Do we have any experts on the Board who know anything of benefits ?
I am due to be made redundant next week and I have found all the rules for claiming benefits have changed immensly.
I have been informed i can only claim Jobseekers (£54 something) and cannot claim Income Support for the children as I have a redundancy payment . I am expected to use that and any maintenance from their father I am only allowed to keep the first £10 !!
So in effect i have to bring three people up on £64 a week !! I have worked 22 years for that ?? :o
and yet other people can walk into the country without having made any contibution whatsoever and claim for everything !!!!

hi
I'm afraid it sounds about right but if i were you i'd contact your welfare rights office they are usually the best in these type of situations.They will take your redundancy into account though.By the way thanks for your help with the staffy thing, they haven't replied to my email yet but here's hoping!!!

Hi Lel

Those who've got nought get everything paid for, those who have some money have to spend it all before they get anything which makes it seem pretty pointless in saving sometimes - espeiclaly when you get old and need help.  It will be worth getting any dental work or eye check ups/glasses done whilst you are on benefits though.

Hope you find a new job soon

Best wishes
Christine

Lel, have you looked into Child Tax Credits?

https://www.taxcredits.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/Home.aspx

You don't have to be working to claim Child Tax Credit (you do for Working Tax Credit) and savings aren't taken into consideration now like they used to. :)

Kath.

As you say many things have changed a little in the benefits system, mostly the names of benefits, but the main priciples are still the same.

When I worked for the DHSS then DSS, now Benefits Agency, it was Supplementary Benefit, and I lewft when it had just become Income support.

Anyway there has always been a Capital rule.  If 7you had savings over a certain amount you could not get the Income support.  Then they had a chnge of heart (mainly due to so many Pensioners who had saved all their lives whose pensions were less than the |Income Support).  they brought in the idea of Tariff Income.  This meant that you could now have up to £6000 in savings and still get income Support, but for each £500 (I think) that you had over £3000 a portion of the Income Support was deducted, until your savings are down to under £3000.

So basically if you have less than £3000 you have no problem, and if you have £6000 you can still receoive benefit, though they will pay a reduced amount.

Unfortunaetly the same Capital cut off rules appear to apply with Housing Benefit/Council Tax rebate/benefit. :(

Cant you just put your redundancy in an account under one of you kids names - you wouldnt get taxed on the interest then either ;) my dad did this when I was younger and he was made redundant, it meant he could claim all the benefits.  A bit naughty I know but why should you miss out after slogging your guts out and paying tax for all those years.  Best of luck :)

That wouldn't work either (if you told them about it ) as dependants savings are also taken intoi account. :(

With Child Tax Credit savings don't affect the claim, although interest from savings are counted as income. :)

This explains it quite well

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/life/benefits/child_tax_credit_and_working_tax_credit.htm

Kath.

Lel I have now been on my Holidays for 5+ months now :) Because of my redundancy money I never bothered claiming, also there is work out there and I just have chosen to enjoy my time off and spend all my time carp fishing so feel it is unfair for me to claim. But the mistake I have made is NI contributions, I will have to back pay them...can be expensive these social morals...doh. So even if you cannot receive any payments its worth "signing On" just for the NI subs? It is annoying though when you realise what people prepared to milk the system get away with, for instance my next door neighbour never worked a day the three years he has been here, she works part time three kids, one due and manages to afford to run THREE cars

Ged

PS Nice of them to give out Anniversary watches eh! Still look on the bright side no excuses for being late at the dole office :(

:D
Not looking forward to it at all :(

Yes make syre you get Ni credits, though if I am not mistaken you get these if you are receiving child Benefit, but still worth signing on.

Ooooooooh,

Whilst we are on the subject, anyone help me?

Im on Income Support (for sickness)........i have had a couple of articles accepted by a magazine for publication and i will get paid for them.

Anyone know anything about permitted work (used to be called Theraputic Work)......i am very wary of asking through official channels since ive been burned that way before. Also the DWP seem to assume Guilty until proven Innocent IMO.

I highly suspect that what will happen is i will have to pay back everything i earn over £15, adn that they will count a payment for one article as being one weeks earnings (if they took it as a months earnings, then i would prolly not have to pay any of it back). That doesnt really bother me, im not doing it for the cash im doing it because i enjoy writing.

What realy really worries me is that the DWP will then presume that because i can occasionally rattle off an amusing article for a dog mag, that i can go to work full time, and stop my benefits (i cant!!!!!).

You would think there would be some scheme for encouraging ppl to have a go at doing stuff, like writing n things, without penalising them.......doesnt seem to be t he case though, not as far as i can find out anyway.

Anyone got any ideas?

Em

Hi Emma

This is strictly classed as Freelance work and you must pay tax on it at some stage. You may not as you have your tax allowance to consider and so your are not likely to have earned enough to go over your threshold.

The people who are paying you will keep records and at some stage may have an inland revenue inspection and your payment may well be picked and investigated but it all depends on how big the companies are to how likely this would happen.

I work in a large Publishers and we have hundreds of freelancers and so have to advise them on matter such as yours !

I am not saying you should or should not declare it that is upto you but I hope I have given you enough info to decide what you should do !

Lucy

I know I am going on to another subject here but have any of you guys been contacted by th inland revenue with regards to a second income from selling pups,up here they seem to be contacting breeders and pretending to be buyers ,it's like a trap.One lady is well respected breeder and she told me of this just a couple of weeks ago?

The Inland Revenue does read newspaper adverts etc and try to check up to see that traders etc are declaring earnings. They do all sorts of things to try to catch people in the 'black ecoomy' - if people declare what they earn then they have nothing to worry about. I'm not a breeder, but from what I read here, it is probably difficult to make much of a profit out of the occasional litter. Just keep all your receipts - even if you choose not to declare it - you'll have much more chance of proving your profit (or lack of it) if they ask :)

Daisy

Hi Em

Have a look Here at the Dept of Work and Pensions website re Permitted Work.  At my work we have a lot of clients who go onto Permitted Work and we're not seeing many problems from the DWP concerning it.  The form you would need to complete is much simpler now and there is no longer a requirement for a Doctor to concur that the work would be therapeutic.  It might be an idea if you contact your local Jobcentreplus and ask to make an appointment with the Disability Employment Advisor.  You could then discuss with them your articles and ask if this sort of work would fall under the scope of Permitted Work. However, once you have made them aware that you have earned some money, there will be an impact on your Benefits, but it may be that you would not have to pay back all of what you've earned, especially if it can be considered to be Permitted Work.  The link I put up will let you see the official ins and outs of it!

Good luck!

Lesley

Hiya,

Thanks thats great.

I fully intend to declare to the DWP about anything i earn, dont wanna get in the poop with them........(although, last time I got burned with them it was precisely BECAUSE i was doing it all above board that they got me...not earning, it was taking in a lodger/house sharer, because im in a two bed council house, and round here they are usually only given to couples with kids).........i just wanna know wots wot before they manage to thoroughly confuse me!

Stuff that has been accepted so far wont be in print for a good few months yet! (but it will have my name, and my PIC stuck next to it, so i could hardly claim it aint me!)

Em

Best idea Em, keep yourself right with them and, as you say, if you've got the facts clear before you get in touch with them it'll be harder for them to confuse you ;)  One other thing I forgot is that if you are claiming Housing Benefit too, check out what impact any earnings, either from Permitted Work or whatever, will have on that.

Lesley 

Hi,
I know a little about the benefits system, but not the detail.

Do you not also get child benefit, for each child, so it would not just be £64.00 per week? Also, just a bit of advice, if you put the redundancy money in your childs name (as suggested), I think this could be causing trouble for you. When you make a claim to Jobseekers Allowance, the DWP get in touch with ALL previous employers, to check reasons for leaving the job, amounts paid to etc, so the DWP will know about the amount paid to you from your former employer, and start asking questions about where the money has gone! (if over a certain amount).
I did not read your post thouroughly, but if you're a single parent, you'd get more allowances! Like a previous poster said, Income support is only paid if your savings are below a certain amount. If above that amount, people are expected to live off it, until it falls below the cut off limit. Depending on if in rented accommodation or not, people can also claim Housing Benefit (mortgage repayments do not "kick in" until you've been claiming for 9 months, as the government expect people to take out mortgage insurance). People can also also claim Council tax benefit.

Hope this helps a bit!

lol Kay

When my son became unemployed for a short spell I went with him to the unemployment office because he didnt want to claim but i thought he would get his NI paid it was a total farce fill in 97 pages of forms and see if your patience runs out ! I asked the lady why  when all he wanted was a little help between joband my son had been to college and worked all his holidays and weekends whilst at college,anyway she said off the record that people like my son who were not "in the system" would sttruggle to get anything but people who knew how to "work the system" would be fine they wouldnt touch them at all,then one rather snooty woman threw his form accros the table and said you cant put £6 an hour you have to accept any amount a job is a job so my son altered it,the very next day my son got offered a job tutoring at the local college ( he is a chef de partie) £18 an hour :) so he took all the books back and gave them to the rather snooty lady and said I dont need that now.:) he is now back in his chosen job.
The upsetting thing is this system is loaded against genuine claiments and the others work the system.Its hard enough to go "cap in hand" without a bad attitude against you.
Good luck I hope you get help.

The frustraitng thing is that I DO want to work where as the ones that "work the sytem" have no intention of getting a job and get everything paid for .

do claim Child tax credits if you have not already done so, they pay this now instead of income support for children

I know Lel, it's so unfair. My husband works like a slave and I help him but as we're in farming and related work you can imagine our income is rock bottom. As we're saving up for his retirement we could never claim anything,so we've had absolutely no help for 20 or so years.  I think the only reason we've managed is that we don't smoke, drink, go out for meals or go on holiday,never borrow money and keep within a budget. At last we can claim Child Tax credit and as we've got so used to having a low income, we can now save faster. :) He has a few illness problems so at least if he has to retire  early we now know we can manage. It's a better system than having to spend it all to claim anything and then having nothing for old age.

If the government want everyone to save for old age they will have review the whole benefits system!

Kath.

There is an excellent site that can advise on all types of benefits, go to: http://www.youreable.com/forums/forum.jsp?forum=1

Thanks everyone for your information :)

the benefit system is screwed up
i was on benefits until they recentely stoped them as my partner only works 16 hrs a weeks.
i recentely sold my two bedroomed house to buy a three bedroomed and as i sold my house and was using the money to pay a deposit on a house and pay some debts of i was not allowed benefits as i had come in to a lump sum.  i was told to supprt thefamily on the money from selling the house,  what about rehoming the children??? i was told that the money i had recieved would have to last me six months before i could claim and that
you are entitled to six thousand pounds in savings but any more has to be deducted... it doesnot make sense the way the system works.

if your a drug dealer or on drugs you would get the money for any thing of the system straight away , that is how it seems to work here.

I agree!! The benefits system is totally cr*p!!  I've just been informed that I can no longer claim benefits because I didn't apply to a job that I'd already been turned down for once before!!  How stupid is that?

and they send you for totally CRAP jobs of minimum wage and expect you to be grateful.
I just wanna know why people who have never contributed to the system can claim everything
It makes me MAD

Hi Lel

I was told on Friday that I have been made redundant !! Not too bothered as I was going to look for a job after I had returned after my maternity leave which was supposed to be Monday !!

Just wondering in your research did they do anything to help with training costs at all as I want to book an 8 day course but it is £2.5K and want to see if I can get any money towards it instead of using any of my redundancy money !

I am quite hopeful that I will be getting a new job soon as have two interviews lined up and some more interesting jobs I have applied for and have also been put forward for by some agencies !!

I could have a few more months of with Indigo but need to get back to work !! I think my brain will shrival up and die soon if I don't ! :D

Lucy
xx

With regards to funding the training course do you mean do the "dole" fund training courses or the employer in retraining package ?

Dole will fund courses that they select but only after 6 months unemployed :( but if you have a decent redundancey package they may put retraining packages into it . My employer did - there was initially £1500 for everyone so long as it was an approved course which would lead to employment . As people started to leave without using their allocation the money went up for those who left .
They paid for my Nebosh certiciate (£700) and the Diploma (£2100) .

By the way sorry to hear about the redundancy . All will work out.
I start my new job on Monday :)

I have got £500 quid out of the ex employers but I maybe seeking to take further action against them and have a solicitor who specialises in employment law. He has looked at my case and is willing to act on my behalf on a no win no fee basis !! :)

It was the government I was on about !!

Lucy
xx

Sorry to hear about that Lucy. :( Hope you get what's rightfully yours, and a better job as well!
:)

Please please please contact your nearest welfare advice shop - probably run by your local council who will give you the number.  I was in your position through illness, not redundancy, and hadn't a clue what to do.  I ended up in a real old mess with no income until they sorted me out and they were brilliant.  Told me about things I didn't even know I could claim and helped me with everything.  Don't be proud, ask for help right away because you are ENTITLED to claim benefits and the system is soooo complicated you will never do it on your own.  Oh, and there is also a "way" to fill out the forms to make sure you don't get rejected so make sure the advice shop help you fill them in.  I wish you well.

CG