said they will interview me soon but will send another letter with a new date.

I would drop into the CAB before your appointment comes through. They should be able to advise and offer you support.

Contact your ll, when is next rent due? It takes a while to be evicted for non payment of rent but fair to let them know you are in a fix. Hopefully it will be resolved soon. Tbh I'd have prioritised this over work if you had sufficient notice. What about child benefit, tax credits etc?

I will prioritise this from now on, it's very difficult as I cannot really afford to take time off work. My ll is the local council. My housing, council tax and care allowance benefit has been suspended. My sister usually deals with my paperwork as I get very confused and find it difficult to understand what is going on.

Definitely go to CAB they will be able to help and advise.

Thank you for your replies.

My sister had a look at the care allowance guidelines and its says that you can earn up to £110 per week.

www.nidirect.gov.uk/sm/carers-allowance-introduction

I will contact CAB too. I don't want to be on benefits it's not a choice, it's disheartening to know that people can think you are cheating the system when all you are doing is trying to make ends meet.

Hopefully it will get sorted, the situation is very stressful.

when did you start earning the amount that you are?

Feb 2015

Chances are that the period that is under dispute then is Feb 2015 until April 2015. The rate of £110 only came into effect 6 April 2015.

I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty sure the amount you could earn went up to £110 in April 15. In May 14 it went up to £102 and before this it stood at £100 per week for a few years. It seems like the letter they sent you was an old template. I imagine that they think you are earning over £110 per week though. I do hope you manage to get this sorted without too much stress for you. Hopefully it won't get this far but if they ask you to attend an interview under caution (if they take it further this might be the next step after the first interview), you should get legal advice beforehand because aby thing you say can be used in a court case. you might be entitled to legal aid at this point.

Your landlord may well have a welfare benefits adviser who can help. Phone them on Monday and ask. If not, try the CAB or, depending on your son's disability, is there a national charity with a helpline?

Thank you everyone for all your advice.

I will try to contact the council who is my landlord. I will also try CAB too. If anyone does know of a charity that provides advice that would be greatly appreciated. I found a charity called Zacheaus 2000 Trust and will contact them for advice too

My son is partially blind, no vision in his left eye