megilleland Posted February 10, 2014 Report Posted February 10, 2014 Claim all your benefits Around £5.5bn goes unclaimed every year. Some benefits are entirely dependent on age - and not at all related to income. You could discover you may be eligible for benefits. So, even if you think you're getting everything you are entitled to - it doesn't hurt to check. Contents Introduction 2 What might you be eligible for? 6 How do the welfare reform changes affect couples? 10 Will the benefit cap affect me? 11 State Pension: you’ve earned it – make sure you get it 12 Pension Credit: tops up your weekly income 14 Housing Benefit 16 Help with Council Tax 18 Help with health costs 20 Help with heating costs: a warmer home for winter 22 Help with urgent or one-off expenses 24 Attendance Allowance: money for your care needs 26 Making an application for AA 28 Common care needs to include 29 What if my application for AA is turned down? 30 Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment 32 Carer’s Allowance: extra cash to help with caring 33 Useful organisations 34 Worth checking out. Quote
Biomech Posted February 10, 2014 Report Posted February 10, 2014 I'll give it a look thanks. I know that if you can get a certain few, you end up getting them all. If you don't qualify for a certain few, you end up with nothing :P Quote
Colin James Posted February 11, 2014 Report Posted February 11, 2014 I am never entitled to any benefit, EVER, even when I was a single parent, apparently it has something to do with the fact that I work and earn too much money? If I had loads of kids or was overweight, disabled, on drugs or an alcoholic or had been on the dole for over 10 years or looking after someone with any of the above I may have qualified Quote
Denise Lloyd Posted February 11, 2014 Report Posted February 11, 2014 Yes same here I have worked and saved all my life. Saved so that I could retire/go part time. When I really needed some benefit for just under a year my savings were too great for me to qualify for anything. But having said that we have the NHS unlike many countries and for that I will always be truly grateful. Quote
megilleland Posted February 11, 2014 Author Report Posted February 11, 2014 Hello Colin I think this is aimed at older, more vunerable people. The problem for ordinary working folk is in the future no matter how much money they earn it will be worthless when they get older or retire. The way people live day to day will need to be severley adjusted if they are to have a reasonable retirement. Quote
Biomech Posted February 11, 2014 Report Posted February 11, 2014 Agreed Colin, I was left in an awkward position once and applied for some help. Fair play though, they did help me out for 3 months which was enough to get me back on track. Because I had never claimed ever before, I received £400 a month for the 3 months to help with my rent.But that was it. The women in the Franklin house asked me all types of questions, the answers to so many were no and she said it was a shame - for example that I didn't have any kids - because I would, literally, qualify for about 10 other benefits. Having just one like child benefits opens up an untold number of extras that you can claim. If free postage is on their, that would be one of them, it's that all inclusive. I think it's wrong that they take into account savings. National Insurance, etc, is about paying in and getting out when you need it. If anyone claims on car insurance the company doesn't turn around and say "well, you have £500 of savings so you don't need us to pay out". I, effectively, work part time and get paid £650 a month, but because I have a little bit in the bank and some extra coming in every now and then, I don't qualify for any support at all....tell a lie, I do get about £4 a fortnight towards council tax. (not a typo just four pounds) Quote
magicroundabout Posted February 11, 2014 Report Posted February 11, 2014 Megilleland - may be me but I can't find the link to the website mentioned above for peeps to check for benefits? Age UK are good - http://www.ageuk.org.uk/money-matters/claiming-benefits/benefits-calculator/ Also money saving expert Martin Lewis has a good site - http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/benefits-check (They won't give me any benefits - - something to do with working I think!) Quote
megilleland Posted February 11, 2014 Author Report Posted February 11, 2014 A guide to claiming benefits for people over pension age. Sorry about the link here it is: Claiming benefits - A guide for people of working age. Link here. Quote
gdj Posted February 11, 2014 Report Posted February 11, 2014 Most people are like me and pay their council tax over 10 months. It seems the law changed so if you notify the council before bills are sent out you can spread it over 12 months. This might help people budget and improve their cash flow month to month. Gdj Quote
Bill Thomas Posted February 11, 2014 Report Posted February 11, 2014 Yes same here I have worked and saved all my life. Saved so that I could retire/go part time. When I really needed some benefit for just under a year my savings were too great for me to qualify for anything. But having said that we have the NHS unlike many countries and for that I will always be truly grateful. What you think the NHS is really good? Sorry but it's crap! I have been in many european countries and their service, waiting times and hospitals put ours to shame! So many people have been sucked into this 'we have the best free service in the World' well guess what, WE DON'T I was recently treated for a small fall in Spain, I was taken to A & E and x-rayed and treated within an hour, beautiful hospital too. Last year my son broke his ankle while playing football in France and had a very similar experience to me. Don't kid yourself about the UK's NHS it is also costing us all a fortune and is at breaking point. Quote
Glenda Powell Posted February 12, 2014 Report Posted February 12, 2014 Don't be had, they say you can claim all these benefits then when you try the answer is sorry you don't qualify. Because I get a small allowance for being a councillor that is added to my state pension so I pay income tax on it all which also stops me getting council tax allowance. A couple of years ago I had an accident which took me nearly a year to recover all I had was my pension to live on even then I could not claim any benefits. But as said before on this post if you have children, not working, or looking for work you get it all.It doesn't encourage people to look for work because it has been said to me I can get more money on benefits so why should I look for work. Quote
Bill Thomas Posted February 12, 2014 Report Posted February 12, 2014 Don't be had, they say you can claim all these benefits then when you try the answer is sorry you don't qualify. Because I get a small allowance for being a councillor that is added to my state pension so I pay income tax on it all which also stops me getting council tax allowance. A couple of years ago I had an accident which took me nearly a year to recover all I had was my pension to live on even then I could not claim any benefits. But as said before on this post if you have children, not working, or looking for work you get it all.It doesn't encourage people to look for work because it has been said to me I can get more money on benefits so why should I look for work. Spot on that is CVP it's bloody wrong and in this country it's ass backwards. I have a cousin who lives in Germany and there if you work your doctors prescriptions are free if you are working but you have to pay if you don't work, sounds about right to me! I work yet I have to pay? My neighbour has not worked in over 15 years and he gets his free?? What the hell, no wonder it looks such an attractive country to live! Quote
Biomech Posted February 12, 2014 Report Posted February 12, 2014 What you think the NHS is really good? Sorry but it's crap! I have been in many european countries and their service, waiting times and hospitals put ours to shame! So many people have been sucked into this 'we have the best free service in the World' well guess what, WE DON'T I was recently treated for a small fall in Spain, I was taken to A & E and x-rayed and treated within an hour, beautiful hospital too. Last year my son broke his ankle while playing football in France and had a very similar experience to me. Don't kid yourself about the UK's NHS it is also costing us all a fortune and is at breaking point. It doesn't help that so many people end up in hospital or at the doctors when they really is no need which puts additional strain on the NHS and people who need treatment. I know a women who is on a 3 month waiting list for an MRI scan even before they can start treatment, in total that puts her now at 5 months out of work until the scan but she doesn't qualify to claim anything at all in aid. Quote
lpusseycat Posted February 13, 2014 Report Posted February 13, 2014 My self and my husband are both disabled and at the moment the change to the benefit system for DLA and ESA is terrible.My husband has worked all his life and was disabled.Then he had an accident 8 years ago and now can't work.We have had trouble getting the benefits we are untitled to.At the moment we have been living off my money since October 2013 which is £110 a week all savings have gone and we have to sit here in the cold with no heating on just so we can buy food, and we are struggling.Do they care no you ring them they put you through to one department then another and another and no one is helping or wants to help.It is a mess.They will not help us as there is such a backlog of claims to be looked at.So it is not easy to get what you are untitled to.It's okay for them at the top living in there big houses nice and warm. Quote
magicroundabout Posted February 13, 2014 Report Posted February 13, 2014 Ipusseycat sorry to hear your situation. No comfort but many people have similar problems, hopefully your claim will eventually be seen and dealt with. Only advice I have is to let them know (in writing) you are suffering hardship and you are contacting your MP to start an MP complaints case. Write to your MP Jesse. It used to encourage attention back in the day, may help, worth a try. Sadly, there are many struggling on very low incomes in Herefordshire. I shudder when I hear the comments that immigrants here, (eastern europeans for example), work harder than locals, then comes the quote that they all have at least 2 jobs and do jobs locals will not do. IF they have 2 jobs then there are less jobs for the rest of us! It is far more complex than that. One point is that some employers advertise abroad and bus them in; youth is usually on their side against an ageing local population; also the added "charisma" of just being from abroad helps during a job interview. The job seekers with disability are unlikely to be coming from abroad and the recession hit available jobs hard, the number of unemployed in statistics is far less than the true number. From experience, many do not sign on as unemployed when they do not qualify for benefits plus the number and quality of reasonable jobs available is low. NHS - don't want to leave that out when I am having such a good moan!! I am so sad that our country is in such a poor state altogether. I put it all down to personal greed ultimately. So much money in the hands of so few who appear to have no social conscience at all. Big companies avoiding tax :Cha ching: to the extent that our country cannot pay to look after the vulnerable and children is the problem at the bottom of it all. Quote
lpusseycat Posted February 13, 2014 Report Posted February 13, 2014 We have contacted Jessie Norman and he is writing to the minister in charge.We await his reply. Quote
megilleland Posted March 9, 2016 Author Report Posted March 9, 2016 The Independent 9th March 2016 These are all the MPs who voted to force through the ESA disability benefit cut Peers have been unable to stop the cut to the Work Related-Activity Group (WRAG) The House of Lords has been unable to stop a planned £30-a-week cut to disability benefits forced through by Government MPs. Charities have warned that the cut to the Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) WRAG would make it more difficult for disabled people to find work and that many struggled to afford food on the benefit at its current level. The Government however says the cut, which applies to new claimaints, will incentivise disabled people to find work. On 2 March MPs voted to reject a House of Lords plan for an impact assessment into the cuts. Peers on Tuesday evening discussed the cuts - but were forced to wave them through because Ministers claimed "financial privilege" - meaning the Lords was not allowed to intervene. The cuts will now go ahead. Anyone surprised that Jesse Norman and Bill Wiggin are on this list? Quote
dippyhippy Posted March 9, 2016 Report Posted March 9, 2016 Not surprised in the least, Megilleland. But I am completely disgusted with the pair of them. Quote
Cambo Posted March 9, 2016 Report Posted March 9, 2016 Twiddle Dee & Twiddle Dumb the pair of 'em!…But being as they are both bereft of any empathy & part of the collective I guess they will contuine to vote against the have nots in society time & time again!! Quote
Roger Posted March 9, 2016 Report Posted March 9, 2016 The Independent 9th March 2016 Anyone surprised that Jesse Norman and Bill Wiggin are on this list? Was it a 'whipped'vote ? I did read the article at the time .... Quote
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