General Chat

Hi, as many of you know my husband is in hospital and l have just been informed by his firm that they only pay 5 weeks full sick pay then statutory sick pay for 28 weeks, seeing OH had a heart attack back in June he is not intitled to full pay only the ssp which is about £79 per week.
Donot want to go into to much personal details on here but we cannot live on that, we are in private rented and l am now worried that l can't pay the rent, does anyone know if we are intitled to any help .
If you can offer any advice l will not be able to reply straight away as l am off up to the hospital now but will look in later tonight.
Thanks in advance.

I am sure you should be able to claim housing benefit if you are on low income Mummo, my friend does and that is a private rental . I would get in touch with your benefits office as soon as you can and set the ball rolling .

And you could also go to the CAB for advice , always good to know what you are entitled to by going to an independent source, sometimes the benefits people forget to mention things ....

Hello Mummo.....it might be best for you to go to the Citizens Advice regarding what benefits you can get whilst Eddie is layed up .
I should imagine that he ought to get " Incapacity Benefit " or what ever they have re-named it or Disability Living Allowence . I would expect that you should also get help with rent / council tax .
Citizens Advice are brilliant with help in this sort of situation , it is a pain having to sit in queues etc waiting to be seen and the Benefits forms are another nightmare but DO NOT be put off .
Have you explained your circumstances to your landlord ? Best to put them in the picture if you haven't already .
Good luck and as I've already said...DON'T be put off by all the red tape .

Rose has said what I was going to say. You need to go to your council housing benefit department and explain your circumstances.

Hi Mummo

You should be entitled to Housing Benefit and help with your Council Tax.

Apply as quickly as possible because if your council is as slow as ours you will still be waiting for it in the middle of February! Long form to fill in and documents need to be provided.

Good luck. xx

Also worth looking into whether Eddie can claim attendance allowance when he is home again , if he can that kicks in a lot of other benefits automatically. ( council tax for one) .

That's a good point Rose, because council tax benefit doesn't come automatically with housing benefit.

Probably also entitled to Income Support ot Supplementry Benefit, or wjatever they call it now.
Do go to Citizens Advice. They are the experts. It is well worth taking the time to fill out the forms.

Good luck and best wishes to both of you

Thanks all will ring C.A.B in the morning, x

They are very helpful Mummo,but be prepared for a long wait ,you may have to make an appointment.
Goodluck

Mummo if you can't get an appt with CAB until late in the day, or the day after. Make sure you go to the benefit office anyway. Your payments will only start from the date of your claim. They won't back date it.

Steve
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