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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:
JanetBrown2015 · 21/04/2017 18:16

There are a lot of Labour supporters out at the moment saying things like higher earners don't pay tax. In fact never in British history have we higher earners had such a large burden of tax on us and it's becoming unsustainable so if the nation is going to keep spending at thiw rate (much more than we have coming in) then we need to raise taxes on much lower earners unfortunately as there are loads of them (or big cuts). We just don't have enough rich people. it's a very tiny pyramid at the top.

bibbitybobbityyhat · 21/04/2017 18:19

You are so embarrassingly ignorant Rainbows&Unicorn.

When I left my absolutely bog standard office job in 2000 I was earning £26,000 pa.

That same sort of job would pay the same sort of salary now, 17 years later. Yes, really.

Meanwhile, house prices and rents have gone stratospheric.

People working in average jobs for average salaries are absolutely struggling.

DeleteOrDecay · 21/04/2017 18:20

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.

Now this is a cop out if I ever saw one. Maybe we should abolish the minimum wage whilst we're at it, after all it's not the employers responsibility to ensure an employee is able to feed, house and clothe themselves adequatelyHmm

farfarawayfromhome · 21/04/2017 18:22

I didn't have a baby until almost 40 as I live in a country with no state handouts and no NHS. We self fund everything.

We saved and saved and will only have one child as that's all we can afford.

OP your whole mindset is anathema to me.

MovingtoParadise · 21/04/2017 18:26

Dh's salary has not gone up in real terms in 9 years. With two jumps in the management structure.

It has not even kept pace with cost of living.

TinklyLittleLaugh · 21/04/2017 18:27

An awful lot of higher earners aren't on PAYE though. Plenty of contractors set themselves up as one person companies and get most of their income through dividends (to be fair the government seems to be on to this).

But do you seriously think pop stars and footballers and top business people are paying 50% tax? It is all going through limited companies and dividends and share options and trusts. Tax avoidance is really big business.

And that's without the big companies who don't pay corporation tax.

Babyroobs · 21/04/2017 18:28

My eldest 2 dc's were born in a country where there was no help as well. I didn't even get mat pay when I was off.
I was grateful for the help when we came back to the uK though, we instantly got child benefit and taxcredits for a short while.
We have 4 kids and currently earn around £49k both working full time and get no help except for child benefit which is a big help.

Foslady · 21/04/2017 18:28

I'd love to be warning enough not to be on Tax Credits. I've spent 8 years trying to improve my lot and get off them, and you know what? I'm still on the bloody things. I hate the uncertainty of them, I hate knowing that in 4 years time they'll stop and I'll have to try and get a second evening job to make up the shortfall. I'd love to earn enough to not be beholden to the government, to stop worrying every time there's an election or budget, scared stiff what sanctions are going to be put on them.

i have no partner so my dd would be on her own and I'd never see her if I took a second job now. Life sucks ans my MH has been affected by the worry. When your life gets that bad, let me know

cathf · 21/04/2017 18:30

OK Delete.
I have two staff. Both on NLW. One is single and lives at home, no children. The other has five children and a load of debt. Can you explain to me in simple terms how I, as an employer, am responsible for ensuring the second employee feeds, houses and clothes him/herself adequately? If all the salary is spent on debt repayments, am I somehow responsible because this worker cannot afford to feed his/her family well?
Statements like yours are a gross oversimplification of real life - are you saying that staff should be paid different salaries depending on their individual circumstances? I can see that going down a storm with childless singles!

HelloFreedom · 21/04/2017 18:30

Thanks ComputerUser.

MyGastIsFlabbered · 21/04/2017 18:39

"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"

Excuse me? When I had my children I was married and we were both working. However my ex was an abusive cunt who forced me and his children out of the family home he pays no mortgage or rent on, whilst paying minimal child support; he drove me to a nervous breakdown that I don't honestly know if I ever will recover from so I can't work. How fucking dare you assume anyone on benefits churns out child after child and expects the state to pay for them. I'm very, very grateful for the benefits I receive but I never planned to be where I am now

KeepingitReal2 · 21/04/2017 18:40

I think the problem is where you live. If you can address that with work and family you would be better off for sure.

I have to say these threads are becoming more common almost like troll threads and end up in the DF too!

Bluntness100 · 21/04/2017 18:41

Op, I don't understand your calculations.

You say you have 1300 a month left for food etc, rent is a grand and then some bills. If childcare is 1200 a month min, how will you afford for both of you to still work and actually live?

KeepingitReal2 · 21/04/2017 18:44

Sorry just read more and see the OP is not a troll

MissTerry2r · 21/04/2017 18:45

Can't afford a nice holiday? Holidays are a luxury regardless of whether you can afford it if you're receiving tax credits or not!
If you made an appeal to HMRC on their decision with this defence I'd love to be the person in receipt of it because if nothing else it would make a damn good read!
46k joint income and miffed because you can't have a holiday funded by tax credits. It must be really hard for you. So many children growing up having never been on holiday and it sure does show when they grow up being denied such a basic human right.
I suggest contending it to the highest order and if that doesn't work try GoFundMe. Good sob story + child + unforgivable deprivation = Quids in!

Lexilooo · 21/04/2017 18:47

Everyone on here going on about how lucky the OP is to have a joint household income of £46k and yet on another active thread you can't move for people moaning about how difficult it is to manage on a salary of £70k 🤔

ThreeLeggedHaggis · 21/04/2017 19:00

£46k is nothing in London

Why do people keep saying this? Confused It goes a little less far in London than in the Outer Hebrides, but it's hardly "nothing".

MadMags · 21/04/2017 19:04

You know OP only mentioned a holiday because someone said she was living like a millionaire, right?!

BlondeBecky1983 · 21/04/2017 19:08

While £46k isn't by any means low income, I wouldn't say it's all that great, particularly in London.

katronfon · 21/04/2017 19:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

GlitterGlue · 21/04/2017 19:12

It used to be the case that the first £100 of smp didn't count as income for tax credits. No idea if this is still the case, but it may mean that the op can get a little help with childcare at least.

Let's not have a race to the bottom. It is hard paying for full time childcare and £46k combined isn't Mega bucks when your rent is £1k a month and childcare same again.

TrickyKid · 21/04/2017 19:13

Even before it changed a few years ago you would've only got £40 per month tax credit at the most. We were on a lower wage than you with 3 kids and that's what we got.

Bluntness100 · 21/04/2017 19:14

The point is they can't afford for her to work. It's not possible. If they have 1300 for food and everything else, she can't spend 1200 of that on childcare. The three of them can't live off a hundred pounds a month, she would have to quit and claim benefits.

I don't know how she has budgeted but the maths isn't stacking up.

bibbitybobbityyhat · 21/04/2017 19:15

Money goes a lot less far in London than in areas with cheaper housing (which is the whole of the rest of the country).

Look at this 2 bed no garden conversion flat £1500 pcm www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-47571159.html

How much would that cost in a suburb of Southampton, say, or Newcastle or Birmingham or Bristol or the Outer Hebrides?

Marmalade85 · 21/04/2017 19:17

Become a single mum like me OP, you get loads of free money