Can someone please help? Re tax credits

[VioletShmiolet]

I have a 3.8 yr old in pre school 4 mornings a week and a 14 mo. My DH works FT and I work PT 25 hrs p/w. My childcare has always been my mil (v lucky I know!) but recently she has been struggling and is no longer able to help. I can't afford childcare as neither of us are on high wages. We have a mortgage (which I'm looking to try and reduce by extending the term) but I'm unsure as to what help we can get if I need to give up work (which looks like the only option) to look after the children.
My DH's income is around £20k (dependant on OT)

Can anyone give me an idea as to what help we could get? All I receive is child benefit, I've never not worked (apart from mat leave) so this is all very scary to me.

TIA

[IzzyIsBusy]

Look at the turn2us calculator. It should give a rough idea.

[VioletShmiolet]

I have tried the calculator but it asks how much I pay for childcare and obviously at the moment it's nothing so it's not an accurate evaluation.
Do I enter the information as if I'm no longer working?

[MargotMoon]

Yes, you need to put your projected income and costs in to get an idea. Or contact CAB and ask if they can do a 'better off calculation' if you are struggling to use the online tools available (Turn2Us or Entitledto) because tax credits are a bit of a minefield to the uninitiated!

[RalphSteadmansEye]

If you give up your current job, but your do works Mon-Fri, then consider getting a weekend or evening job. For the whole of ds's pre-school life, this is what do and I did, because childcare cost more than my week time salary (and tax credits didn't really exist yet). So he worked Mon-Fri and I worked Sat and Sun. That way, we jointly earned much more than both working in the week and paying for full-time childcare.

[Babyroobs]

As pp says if your dh works regular hours then work around him rather than giving up work altogether and claiming benefits. You may need to change the type of work you do for a few years but will be easier to change back if you've kept some type of work going. It can be hard to get back to work if you've had a few years out and even then it's hard to find school hours.

[VioletShmiolet]

Thank you for all the replies. DH works shifts which are on a 12 week rolling pattern so weekend/evening work is out of the question.