Anyone else been in same boat?

[Dannysbabe]

I haven't been on here for a while as things have been very difficult. I am on ESA and was living with my mum but the last two years her health declined and she was in and out of hospital. She went back into hospital a few days before Christmas and passed away on new years eve. While she was alive her income paid the bills (no mortgage or rent to pay), but now she's gone it seems I will have to pay all bills. Not a problem but I was wondering if being on ESA is sufficient to pay the bills and if anyone else has been in this situation and if so how did you cope?

[ZooWeeMama]

Hi Dannysbabe. Sorry for your loss. I hope you can get some answers about the ESA. Maybe the Citizens Advice can help you?
http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/ Phone or email them.

This is a good place to go to deal with your grief, you can get help even by email, you don't have to go in or even phone if you're not up to it.
http://www.cruse.org.uk/

[Coffee]

So sorry to hear about your mum.

What you need to do is a household budget so that you can see what all the bills will cost every month, and compare it to your income. Just write a list out of everything you need, from utilities like gas/water/electric/internet right down to food shopping...etc and add it up for a month's worth.

This will help you see what the numbers are so that when you go to Citizens Advice as suggested by @ZooWeeMama above then you will understand how much money you have coming in versus going out.

You will also be able to then compare prices for each thing online and see if you can lower your monthly costs with new companies.

Do that and you'll start to clarify the situation and feel less anxious about it.

Best of luck

[Dannysbabe]

Thank you Boy, ZooWeeMama and Coffee for your replies. I do know about Cruse so will contact them if I feel I need to. I have just written out what the bills would be a month and it seems its not as bad as I was thinking so I should be ok for the time being, phew! Once again, thank you all

[NervyNic]

Sorry too about the passing of your Mum.

Another thing to do is to let the council know so that they can give you the single person discount which I think is 25%. This is over and above any council tax benefit you may get.

[Dannysbabe]

Thank you NervyNic, I don't get council tax benefit but the council have already been informed.