Are we entitled to anything?

nuala63

Any help/advice would be really appreciated. My husband is self employed but hasn't earned anything since August '09. He gets €50 per week jobseeker's allowance. I earn about €415 per week. We have a 14 yr old boy.
We haven't been able to pay the rent (€725 per month) since August.
We were refused rent allowance on the basis that I am in full time employment.
A total weekly income of €465 doesn't sound too bad but if you take the weekly shopping for three out of that and add ESB and other bills it leaves nothing left to pay the rent.
I am scared that we will be evicted and have nowhere to go. Does anybody know if we are entitled to any benefits? I've looked at welfare.ie etc. but can't see anything that we would be entitled to

Agent_99

I know it sounds harsh but you really have to do a budget, earning about the same money as you, bigger mortgage, 2 kids, two cars which we need as we live in the sticks with no public transport, and we are just about there no more no less each month. tough times but we all have to give up our extras for a while until the guys get back into work. we have been like this since Nov 2008. btw we both had to quit smoking due to the expense but that was well worth it.

billybigunz

Sounds more like a budgeting problem.

You have 2k a month household income. Rent isn't huge. Bills should only be about 150-200.

With one person at home full time your foodcosts should be small enough. Decent curry, stews etc don't cost much.

You get rent relief of about 60 a month as well, make sure to claim it.

carab

Afraid I have to agree with what has already been said. We are a family of 7 earning very little more than you and while we don't have any 'spare' cash, we eat well, pay the mortgage and all bills. What we can't afford, we don't have!

nuala63

Thanks for all the replies. Tough times!

nuala63

Any ideas on the rent arrears?

littlemiss00

Is it rented from the council or private landlord????

eth0_

nuala63 wrote: »

Any ideas on the rent arrears?

Why have you not paid your rent in SEVEN MONTHS? You have a combined income of €2000 yet you've neglected to pay €750 a month in rent for 7 months...am I missing something here, what have you been spending your rent money on?

bad2dabone

you'll have to speak to your landlord about your arrears but you can't begin paying stuff back until you have a plan. I was in a similar position to your husband (working for myself, arse fell out of the business, thankfully I've since gotten a job, of sorts!) and we totally buried our heads in the sand about our finances, after a while, sleepless nights etc we just sat down and did up a budget on excel. Best thing we ever did. If you need a template I have one done up I could email it to you.

billybigunz

eth0_ wrote: »

Why have you not paid your rent in SEVEN MONTHS? You have a combined income of €2000 yet you've neglected to pay €750 a month in rent for 7 months...am I missing something here, what have you been spending your rent money on?

I can only imagine what essentials have justified a 2K a month spend.

This is the way in Ireland, assume you can live a grand standard of living regardless of income. If you are coming up short start looking around for a government handout. Is it not acceptable to be slightly poor in Ireland any more?

julies boy

the best thing u can do when u get payed is pay the bills (that includes the rent ) and what is left is what u live on and thats it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
this may seem hard talk but its real life

Max Power1

julies boy wrote: »

the best thing u can do when u get payed is pay the bills (that includes the rent ) and what is left is what u live on and thats it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
this may seem hard talk but its real life

+1
I have a standing order coming from my bank account the day i get paid each month to pay rent + bills. That way I know what I have to live on for the month. A bit draconian perhaps but I dont want to fall into arrears unnecessarily