Social Problem

[Anthony82]

Hi all, hoping someone can help here ( long post, sorry)

Basically, myself and my partner are no longer working. I took redundancy (under €50k) and her place closed down. We both went to social on July 4th to sign on.

Problem begins as we were both living up north where herself is from so according to social we don't have enough stamps worked up to qualify, fair enough, so what they have to do is apply to HMRC in England for a form to prove the tax we both paid to uk and this will allow us to qualify for JSB (we both had our northern p45's and p60's with us at this stage).

I luckily enough got a place on GTI because I had redundancy, herself didn't as she has to wait and be receiving social welfare for 3 months or more - crazy, you'd think it would be the other way around. So I headed down to social last week to see at what stage my cliam was at as I need to know for my back to education grant and for my sons back to school allowance. "You're only a new claim - July - We're only on April claims yet" was the first thing I was told by the helpful lady on the info desk. Is it my fault they are are only on April claims? no. Asked to speak to someone else and was passed off to a guy who spent 15 mins walking about with my claim pack then came back and said "well, our hands are tied as we're waiting on form from england for you and we can't do anything", which by the way would be lies as if they are only on April claims then they haven't even reached mine to request this form from England in the first place!

So i'm just off the phone to HMRC in England and Inland Revenue in Lisburn and they're both telling me that as we presented them with our northern P45's and P60's that's all they need, nothing else.

Now I don't know what to do next, time is running for back to education and back to school, money is all but gone as we used it to pay off debts and we can no longer afford to pay for rent after end of october! As I understand it, we can't apply for rent allowance until our full claim comes through as if they looked on their system in Community Welfare, they'd only see the last six months of 2007, therefore not qualifying us for anything!

If anyone here could give me any advice at all it would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Welfarite]

Problem begins as we were both living up north where herself is from so according to social we don't have enough stamps worked up to qualify, fair enough, so what they have to do is apply to HMRC in England for a form to prove the tax we both paid to uk and this will allow us to qualify for JSB.

Have you applied for JA in case you don't qualify for JB even with your GB contributions?

I luckily enough got a place on GTI because I had redundancy, herself didn't as she has to wait and be receiving social welfare for 3 months or more - crazy, you'd think it would be the other way around.

What is GTI? Reading between the lines, you applied for Back to Education Allowance which normally you must be on LR for 6 months (second level) or 12 months (third level). The concession of getting on to BTEA straight away if you are paid redundancy is because of current economic climate.

"You're only a new claim - July - We're only on April claims yet" was the first thing I was told by the helpful lady on the info desk. Asked to speak to someone else... (who) ...then came back and said "well, our hands are tied as we're waiting on form from england for you and we can't do anything" So i'm just off the phone to HMRC in England and Inland Revenue in Lisburn and they're both telling me that as we presented them with our northern P45's and P60's that's all they need, nothing else.

SW will need confirmation that contributions have actually been credited to your record in GB; P45s and P60s are only forms completed by employers and not proof of payment.

Now I don't know what to do next, time is running for back to education and back to school, money is all but gone as we used it to pay off debts and we can no longer afford to pay for rent after end of october! As I understand it, we can't apply for rent allowance until our full claim comes through as if they looked on their system in Community Welfare, they'd only see the last six months of 2007, therefore not qualifying us for anything!

Visit your CWO. They will see that you have lodged a claim on their system and that SW are not paying you. Also ask them about Back to School and Rent Supplement claims.