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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be gutted we're not entitled to any financial help?

481 replies

DeanaPiana · 21/04/2017 13:48

Myself and DH have a combined income of £46000.

I have done numerous calculators and apparently, I am not entitled to Child Tax Credits or Working Tax Credits when baby gets here.

A few sources have even said I shouldn't go for Child Benefit as it wouldn't be worth it in tax returns Shock

We didn't budget for a baby thinking we would get extra help to finance them etc, but I thought we were entitled to at least a little something and I have to say, I feel gutted. We live in a high cost area, London, and rent here too. We want to move out into a more rural/outer area in the next 2 years max but that just doesn't seem possible now. No way we can afford to save that much. We don't even have a lot of outgoings. Our rent is over 1K a month and that is considerablly cheap here.

Just doesn't seem fair at all Sad

OP posts:
NameChange199 · 21/04/2017 17:21

And all those competitively hard done by folk. Get over yourselves. It's not the OP's fault you ate disabled or a single parent. And it's not her fault you are poor either. She is paying her fucking taxes for you. Which is a damn sight more than the fat cats are doing.

Some of us single parents pay taxes too. And I can't talk for the disabled, but pretty sure plenty of those do too. But thanks for the generalisation.

usernumbernine · 21/04/2017 17:23

She isn't paying her fucking taxes for me.

Taxes are hypothecated like that.

Joe Smoth from no44 doesn't get his taxes allocated to Susan Jones round the corner at no37b with the 3 kids but it's ok she's deserving poor.

FlyAwayPeter · 21/04/2017 17:24

Hear, hear, tinkly

MyGastIsFlabbered · 21/04/2017 17:28

Nobody is playing poverty top trumps here. I worked for 20 years and paid my taxes. I never planned to be a single parent or to have crippling health issues. I'm not saying it's the OP or anyone else's fault these things happened to me, BUT there seems to be a genuine lack of awareness of how lucky some people have got it. The OP is on a decent wage, with a partner and presumably good health.

justanillusion · 21/04/2017 17:32

Am i missing something in the sums? It will be extremely tight for OP - every bit as tight as they are for me on income support. And it's nonesense to think her post was ever about funding a house in the country.

I didn't want to set it out as could be depressing for OP .
Childcare vouchers only give back the tax don't they? So op could be paying £1000+ on rent and approx £1000 on childcare. Travel £2-300. Bills £400? I'm guessing their combined take home is £2800. I think things could be every bit as tight as they are for me on income support. Dare I say, worse?

OPs take home is likely to be less than her travel and childcare costs for the first couple of years.

There is of course a long term benefit to working but i see nothing to criticise in terms of of op worrying.

bibbitybobbityyhat · 21/04/2017 17:33

Namechange199

So, your take home pay + tax credits = £1617.00 per month (ish)

Your rent is over £1000.00

Meaning you have less than £617.00 left for everything else for the two of you for a month including a "hefty nursery bill".

How does that work?

ClopySow · 21/04/2017 17:33

You've kind of proved my point there Clopy. After all, it would mean you wouldn't be able to discuss the chip on your shoulder, would you

I'm too poor for chips, we only eat the neighbours discarded tattie skins in this house, but just you carry on making massive assumptions the from that high horse you keep cantering past on cath

Fab39ish · 21/04/2017 17:35

Op you really are getting a hard time on here.
Times have changed. Even on 50k we used to get child benefit and about 5 quid tax credits when we had a child under 1.
I didn't look at it as those earning less than our family unit funding this benefit. I considered it more as a rebate on the tax and NI paid by my dh and me historically.
Sadly those days are gone.
Good luck op.

Spadequeen · 21/04/2017 17:39

Well said tinkly. You are quite right. Those in charge are loving it that we are ripping each other to shred over the crumbs that they fling our way.

All those on far less than the op, yes it's shit, it's not fair, it's wrong but no one is asking you to pay more for her.

50% of the nations wealth is held by 1% of the population. This is where the extra tax should come from. The companies not paying their taxes. This is where the extra should come from.

Register to vote in 7 weeks and make sure you do. Whilst I think that the fuckers will get in again too many people think ' There's no point voting, it won't make any difference' but if they all turn up it could be a very different outcome.

This is our chance to protest at what is happening in this country and to try and make it right.

mugglebumthesecond · 21/04/2017 17:40

I know a family with one parent who earns 31k, one parent stays at home and gets CB and tax credit for 4 children, that comes to 9k a year untaxed. That's with only one patent working, it's worth remembering though that this all stops once the kids leave home !

usernumbernine · 21/04/2017 17:44

Jesus Wept. So now not only am I thick, paid no attention at school, have no qualifications, pay no tax but I don't vote either.

Babyroobs · 21/04/2017 17:44

Meanwhile there is another thread going where op is trying to survive on £18k with one child . She is disabled and can't even afford a wheelchair. Count your blessings. I appreciate £46k may not go as far in London as other parts of the country but things could be a lot worse.

MadMags · 21/04/2017 17:46

user you need to calm down and stop taking the thread so personally.

It's not OP's fault you're on a lower income. Hmm

Spadequeen · 21/04/2017 17:47

Not all about you user.

Spadequeen · 21/04/2017 17:51

Ffs just because things could be worse op should be grateful?

In that case, we should all be grateful that we're not paying a fortune to try and get a place on a boat that may or may not sink to leave our countries which are being bombed.

We should be grateful that we are allowed to say negative things against our leaders without fear or prison, torture or death.

This is not a race to the bottom and we should t allow it to become one.

RainbowsAndUnicorn · 21/04/2017 17:58

This just shows why tax credits were so wrong for the country, so many having children they don't support whilst expecting everyone else to pick up the costs for their wants and choices.

AwaywiththePixies27 · 21/04/2017 18:00

£46k a year? Confused .

Fair enough it's not a lot for an area kike London but I suppose that's why people have no choice but to move out and commute back in.

FlyAwayPeter · 21/04/2017 18:02

Register to vote in 7 weeks and make sure you do. Whilst I think that the fuckers will get in again too many people think ' There's no point voting, it won't make any difference' but if they all turn up it could be a very different outcome

THIS, a thousand times over.

As I said upthread, this is a rich country, but the distribution is stuffed. Too many corporations & super-wealthy individuals not paying for the public benefits & goods which they need to make their money.

unlimiteddilutingjuice · 21/04/2017 18:03

Hi again OP,
I've crunched the numbers and I'm afraid the calculators were right. You are not entitled to tax credits. So your income during maternity leave will be:

DH Earnings: 25,000
Statutory Maternity Pay: 139.00 pw
Child Benefit: 20.70 pw

This is clearly less than the 46K headline figure you origionally gave us and which everyone is having conniptions over. I don't see why as it ought to be obvious that, as a family, you will be one wage down during your maternity leave.

YWNBU to expect an income like that to attract an award of tax credits. In other circumstances it might have, which is why I thought it was worth my time crunching the numbers.

Your problem is that tax credits are worked out based on annual income and as your maternity leave neatly straddles two tax years, your earnings the rest of the time prevent your income from falling too low in any one year

This will be cold comfort for you, I'm sure, as you struggle through the 9 month period (Im assuming 9 months as this is how long statutory maternity pay lasts) on one wage.

I'm sorry you've had such a hard time on this thread OP. I really don't think you have BU and I'm sorry that you arent entitled to anything.

usernumbernine · 21/04/2017 18:05

Rainbows excuse me?

TenYearsLater · 21/04/2017 18:07

£46k is nothing in London, we struggle to get by on that amount in Scotland, it is very far from loaded, very far indeed!

Afer paying child care, running 2 cars which we needso we can actually work and all bills we ain't left with much at all.

Give the OP a break!

TinklyLittleLaugh · 21/04/2017 18:10

It's not tax credits that are the big problem, it is organisations failing to pay a living wage. Because all they are bothered about is making big profits for their investors. It is greed pure and simple.

I have a friend who runs a business employing a couple of dozen people. On paper he should be living a really luxurious lifestyle. He isn't, I mean he's comfortably off but not ostentatiously so. Because he pays his workers good salaries and sick pay and compassionate leave and all this sort of stuff.

But so many companies are run by people who want to squeeze them dry for all the profit they can get.

HeeHighls · 21/04/2017 18:12

My thoughts are for the hard working students, graduates who are now slaves to "Internships" and zero hours. They are our future.

FamilySpartan · 21/04/2017 18:13

I'm sorry you're getting a hard time here, OP. MN seems to be a place where you're classified as some kind of out-of-touch scumbag for earning even a penny above the national average (which gets you nowhere in London) but if you you earn minimum wage and choose to churn out child after child, then it's only right that the state should pay for them, and your home etc.

RainbowsAndUnicorn · 21/04/2017 18:14

Blaming companies is just a cop out.

A living wage for everyone would be impossible. Employers don't have any control over employees living costs, they simply offer a job at a set salary. It's not their fault if the employee can't live on it as they want to live in an expensive area, have children, a non working partner, do part time etc.

People are responsible for their own life choices, no one else.