tax credits and HB

[lilysmum]

Ok here goes with tax credit questions once again I just recieved my new award in and had told them im going back to work partime (20 hours) and my tax credits have droppped by about £25 a weeks but on readin my notice it says im still gettin an element for workin 30+ hours, once i phone them up and rectify this will my money drop again or is there a part-time element?

also

with tax credits of £120 a week and wages of £116 is it likely i would recieve housing benefit if i am a single parent and my lo is under a year?

sorry for so many questions but trying to work out if it is really worth while going back to work jst now or trying to find something with better pay :S:S

 

[pinkish_angel]

I worked up until 2 weeks ago. I worked 18 hours a week and my wages worked out at about £110 a week plus with child tax credits and working tax credits I got roughly an extra £100 a week. Total was about £850 a month on average. I got made redundant on the 3rd may due to the pub I worked in closing (the owners went bankrupt). Now I get no income from work, am in the process of sorting my income support claim which is about £64 a week, plus from what I could tell from the bloke at tax credits office I can still claim child tax credits. He estimated it to be about £200 a month. Thats a total income of £456 ish a month. I was getting double that when working. This is my experience of this anyway but I am in the process of applying for benefits as I only been out of work a few weeks so cant give you an exact figure but looks to me like your better off by far going to work.

Housing benefit you should get as you are a single parent so its def worth making a claim. I have my own house so Im hoping to be able to get the interest paid on my mortgage but that takes about 13 weeks :/

You can also apply for council tax benefit hun

Good luck xxx

 

[AppleBlossom]

You should be entitled to HB and also council tax benefit if you are a single mum with a child so I would definately apply for it. It might not be that much but it's something!

 

[edinsam]

where do you go to claim housing benefit that everyone talks of?

 

[Laurenj22]

Hi

You should go to your local council offices and pick up an application, if you take along two forms of id, national insurance number and lo's birth cert along with all income including child benefit and capital proofs (last two months bank statements) and rent if applicable you can sometimes have your application fastracked there and then.

If your not sure where your local office is either look on the back of your ctax bill it will give advice on how to claim CTB or google it.

Hope that helps

x

 

[bubbles]

I worked as an advisor for councils across uk for 4years (currently on maternity leave) unfortunately over the last 2 years they have began rolling out a new scheme called local housing allowence, the particular council I worked for didn't do it at the time I left so was never fully trained. Unfortunately HB/CTB is not based just on the fact that you are a single parent, it is worked out on something called an applicable amount, this is the amount the government believe a person can live on p/w based on age, marital status (single or couple) and children, if you are over the amount the government think you can live on your HB/CTB will decrease. They now also work it based on the sort of property the council believes you are entitled to and how much that type property is worth in rent each month
For example - Mother (on Income support or job seekers) and daughter age 5 live in a 1 bed flat and pay 350pcm. The council would say that they should be living in 2 bed flat/house (parent in 1 room child in the other) and would pay 450pcm for a 2 bed place. That is the amount you would get even though it is 100 more than you are paying.

On the opposite side same situation Mum and daughter in 3bed house paying 550pcm the council would believe they did not need the extra bed room and still only pay 450pcm leaving a short fall of 100.

Hope this has helped more than confused. Your best bet is to check your concil's web site, they generally have a calculator and will tell you if they are running the new scheme or not. Good luck