Why does the DWP make things so hard?

Vidar said:
Now 6 months have passed and the contributions based JSA have been withdrawn, my partner who is now heavily pregnant was told to claim Income based Job seekers. The DWP though have decided that I earn too much for her to qualify (About £180 a week after tax etc) so now she's got no money coming in. To top things off now she's not getting job seekers we cannot get help with housing or council tax benefit.
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You make it sound like the DWP have made some arbitrary decision against you when in fact the eligibility for various benefits is quite clear cut and well publicised.

Were you not aware that her CB JSA would only last 6 months? Seems you hadn't expected this or that you've had your head buried in the sand.

Did your partner plan to get pregnant even though she was unemployed and you were only working part time?
Vidar said:
Am looking for anything and everything I can but out of 30+ job applications made in the past 2 weeks or so since these changes have come into effect I've not had so much as a single response from any of them and I'm not being fussy at all.
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How many food/retail outlets have you applied for? I can't help but think you must be being fussy to some extent.
 
I feel your pain OP.

My wife was diagnosed with glaucoma. She is 32 years old and legally blind. She describes her vision as like holding a piece of tracing paper in front of your face and trying to see through a pin hole in it.

It is just one of part of her nervous system that has started to break down. She has also been diagnosed with M.E. and has had numerous falls down the stairs through loss of sensation in her legs. She also can't feel how hot the shower is so myself and her carers are required to help her with her daily living requirements.

She finally received her PIPs about a year ago and it took a little longer after that for her to get Employment Support.

Before she became ill she worked as a swimming instructor and was very active and healthy.

The DWP have been extremely difficult to deal with. I had to wheel her into an assessment centre with her bags full of the cocktail of medicines she takes to stave off total blindness and the pain she suffers on a day to day basis.

Not only is it frustrating that the government, that is supposed to exist to help the vulnerable, is so unsympathetic to someone who is so clearly in a terrible situation but that there are people who know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about your situation who feel qualified to comment that "M.E. is not a real illness" despite it being classified by the W.H.O. as such.

All I can say is that there is light at the end of the tunnel. We did get help in the end and we got payments backdated, but this does not help when you are struggling to pay the mortgage and using credit cards to keep food in your children's bellies.
 
Vidar said:
My partner moved up to live with me late last year and through no fault of her own the job she had lined up fell through but she had some savings which helped us get by. Eventually she was able to claim contributions based job seekers which although only around £70 a week helped massively. We were able to get some help with council tax and housing benefit. Not much but enough to make a difference on a low income.

Now 6 months have passed and the contributions based JSA have been withdrawn, my partner who is now heavily pregnant was told to claim Income based Job seekers. The DWP though have decided that I earn too much for her to qualify (About £180 a week after tax etc) so now she's got no money coming in. To top things off now she's not getting job seekers we cannot get help with housing or council tax benefit.
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Has your partner actually claimed income based JSA?

Just because you earn too much money to actually get anything doesn't mean she is not in receipt of JSA. She is in receipt of JSA it just means your award is £0 (they give her national insurance credit). This means you still have your qualifying benefit for for housing benefit, the amount you get will be adjusted because of your income as it was before. Housing benefit should not be withdrawn in your circumstance as long as she keeps claiming (even if its £0 award).

Also as far as I am aware you don't actually need to be in receipt of benefits to get housing benefit, being on a low income should qualify you.

How pregnant is she?

The other option is claiming income support if she is within 11 weeks of giving birth. You would have to give up your job and you will probably be worse off (EDIT: will be worse off).

Is she eligable for Maternity Allowance?

https://www.gov.uk/maternity-allowance/eligibility

There is also this:

https://www.gov.uk/sure-start-maternity-grant/eligibility

There isnt much else on the benefit front until the child is born. At which ppoint child tax credits and child benefit will help but that's barely going to cover increased outgoing with having a child.

If you can find 30 hours paid work literally doing anything your situation will improve tremendously. This can be split between multiple jobs.

EDIT2:

Forgot to say the income support option really is not a good one because it only lasts a few months and you'll both be back on job seekers and you risk not being entitled because you gave up your job.
 
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TallPaul1878 said:
I feel your pain OP.

My wife was diagnosed with glaucoma. She is 32 years old and legally blind. She describes her vision as like holding a piece of tracing paper in front of your face and trying to see through a pin hole in it.

It is just one of part of her nervous system that has started to break down. She has also been diagnosed with M.E. and has had numerous falls down the stairs through loss of sensation in her legs. She also can't feel how hot the shower is so myself and her carers are required to help her with her daily living requirements.

She finally received her PIPs about a year ago and it took a little longer after that for her to get Employment Support.

Before she became ill she worked as a swimming instructor and was very active and healthy.

The DWP have been extremely difficult to deal with. I had to wheel her into an assessment centre with her bags full of the cocktail of medicines she takes to stave off total blindness and the pain she suffers on a day to day basis.

Not only is it frustrating that the government, that is supposed to exist to help the vulnerable, is so unsympathetic to someone who is so clearly in a terrible situation but that there are people who know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about your situation who feel qualified to comment that "M.E. is not a real illness" despite it being classified by the W.H.O. as such.

All I can say is that there is light at the end of the tunnel. We did get help in the end and we got payments backdated, but this does not help when you are struggling to pay the mortgage and using credit cards to keep food in your children's bellies.
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While I personally have a great deal of sympathy for you and your wife particularly, governments don't exist to help the vulnerable.

It's a mind ****, but that's not why they are there, the UN mandates countries to provide support for disabled people, otherwise a lot of countries would not have it all.
 
Again guys, thank you for all the help and support.... The benefit line hadn't told us about national insurance credits side of thing so thats something I'm looking into first thing on Monday morning.

We should be entitled to the £500 grant but aren't entitled to the allowance because she finished work in November last year.

I'm looking for all kinds of work, have applied to all the major supermarkets, fast food places and several other security companies etc.... Including one about 20 minutes ago and have heard nothing back.

Hopefully just a matter of time though even if its just something part time to get us over the fresh hold.
 
So guys just an update on things for those who may be interested...

Well it turns out that my fiancee could still sign on even though she wouldn't be getting any money at all. As such we should be entitled to a little bit of help with housing benefit and council tax support but not much. It was about a £12 deduction to council tax, I'm currently paying £45 a week as owed some arrears from when I was unemployed and a £30 deduction from rent so it brings it down to about £70. It will help of course but its not brilliant. The other issue is it's going to take roughly 6 to 8 weeks to be processed so lots of arrears to be built up before then.

I absolutely hate being in debt, what I hate more is working hard in a job I hate and not being able to get out of debt. I hate the fact that I've applied for so many jobs but haven't had anything more than a few "thank you for submission" emails.

All I want at the moment is a bit of good fortune, a bit more money to pay my bills, some extra cash so I can fix things when they break and to just not be stressed about finance for once in my life.
 
It's a completely stupid system. It's skewed to those who lie to leach as much as they can, while the honest people that genuinely need help get shafted.

We had a run in with them a few years back relating to my partner and JSA, and because I earned a certain number (without looking at ours and my own personal outgoings) they decided that I could support my entire household. In actual fact if they'd looked at the numbers of what was going out bills wise they'd see it would never add up. Took me years to climb back out of the debt I ended up in.
 
Doing my best mate, am just trying not to start down on another depressive spiral. I know my triggers and try to avoid those certain chains of thought and feeling but its tough when things seem so bleak.

I'm sat here listing stuff on Ebay, nothing exciting, just odd bits from around the house, mostly stuff of the fiancees that she doesn't want to make just a little bit extra but feeling pretty fed up with it as most things are selling for a £1 or so and only a couple of sales a week if lucky. I know that I'm in this position now because of mistakes I've made in the past, allowing my psychotic ex to financially cripple me, not completing college, relying on credit and not understanding it thoroughly but I just want to provide a comfortable life for my family. Get the things fixed that need it the most, like the car, get the house sorted, not just for the baby but getting carpet down and some more decorating done would make us all feel better.
 
Contributions based JSA can be claimed by anyone for up to 6 months... Income based is down to eligibility, because I earn she doesn't get any money and we are getting some help now with rent and council tax but not for several weeks and not a massive amount.
 
Vidar said:
Contributions based JSA can be claimed by anyone for up to 6 months... Income based is down to eligibility, because I earn she doesn't get any money and we are getting some help now with rent and council tax but not for several weeks and not a massive amount.
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JSA has nothing to do with housing benefit or council tax benefit other than being one way of getting it.

Housing benefit is calculated by looking at your total income.
 
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