One parent family benefit

UnregGirl

hi all,

I was wondering if someone could help me re one parent family benefit. I applied when I was separated for 3 months, the earliest its possible to apply, and haven't heard from them yet which is fine as its only been a couple of weeks, but what i'm wondering is if its backdated for the first 3 months that i was separated, or else how do they expect people to manage for that time? As it was I had to borrow from family etc, and was hoping that if that time was paid for that i could pay them back.

Thanks in advance for any replies

Funkfield

As far as I know they wont backdate it. It will only start from the three month separated date. The "3 month separated" is only for married couples.
I believe it was brought it to stop people trying to claim in the heat of a domestic. But, as with any control measure, some genuine cases will end up hard-done by. I do not know how they are supposed to survive. I would recommend talking to your local office to find out the status of your claim, and then talking to your local health board.

UnregGirl

thanks funkfield,
i was (am) married if that makes any difference. Not legally separated yet because its very early days and a reconciliation may still be possible.

I will indeed talk to my local health board, i think i read somewhere that anything they give you may be taken out of the one parent family arrears benefit, but i'm not clear as to what that means. I should've asked this when i was in the welfare office but the guy dealing with my claim was not the most helpful and a bit odd to be honest!

January

If you are struggling I would head to your Community Welfare Officer and apply for Supplementary Welfare Allowance while waiting for your application for OPFA to be accepted.

yabadabado

the CWO can give you a payment while your claim is waiting to be processed and social welfare will refund the payments to the health board from the arrears when your one parent claim is awarded.