benefits /housing benefit /tax credits etc

[katty45]

hi lovely people..I am possibly getting a widebeam narrowboat. I am a music teacher private but dont earn much. can i receive housing benefit or tax credits on a boat.thanks for advice

[Alan de Enfield]

Yes.

I know people who get their mooring costs, their Insurance and licence fees all paid by the state.

I guess 'what you get' will depend solely on YOUR circumstances.

[katty45]

ok I am hoping to supplement my income myself but not sure how long this may take to sort out. Do they pay residential moorings? Any way of finding out the situation..who to contact

[Alan de Enfield]

5 minutes ago, katty45 said:

ok I am hoping to supplement my income myself but not sure how long this may take to sort out. Do they pay residential moorings? Any way of finding out the situation..who to contact

Yes, they pay benefits for residential moorings.

You need to discuss with the benefits office and will get a widely differing response (from no its impossible, to no problem) whereabouts in the country are you? (Hopefully not London area)

Do not give in, it may take months to get thru to the person who can say yes, but it will be back-dated to your claim date.

[BlueStringPudding]

Different councils have different principles. Some will pay insurance and some won't. But mooring and license fee seems less contentious. Bear in mind that housing benefit is paid in monthly instalments meaning any lump sums you have to pay out you'll need to have already saved up in advance.  You won't be able to use the early payment discount for your license (but you might not care since the council will be paying anyway) and that double payment CRT make us do at the first instalment your housing benefit won't adjust for coz they give you the same amount each month.

[BWM]

One expense that won't be covered is the potentially much higher cost of upkeep and preventative maintenance, which could be difficult to fund on a limited income. 

[canals are us?]

For 18 months I was unemployed and I was on JSA of around £71pw.

I applied for housing benefit to cover my mooring and licence fees and boat insurance.

After applying, I first heard nothing for 2 weeks then kept going in every week for an update and the very unhelpful lady at the desk couldn't find my application from 2 weeks ago and had to re-schedule an appointment to re-apply, then getting letters every week asking for more info like Boat length, number of bedrooms, even BSC certificate, bill of sale then another week later something else etc, I thought to just be awkward to put you off from applying and rather than being sensible and ask all needed info in one go. Always got the same reply after visiting the Council offices weekly "Awaiting to hear from the deciding officer"

After doing battle with Staffordshire County Council, 4 and a half months from applying got awarded £45.00 per week. This covered the mooring fee but didn't fully cover the licence fee and boat insurance. Luckily my Nan paid the £500 shortfall in the boat licence.

I found a job and eventually after 9 months quit and started to work for myself self employed property maintenance. I am on my 2nd year and only earn around £5,000 a year and get topped up £52 a week with working tax credits, so can manage to live a basic lifestyle and run 2 cars.

The working tax credit is very easy to reapply every year and I find the HMRC self assessment online very pain free to fill in.

I very much appreciated the JSA and Housing benefit but certainly glad to be free of the Council and Job Centre. Some staff members were just plain obnoxious and very unhelpful and I even asked one at the Council, "how many people have you made homeless while awaiting a decision"? I got the answer of "Can't tell you due to data protection" With a lovely smirk! I always thought to myself they could end up in a similar position and would like to of been treated caringly and with some sympathy.

James

Edited November 19, 2017 by canals are us?

[katty45]

3 minutes ago, canals are us? said:

For 18 months I was unemployed and I was on JSA of around £71pw.

I applied for housing benefit to cover my mooring and licence fees and boat insurance.

After applying, I first heard nothing for 2 weeks then kept going in every week for an update and the very unhelpful lady at the desk couldn't find my application from 2 weeks ago and had to re-schedule an appointment to re-apply, then getting letters every week asking for more info like Boat length, number of bedrooms, even BSC certificate, bill of sale then another week later something else etc, I thought to just be awkward to put you off from applying and rather than being sensible and ask all needed info in one go. Always got the same reply after visiting the Council offices weekly "Awaiting to hear from the deciding officer"

After doing battle with Staffordshire County Council, 4 and a half months from applying got awarded £45.00 per week. This covered the mooring fee but didn't fully cover the licence fee and boat insurance. Luckily my Nan paid the £500 shortfall in the boat licence.

I found a job and eventually after 9 months quit and started to work for myself self employed property maintenance. I am on my 2nd year and only earn around £5,000 a year and get topped up £52 a week with working tax credits, so can manage to live a basic lifestyle and run 2 cars.

The working tax credit is very easy to reapply every year and I find the HMRC self assessment online very pain free to fill in.

I very much appreciated the JSA and Housing benefit but certainly glad to be free of the Council and Job Centre.

James

glad ur sorted now. I know housing benefit is difficult anyway even in a house. T

[canals are us?]

6 minutes ago, katty45 said:

glad ur sorted now. I know housing benefit is difficult anyway even in a house. T

Thanks Katty45. James

[LadyG]

Sympathy is not something you will get from any official source; many folks struggle and as they have no cash, they have go on the black economy, and to be honest, this is entirely understandable.

If you don't know your way around the system you are a major disadvantage over those who do.

Edited November 20, 2017 by LadyG

[ditchcrawler]

Katty45 did you get my message?

[katty45]

1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

Katty45 did you get my message?

yes thanks

[nbfiresprite]

Depends who has control of the council, If it is a right wing party expect very long delays just to get a reply and it will be very unhelpful when it does arrive. They will be pushing you to move on out of their area. I just e-mailed Fenland Council concerning why I been sent two diffent council tax bills for the same mooring, One sent to my home address in Dorset with one ref number the other direct to the mooring with another ref number. The auto e-mail reply states eight to ten weeks for a reply.

[WotEver]

9 hours ago, nbfiresprite said:

The auto e-mail reply states eight to ten weeks for a reply.

I bet they don’t take that long to start chasing you for payment. 

[LadyG]

Offiicial protocolsae set up to mollify the majority not to assist the complainant.

I once had occasion to contact the Council only to find I had business complaint registered against me. On further investigation the complainant was someone with whom I had no contact. Enough said. I never did get paid.

I have tried to use the Trading Standards [aka CAB] several times, the man who answered seemed to have no legal  training, in the end he told me his function was to advise me of my Consumer Rights, No point in that, we all know our consumer rights using Google etc. So the traders continue to abuse the Sale of Goods Act in the knowledge that no action will be taken.

Edited November 26, 2017 by LadyG

[mrsmelly]

8 minutes ago, LadyG said:

Offiicial protocolsae set up to mollify the majority not to assist the complainant.

I once had occasion to contact the Council only to find I had business complaint registered against me. On further investigation the complainant was someone with whom I had no contact. Enough said. I never did get paid.

I have tried to use the Trading Standards [aka CAB] several times, the man who answered seemed to have no legal  training, in the end he told me his function was to advise me of my Consumer Rights, No point in that, we all know our consumer rights using Google etc. So the traders continue to abuse the Sale of Goods Act in the knowledge that no action will be taken.

Lady G I think you are being a little harsh here. many if not all CAB bods do it for nowt, zilch diddly and freely give of their own time and do the best they can. One of my daughters gives two full days a month up for free to give legal advice to people without the monetary means in court. She also drives to the court fifty miles from her home. Council bods yes are employees but many peeps do it for nowt

[MaggieMay]

31 minutes ago, LadyG said:

I have tried to use the Trading Standards [aka CAB]

Trading Standards departments of councils and the CAB are not the same thing.

I used to do casework in a Govt department and I can assure you that our work load was such that we didn't have time to be deliberately obstructive.

[MtB]

56 minutes ago, MaggieMay said:

 

I used to do casework in a Govt department and I can assure you that our work load was such that we didn't have time to be deliberately obstructive.

 

I once contacted Trading Standards about a boat sold to me with no RCD when it should have had one. (This was in the early days of RCD which I only discovered existed after I'd bought the boat.) 

The chap I spoke to was surprisingly well informed about the RCD regs but equally candid, telling me they wouldn't take any action in my case as they "had bigger fish to fry", unless external pressure was applied by, for example, my MP.

 

[LadyG]

2 hours ago, MaggieMay said:

Trading Standards departments of councils and the CAB are not the same thing.

I used to do casework in a Govt department and I can assure you that our work load was such that we didn't have time to be deliberately obstructive.

I know that: TS and CAB are not the same but our council has given the CAB the TS responsibility, it is impossible to talk to TS.

I did not say that the CAB are deliberately obstructive, I said they take no action, they told me their function is to advise me of my Consumer Rights.

I used to work in Environmental Services, and as far as I could determine they had a nice chat till coffee time, then went out long enough to get lunch allowance,, then back for tea time.

I was not eligible for many of these allowances as I worked from 7.00 am approx to their coffee time, a few hours in the office, then after 4.00pm till I finished. Apparently I was flouting their Flexitime arrangements if I took time off during the day! Not that I had signed their flexitime contract, which brought that conversation to a close pdq.

Edited November 26, 2017 by LadyG

[LadyG]

2 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

Lady G I think you are being a little harsh here. many if not all CAB bods do it for nowt, zilch diddly and freely give of their own time and do the best they can. One of my daughters gives two full days a month up for free to give legal advice to people without the monetary means in court. She also drives to the court fifty miles from her home. Council bods yes are employees but many peeps do it for nowt

Sorry, I am not being harsh with CAB, this particular arangement is a paid for service, the guy who answered the phone and gave the advice, was the same person three times [over a period of about two years], which is why I was aggrieved at his unwillingness to take action, which is when he told me they take no action, only advice. I don't need advice, particulalrly incorect advice. These guys are having their wages paid by the taxpayer, and the jobs are just plain ineffective.

Edited November 26, 2017 by LadyG

[Richard10002]

13 hours ago, nbfiresprite said:

Depends who has control of the council, If it is a right wing party expect very long delays just to get a reply and it will be very unhelpful when it does arrive. They will be pushing you to move on out of their area. I just e-mailed Fenland Council concerning why I been sent two diffent council tax bills for the same mooring, One sent to my home address in Dorset with one ref number the other direct to the mooring with another ref number. The auto e-mail reply states eight to ten weeks for a reply.

How much experience have you had of "Left Wing Councils"? If any, how much better, and in what way, were they than your current experience?

Personally, I dont think the leaning of the council makes a blind bit of difference. Having many years of experience of Manchester City Council, (and they dont come much more left wing than Manchester), I could equally say - If its a left wing council, you can also expect very long unhelpful delays. In addition, there seems to be a concerted effort to find reasons to stop benefit/housing payments, rather than to work with the "customer", to get things right, without affecting genuine claims.

So spinning this as a right wing issue is somewhat disingenuous.

[Richard10002]

20 minutes ago, LadyG said:

I know that: TS and CAB are not the same but our council has given the CAB the TS responsibility, it is impossible to talk to TS.

I did not say that the CAB are deliberately obstructive, I said they take no action, they told me their function is to advise me of my Consumer Rights.

I used to work in Environmental Services, and as far as I could determine they had a nice chat till coffee time, then went out long enough to get lunch allowance,, then back for tea time.

I was not eligible for many of these allowances as I worked from 7.00 am approx to their coffee time, a few hours in the office, then after 4.00pm till I finished. Apparently iI was flouting their Flexitime arrangements if I took time off during the day! Not that I had signed their flexitime contract.

As an estate agent I occasionally have a need/desire to contact what I would call Trading Standards, or to help a client who may have been treated badly by another estate agent to contact them.

I am a reasonably smart guy, with lots of experience of stuff, but I usually give up trying to find out how to make any kind of complaint that one would expect Trading Standards to deal with.

I've given up trying, (probably a couple of years ago), as the web, and those at the end of any phone number that might seem appropriate, had me running from pillar to post, with no-one actually admitting that it was them who would deal with the matter.

My perception is that the general public are discouraged from making complaints to these kinds of bodies, and they only exist so that government and councils can say that the consumer is extremely well protected when the reality is that they/we are not.

My conclusion is that the only avenue open to the consumer is legal in nature which, whilst possible online, and without solicitors, becomes more expensive every year.

If someone can prove me wrong, and show me the way, I would be delighted

[LadyG]

See above, I fear these practices and attitudes are endemic in the UK, and probably the EU. It makes the country an unhappy place for all concerned. Greed and "communication skills" are highly valued, integrity is not:  on Friday I had three phone calls [I am on TPS], one from "BT", one from"microsoft corporation" and one other, 08.00, 12.00 and 20.30, I get fed up!

Phoning the Council to report a Food Hygiene offence [my old job], I was told it was SEPA .............. I asked when the 1979 Food Hygiene Regulations [Scotland]  had been revoked, oops, got transferred to a dead line.............. A quick visit would have sorted the problem, but it never got reported. I am not a complainer bwt but things have just been allowed to run down to the extent that the only way one can get action is to jump up and down and make a huge fuss.

The sooner I can paddle my own canoe the better

https://www.apolloduck.com/boat.phtml?id=542478

Edited November 26, 2017 by LadyG

[nbfiresprite]

6 hours ago, Richard10002 said:

How much experience have you had of "Left Wing Councils"? If any, how much better, and in what way, were they than your current experience?

Personally, I dont think the leaning of the council makes a blind bit of difference. Having many years of experience of Manchester City Council, (and they dont come much more left wing than Manchester), I could equally say - If its a left wing council, you can also expect very long unhelpful delays. In addition, there seems to be a concerted effort to find reasons to stop benefit/housing payments, rather than to work with the "customer", to get things right, without affecting genuine claims.

 

Actual I had dealing with both left wing and right councils over the past 35 years, On the whole the left-wing councils were far more helpful and quick than right wing councils. One of the worst right wing ones being Bournemouth.

Edited November 26, 2017 by nbfiresprite

[PD1964]

I would have to ask the OP, can you honestly afford to live on a widebeam boat in all respects, you've asked questions elsewhere on here about continuous cruising in the Nottingham area as your son needs schooling in a specific area, asked about the safety of travelling single handed with your young son, asked about out of hours working, asked about residential moorings and are now asking the question can you claim off the Government to pay for you to live on the canal system. If you have to ask all these questions then the answer is that you can't afford or are not suited to be on the canals.

 How old are you and have you any financial means to be sustainable by your own means to live on the canal? You say your inheriting a widebeam, it's not a cheap lifestyle anymore and what people aren't telling you is that a lot of Marinas won't even entertain you if your on benefits, not to mention the cost of the maintenance to keep the boat serviceable. There are enough people coming on the canals who are willing to pay for all of this without claiming off the Social. 

Seriously think about it and don't get carried away with thinking it's going to be a cheap way to live instead of just selling your inheritance and renting a small flat and being able to claim off the Social more easier.

Edited November 26, 2017 by PD1964