What to do when the money stops?

[count orlok]

Wifes state pension and our pension credits went in on time, just my ESA was late. The fact that it was the first payment was what caused me worries. My IB has been a day late on a couple of accasions before. In fact my benefit pay day was changed from wed to thursday when they chnged it from particular days for each type of benefit to foutnightly with day dependant on NI number, just that I've always had it paid on wednesday even after the change. The way it works we get a payment every week which helps with budgeting; on the 2 weeks I don't get my ESA we get our DLA, mine one week, the Countesses the other.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Why on earth can't the goverment departments

responsible for crucial benefits get their acts

together and coordinate recipients payments.??????????????

[count orlok]

That would be too easy. When I got carers allowance for the countess they told the pension credits people. When I contacted the general helpline (the free one) I was told the carers premium would be automatically paid in a couple of weeks including the arrears. 3 weeks later no premium. I contacted via the 0845 line (quite pricey as I do not have BT line) and spoke to someone about my account. He said he could see that we were entitled to the premium as it was on my the file but could shed no light on way it had not been paid. We did get the 3 months arrears a couple of weeks later and now we get it each week.

 

When you get attendance allowance (or DLA middle/high rate care) the award letter tells you about the carers allowance and carers premium, and even says in effect don't forget to claim or you will lose out. That said said, as far as I can remember it does not tell you how or where to claim it.

 

Now I have 2 close family members both around 80. In each couple the wife has attendance allowance and they and they both live in social housing, and have small amount of savings (that bring in virtually nothing due to low interest) one couple Live in a nice new apartment, are "modern" are on the Internet get their carers premium, help towards glasses and dentists, some housing and council tax benefits but don't get any pension credits as they also have their US and Navy pensions. They are doing OK. Thy also get the best deals on all their utilities and always phone and complain if not happy.

 

The others live in an small old council flat that other than the modern TV (We've gone digital years ago here so now place for "old" TVs), could have come out of the 50/60s with no Internet. They receive no company pension and only have their basic state pensions, so their combined income is well below the thresh-hold for both savings credit (nor sure if they have enough savings to get this) and pension minimum grantee credit. They pay all their rent and council tax, and pay full price for their glasses and dentures. They only do OK as they are using their megre savings, when they run out they'll not do so well. They also pay the highest rates for all their utilities and never complain.

 

If people where automatically given what they are entitled to (and we are talking about people who have worked all their lives and paid taxes (just for the Tories here). It breaks my heart sometimes to see my sister in law struggling to clime the stairs to their flat and I get upset when they moan about people getting this and that, yet they won't ask for a more modern flat or except benefits that they should get. We all where very surprised when he actually applied for attendance allowance, but then he wasn't himself at the time with his wife being in hospital after a heart attack.

[BornThisWay]

This is an interesting thread. While I sympathise with your plight to an extent Count I do feel that you are keen to blame everyone else for your predicament. I understand why I am in debt - I borrowed too much. Your view seems to be that it is the fault of those who loaned money to you that you have this problem. The benefits you quote are mind boggling...........all I will say is that I work hard and long hours and I cannot afford a car. Your £20K vehicle is a very nice benefit to have. I would be a little more grateful for what the State is providing rather than moaning at it and the people who loaned you the money you asked for.

 

Just saying................

[count orlok]

This is an interesting thread. While I sympathise with your plight to an extent Count I do feel that you are keen to blame everyone else for your predicament. I understand why I am in debt - I borrowed too much. Your view seems to be that it is the fault of those who loaned money to you that you have this problem. The benefits you quote are mind boggling...........all I will say is that I work hard and long hours and I cannot afford a car. Your £20K vehicle is a very nice benefit to have. I would be a little more grateful for what the State is providing rather than moaning at it and the people who loaned you the money you asked for.

 

Just saying................

 

I never said I wasn't grateful, but then I suppose the Government was gratefull of the taxes and NI the wife and I paid while working.

 

As for you working and not being able to afford a car, that is very bad. I would not have been able to work had I not owned a car.

 

I am paying my debts at a rate I can afford. It is my opion and that of a great number of people that the banks caused the present finacial position. At the time I borrowed It I was able to pay. If I had no income I wouldn't be able to pay anything.

 

BTW it is not my car and it will never be, I have the use of it so long as I continue to pay the £200+ a month, if/when. in order to save money, someone decides I am not ill/disabled enough to get the benefits I use to pay for it, then I will be housbound. That is so long as they deem I deserve a house (because the council pulled the one I owned down.

 

I followed all the rules, Worked very hard bought a house etc. paid taxes etc. I did own a car once, and a big motorbike. Without them I would not have been able to work, and as I paid for them I could never afford a holiday (the last one I had was in 1976). I did not ask for a boat to fall on top of me, nor did I ask for the several heart attacks i had.

 

So think yourself lucky you are still able to work. There are millions who would wish they were in your position.

 

I started this thread not to moan about this and that. I started it because I was (as are others) serriously worried about what to do if when my money stops. People are being kicked off benefits with no income and things are only going to get worse.

 

In a way I feel lucky (and gratefull) that my wife is in the only group of benefit claiments that are not being made to pay for the banks greed.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Well said Count, I for one am sure that many

people do not realise how badly the seriously

disabled have been treated over the years, just

because there are those in our population who

use and abuse the benefit system it does not mean

that all of the claimants are ungrateful or cheating

in somw way.

I have followed and contributed to your thread and

you will always have my support, you are certainly not

blaming others!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brig.

[count orlok]

cheers

[dpick]

This is an interesting thread. While I sympathise with your plight to an extent Count I do feel that you are keen to blame everyone else for your predicament. I understand why I am in debt - I borrowed too much. Your view seems to be that it is the fault of those who loaned money to you that you have this problem. The benefits you quote are mind boggling...........all I will say is that I work hard and long hours and I cannot afford a car. Your £20K vehicle is a very nice benefit to have. I would be a little more grateful for what the State is providing rather than moaning at it and the people who loaned you the money you asked for.

 

Just saying................

 

Hi as someone who after a no fault car crash, my wife ended up wheelchair bound and myself in hospital for 3 months.We were one of the lucky ones that ended up getting DLA for both of us, we had to purchase a £20000 car to allow my wife to have transport for her in her wheelchair. We get approx £25000 benefits a year to allow us to live at home (paying for carers from that) I would give all that back just to have good health again.

 

dpick

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Well said dpick, I wish you both well.

[Happyhippy1959]

Well said Count,,, I have myself to blame for me debts as much as the financial institutions who lent me the money. I am lucky I am in work in a job I enjoy,,, Sorry to all those financial institutions but hey they were grabbing massive bonuses that i could only dream off. Also when they went pear shaped along came the public purse to pay them and keep them in a life style I could only dream off.

 

i am not going to let those figgers take every penny I have worked hard for now I am in a position ( yes fault of my own ) but if you commit a crime you do the time then are let free to become or supposed to become a citizen again without the stigma of the crime ( not all ) crimes i may add. So Hippy was silly, borrowed too much and then ended up not being able to afford it.... They the banks sell it for pennies and write it off against tax.... some greedy organization then says pay us this plus 12% interest YOUR HAVING A LAUGH.....

 

YES HIPPY IS TO BLAME,,, BUT NO WAY AM I GOING TO FREEZE OR STARVE JUST FOR SOME GREEDY FINANCIAL INSTITUTION .... NO WAY

[intend]

Well said Happy - the system is corrupt - full stop. It is the innocent who pay. Me I work in the public sector, am stressed on a daily basis, am low paid and now faced with a **** pension, paying more and working longer - why - to pay for those greedy barstewards in the city.

 

In debt and proud to be fighting back. And yes I've has a shandy bass - indoors cos can't afford to go out

 

Intend

[BornThisWay]

Hmmm.......I can see this has turned up a hornet's nest. I do think DLA is being handed out to all and sundry and every day the papers come up with individuals who are claiming it while perfectly fit and healthy. I am not accusing anyone on this thread of being in that category, but they certainly exist and they need weeding out.

 

It is also a myth that paying your taxes while you are working means that you are just getting back what you put in with no input from others. A nursing sister told me that many people going into hospital believe they have paid for the care they are getting via their taxes. In fact she said, the money they have paid over a lifetime is probably used up after a couple of days, then you are being funded by everyone else.

 

What you seem to forget Count is that the banks have put Billions of tax Pounds into this country, and that their high earners pay tax at 40% and 50% on most of their earnings. Those sums are in part funding your DLA so don't look a gift horse in the mouth! The financial sector continues to be the one thing we are world class at and the invisible earnings it creates are colossal.

 

Yes I do work hard and I cannot afford a car. A friend has a slightly disabled daughter and they are provided with a car (another one as they already have two) for their daughter. I'm sorry but I think that is a waste of my tax, as they are perfectly capable of using their own cars. I do not understand why you are automatically provided with a car if you have slight mobility problems. I suffer with a bad back and my public transport journeys are difficult but I have no intention of running to ask for benefits as I have my pride. And the debts are my own fault. No-one else's. As a nation we need to stop blaming everyone else for our own actions and expecting handouts left right and centre. Because 'society' simply can't afford it any more.

 

Oh and 'intend' your final salary index linked pension is one of the things society can no longer afford. Think yourself lucky you have any sort of pension, millions in the private sector do not, yet they are being asked to pay taxes to provide your's - not entirely fair is it?

[brokebutnotbeatn]

BTW, there is another view. I acknowledge also am the one to blame for my debts. At the time I had the money and never foresaw the problems that I would encounter. My circumstances changed and I am in a DMP to pay them off. What I object to is the way I am now treated by the financial institutions. Every day brings a new battle with them; in spite of informing them of my difficulties from the outset and never missing a payemnt I continue to struggle to make every month. I will be debt free in under 5 years if they haven't driven me to a nervous breakdown first; ironically enough they will be paid off in less time than they will spend trashing my credit files to ensure as a (now) single mum I can never buy a house again. I am not bitter but I am insensed at the way in which these institutions blatently disregard the law time after time after time.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Hi BBNB, You have had a tough time, but you sound to me

like the kind of person who will fight back clear up you credit

status, and show that you are worthy of progressing forward

after the troubles you have been through.

 

Brig.

[brokebutnotbeatn]

Thanks Brigs. Yes. I am a fighter and so much more knowledgeable now thanks to CAG to protect my kids and myself moving forward!

[intend]

BTW - if you look closely you will find that public sector pensions are affordable and financed by members. Worked for long time in the private sector and paid into pension schemes only for employers to rob them - remeber Maxwell.

 

The fact remaind the financial systems remains corrupt.

 

BBNB - congrats at protecting the important things in life, I like you am a doing everthing to protect my kids.

 

Intend

[count orlok]

I do not understand why you are automatically provided with a car if you have slight mobility problems. I suffer with a bad back and my public transport journeys are difficult but I have no intention of running to ask for benefits as I have my pride.

 

I've never heard of anybody with slight mobility problems automatically being provided with a car, and I would be very surprised if anybody else has. I know people with severe mobility problems (not always visible, which could explain some people jealousy) can apply for and get a car from about £200 a month upwards.

 

Although you may not own a car (I know there any many reasons why not everyone has one), you're are obviously a lot better of than most people if your "pride" allows you do do without benefits. All the people I know have to rely on the state for their health and in their older year they rely on the state pension.

 

Must be nice living in troll land where not one ever losers their job, gets ill, or has to retire. You obviously don't claim tax credits (the biggest benefit cost acording to government figures), have any children whether.

 

I won't bother to answer your posts anymore as you have obviously bought into the lie that the disabled are the cause of all societies ills.

[BornThisWay]

Count I have not said that the disabled all the cause of all society's ills - but neither do I think the bankers caused them either.

 

My initial response to you was really the fact that you were blaming everyone and everything for your predicament.

 

Yes I do think the bankers are greedy and yes I do think many people are getting DLA when they could easily work.

 

But most of all I think that we are all responsible for our own actions and that in the main there is no-one else to blame.

 

As for 'intend' the personal contributions made by public sector employees, even if they are raised, will be a drop in the ocean of the actual cost of providing final salary index linked pensions - which is why most private companies, even the very largest, have dropped them for new members. Public sector workers however cannot see how unrealistically expensive this benefit is and are making a big fuss about how unfair it is that they be asked to work longer and pay a little more.

 

Hmmm..........reality check for you I think!

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Having read and contributed to the Counts thread

I cannot see how he is blaming anyone for his dilemma,

the Countess is disabled and the benefits system in my

opinion has let them down, the changes made in the

criteria were noe seamless and many were left without

money.

Brig.

[BornThisWay]

Hi Brig, it was just the impression I formed from scanning a few posts. Dismissing DLA as 'all going on the car' as if a car were mandatory for life for example, and blaming financial institutions for lending him money when on benefits - yes of course they were stupid to do so, but what kind of level are benefits set at if someone can take out that many loans and have any hope of repaying them????

 

Also the attitude that it is just 'tough' that he cannot afford to pay the money back. I hate the fact that I am struggling to pay all my debts, but it is my fault for taking them out in the first place.

 

I work fulltime, cannot afford a car, and have not had a holiday for 20 years - and that was paid for by my parents. But I know that only I can get myself out of the debt mountain that I created, and while I hate the DCA who make my life a misery, the fact is that they wouldn't be doing so if I paid the money back.

 

Those who default are as much a problem to the financial world as those on high bonuses. It is wrong to point the finger only at 'greedy bankers'.

[dpick]

 

Yes I do think the bankers are greedy and yes I do think many people are getting DLA when they could easily work.

 

 

Hi just a quick pull on the above quote you do not seem to realise that DLA mobility component is paid even if you are working, I claimed this after my accident to allow me to return to work before I retired.

 

dpick

[count orlok]

The trouble with DLA is even the government are not aware of why it is awarded and what for. The fact that even they seem to think its and out of work benefit is stopping people from working and are going to scrap it in 2014, only shows how little is known. DLA helps many people do the things most take for granted, this allows them to work and be part of society. I never blamed the banks for my predicament. I merely started this thread because I was seriously worried about my benefits being stopped and finding myself unable to pay my creditors.

 

As an aside, seeing as how people seem to be so hung up on the cars that people "get for nothing", when I worked I used to run a rather nice car and a very big Motorbike; a Mercedes-Benz 280SE and a Kawasaki ZX1100. Since I had to leave work I have had to sell them, and now I have to make do with a Vauxhall rep-mobile. I am not even complaining about that, while I do miss my Merc and I no long longer able to ride a Motorbike, I am very grateful for the freedom my Vauxhall gives me.

 

I would therefore ask if people do not have anything useful to add to this thread to please desist from making comments. There are many forums where one can air their views to like minded individuals. If one want help the people her are willing to give their help, but trolls are not welcome.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

.Agreed

[BornThisWay]

I had no wish to offend Count, I was just intrigued by your comments. I would love a car - any sort of car - my 2 hour bus journey to work each way every day is very very tiring. Interestingly in a local case a council worker has had her mobility car taken away because the council have said she is capable of getting the bus like anyone else would have to. Even I was surprised at the outpouring of venom of the person concerned. I guess the system is unpopular but I guess I would be no better if someone offered me a car - I am sure I would grab it too!!

[dpick]

I am surprised at the report that someone had their car taken away due to council saying she is capable of getting a bus as no council has anything to do with who receives DLA mobility as I have previously stated you can have DLA Mobility Component when working, I have been in receipt of full rate DLA mobility when working.

 

dpick