Confused?Surely this can't be true means test?

[divadi2000]

Hi can anyone tell me if this is correct??
s/w came to do a crb form and finance form all she asked was our income and what goes on morgage, council tax, water rates and life insurance..... eh whats that all about I queried her as that did not look like the means test the L/A use she said her manager gave her the form and their paperwork WAS up to date...but she would ask when she got back to her department..... I disagree this is a correct means test....surely that cant be right??? she never asked about loan, car, food etc etc??? like i said before i dont trust them...but if what she says is true we dont have a cat in hells chance for any help..........i'm confused as this does not seem right? can anyone give me any info please is she right?.

[jenmarie]

That's all they wanted from me too, hence I now recieve

[Bumblebee]

hi im interested in this means test too, as for the SGO, i have a feeling that when we apply we wont get any financial help ether, i mean were not poor but were not rich ether and what we have we work dam hard for..

[babylove]

hi, i agree with you about that form when my sw gave it to me to fill it in i asked her to leave it with me, so i added my own bit in aswell ie gas elec credit card bill petrol to take the children to school and food etc and then i sent it of to the council myself with a letter explaining why i done that, i eventually got a letter back saying they were awarding us the 100% of what they pay, so you could try that.

[David Roth]

Local authorities do have discretion over how they carry out SGO allowance means testing. You could call the finance team who will be processing the test to check that the social worker has been using the most recent form of the test, which is being used for all SGO allowance claims.

If the allowance does not work out to be an adequate amount, you could argue for special circumstances - say that they have not taken account of particular needs of the child, or of certain expenses in your budget which are larger than you might normally expect. I would suggestxcwriting to a senior manager to make this point.

Ultimately you can argue about it in court before the order is made. The judge can't force the local authority to pay more, but he/she can apply pressure, particularly if the amount being offered seems stingy.

David R
FRG Policy Adviser