With the help of a nice person at the benefit department we changed it all to the UK, so I got child benefit and tax credit here and I then applied for housing benefit. This helped us to survive.
Through all this I wasn't able to carry on studying in 2005. So in July that year I was adviced to claim income support. Which I did and which I then got.
In 2006 I started a part time job, still receiving Housing benefit, as my job didn't pay that well.
Ok, now 3 years down the line, I started having terrible problems with my neighbour with facial abuse. Through the stress this had on me and my children ( I couldn't leave them on their own due to anxiety they had and threads he made) I lost my job.
I then rang the Job center Plus to claim and they adviced again to claim Income Support, as I got it before I went with their advice.
The first shock came when they rejected my claim on the grounds that I don't live in the UK. I appealed just to be told 4 weeks later that my appeal was rejected as I wasn't in the UK for 5 years self sufficient. This came as a shock to me as I wasn't aware the law has changed in 2006.
Anyway, housing benefit has now stopped as well.
One of my sons was recently diagnosed with Autism, which would make it very difficult to go back to full time work, but now I was told by the Job Center that I am not eligible for Jobseeker's Allowance anyway, as the same rules apply as for Income Support. We are already homeless now, but now it seems we won't have any money to support ourselves too.
Could anybody advice on my position? Thanks
Sorry for the long post, but I am rather shell shocked at the moment
