After being sent from pillar to post, I've finally got my ESA claim in, and pending. What I wanted to ask was, as I am 18, I am under the youth rules for ESA, and therefor will receive no money until I have 6 months worth of continuous sick notes. So no money for me until the end of April. Is there anything I can claim whilst I am waiting?, My housing benefit was stopped as I couldn't send proof of income (as I have no income). As it stands, I've had zero coming in since september, and owe friends thousands of pounds - who are now reluctant to lend more. Anyone know if I can get IS temporarily? Or anything for that matter. The reason I as ask is I don't want to call up and be pushed from pillar to post all over again, explaining my situation to 20 different people and getting nowhere.

Right, well I attended an appointment at the job center with my connexions advisor back in November, with the U-18 benefit's advisor. And what you've just said is similar to what she said, only she filled out the form for IS and sent that off, and told me to WAIT, and NOT send the IB form off until i have the full 28 weeks of sick notes. Which I assume from what you've just said was the wrong way round? I've tried to sort this out with connexions over the last few days, as it's getting a bit desperate here. Should I send my claim for IB in NOW, despite not having the full 28 weeks of sick notes, and then claim IS? (It'd really kill them to make this more simple wouldn't it!)

Typical! I put in a claim for Income Support, only to recieve a letter saying I was not entitled to it as I am under 18 and not in education or in reciept of other benefits. As for housing benefit, how would I go about the appeal process? I was made aware that I could appeal, but the letter was worded well and clearly stated that they NEEDED proof of income, which I do not have. I did state in my letters that I am being hounded constantly by my live-in landlord for the rent I haven't paid and that I'm living off hand outs from friends, to which they asked for letters from said friends confirming this. Do I just need to send one letter from a friend who has lent me money, or do I need to make them all write a letter EVERY time i ask for a fiver for some dinner?

Hi there, i'm new to the forums so i shall introduce myself, I'm Tom. I've been having problems since october last year whilst claiming benefits, this is made even harder by the fact I am only 17 (for another 20 days). I have been living away from my parents since I was 14, and suffer from Agoraphobia and Depression, I was advised to claim incapacity benefit to cover my living costs. However, under the rules for claiming Incapacity Benefit in youth, I need 28 weeks worth of sick notes, and only have them for 14 weeks, leaving me unable to claim for another 14 weeks. My housing benefit was also paid for 2 months, but this was stopped as I could not provide proof of income (something hard to do when you have no income). I have called the benefits on numerous occasions only to be passed from pillar to post, as nobody seems to know what else there is that I can do. As it stands, I owe 3 months rent, 2 months utility charges and am only eating thanks to friends lending me the odd £20 here and there. So what I was getting to is, has anybody been in a similar situation, or known of anybody in a similar situation? If so could anybody offer any advice on what I should do for the next 14 weeks, I'm trying to scrape together some money just to pay at least a month of my arrears so as not to be evicted. I'm so lost with what to do, the system doesn't seem to have any contingency for people stuck in waiting periods. Nobody at the JCP has given me a straight answer, and I'm at my wits end. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Tom