student finance and housing benefit

I will try to keep this a short as possible,
I am a mature student with a dependent non working partner and 2 dependent children.

my peers at uni have been getting full housing benefit and council tax benefits as well as income support for their non working partner.

In my case we have lost all of my ill partners benefits and receive no other income apart from the student finance and child tax credit. we have just been told we will have to pay £50 a week for our rent and only get the 25% student discount off the council tax. they have only just told us this and as i started uni in sept 2010 they have backdated the money we owe and have left us in a really bad situation. my peers at uni that are in exactly the same circumstances regarding children and housing are getting full benefits.

I am really am at a loss as to what to do and a lot of worry regarding being able to stay on at uni. when we spoke to someone in benefits we were told it is my own fault for going back to uni as a full time student and we should not expect to be better off. I don`t expect to be better off but certainly do not expect to be and furthemore can`t afford to be worse off. we have no savings or property etc either.

sorry for the long post and thank you in advance

Cheers Phil