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

[DeanaPiana]

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

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

Haven't rtft but why would you get help from the government if you can support yourselves?

These threads drive me wild. The key is disposable income. To earn the 46k the op and her oh have to incur costs. They then have to cover rent, council tax, childcare. Several pp have done the maths and it doesn't stack up even accounting for necessities never mind hypothesised 'gym memberships' and 'sky bundles'. No amount of planning or savvy shopping is going to make the figures add up. Only extra income will do that.

It's all relative so why people jump in with moral judgements based on preconceptions of what enough is is beyond me.

Are we are rich country? I don't know if we are or not, I don't understand it

In comparison to most other countries Great Britain is incredibly wealthy.

I don't fully understand the debt/deficit side of things but I was under the impression that was improving and austerity was slowing the improvement but the Tories doggedly push on with it anyway, God forbid we help the poor.

The median household income for London as a whole in 2012/13 was £39,100 a year - the last year for which figures are available. That means 50% of households in London had less than £39,100 income a year. Tax credits are for those on a much lower income than the average family.
Congratulations on your pregnancy

I had DS1 in 2009. I got the Health in Pregnancy grant £195 I think, DS got the Child Trust Fund of £250 and families earning under £66k were entitled to Child Tax Credits in the first year of a child's life. I think CTCs for subsequent years were for families earning up to around £55k. Plus Child Benefit was still universal.

If OP had friends having babies back then and heard these figures, it's no surprise she might have expected they might get at least something, even knowing there have been cuts.

Then once you have the baby you either have crippling childcare costs or become a SAHP with a tax system that doesn't support single earner families.

Unless you are able to flex working hours between partners so you don't need childcare, or you're lucky enough to have family to do childcare, then you have to expect to pay £1000 a month for full-time childcare. No wonder having a baby is such a financial stretch!

Unless we support families there won't be any future workers to pay our pensions and healthcare when we get old. So we don't need 2009 levels of financial support for parents but there should be more than now.

Tax credits certainly used to be a lot more generous, I'm not sure the threshold was £66 k though?
I returned from abroad in 2002 and was quite shocked by how much we got with 3 small children even earning decent wages, then the child trust funds as well !
Now even the family element of tax credits is being done away with for new claimants and child tax credits limited to 2 children.

But Op is going to have to give up her job when she has her baby so then they will be a family of 3 living on £23,000 pa. That doesn't look so well off, does it?

I thought OP planned to go back to work?

If she gives up her job, their income will be topped up but not to the level it is at now.

As someone who needs tax credits, housing benefit etc to survive I would strongly advise against leaving her job if she can help it. It is not nice living under the threat of constant cuts.

I am terrified (literally terrified, not exaggerating) about universal credit being brought in. There is no way our family will survive it.

I can only pray I find a way off benefits before that happens.

I'm fairly certain she'd get some help towards the cost of childcare from CTC. It won't all be paid for her, but a small chunk of it will be.

They can't afford the childcare, if you read back.

That was assuming she'd get no help towards it?

I think she will. I'm not 100% sure but I am fairly sure she would, given that the cost of childcare is taken into account when they work out your entitlement. Just because others on the thread are saying they earn less and get no help, doesn't mean OP won't. Others probably pay less in childcare fees.

I've never earned that much, nor has anyone I know, but CTC were brought in specifically to help people like OP continue working.

The childcare element afaik has a higher cap than the WTC.

Having a baby is only as expensive as you make it. You don't have to have the latest bloody bugaboo (or whatever it is?) push chair or even maternity clothes (leggings and shirts will do)
Breastfeed and live frugally. You'll just have to get by and managed and make sacrifices that's what being a parent is all about.
I know a lot of posters are saying you earn a lot, but I understand that when you live in a high housing cost area, it's really not a lot to live on. Ok if you live up north and rent is £400 a month for a mansion with a pool, but not ok if it's £1000 a month for a cupboard with a gas metre.
Definitely claim child benefit, and look into moving out of London as costs will only go up as your child grows.

Good luck

Tax credits are there to top up the income of families in low paid jobs. The ceiling it tops up to is well below your earnings. You will get child benefit but that's all. If you think you need help you need to look at where your money is going.

I was on the labour thread about £70k being 'rich' and found these states on the London gov website.

The median household income for London in 2013/13 was £39,100, while the mean income was £51,770.

The OP having an household income of £46k was well below average 4 years ago let alone today.

£46k and London rent is the problem. If the jobs really do 'tie you to London' then you should be earning a lot more than NMW+50%. It just doesn't add up otherwise.

What sort of jobs do you do? If you could earn £20k each in Essex (office, call centre?, building sites) pay less in rent, possibly get some childcare help from your mum, possibly be entitled to help with childcare costs, you would probably be better off.

Thats what is wrong in todays society everybody thinks they are entitled to something! My child was diagnosed type1 diabetic and everyone has told me to claim dla and carers allowence which i am entitled to do but i have not done yet . If you cannot afford to raise a child dont have them or suck it up and pay.

The median household income for London as a whole in 2012/13 was £39,100 a year - the last year for which figures are available. That means 50% of households in London had less than £39,100 income a year

That's not correct, it's the mean income that's the mid point not median. The mean income is approx 52k for families in the uk. So 50 percent had less than this, 50 percent more. I suspect for London alone it's much higher than this.

Mean is a good indicator because people who do not earn and live on benefits through to people who are super wealthy skew the median, as such, taking the mid point, the mean, is more meaningful. As such the op is in the lower half of the country as a family and probably well into the lower half for London itself.

Earslaps we're now paying off the debt such ridiculous frittering of tax payers money left us with back then. As a result there is less money for those who really need it.The op is being ridiculous.

It's you that's wrong Bluntness Median is the 50% more/50% less figure. Mean average is average of all salaries and is skewed by very high earners.

If 9 people earn 10k and one person earns 100k, the median is 10k and the mean is 19k, which is meaningless to everyone.

OP have you done your sums? Maternity leave might be the easy bit compared to when you return to work.

46k in London is nothing. There is no way it covers childcare costs. IMO childcare should be affordable so parents can afford to work.

GreenGinger2 I wasn't saying that the levels of financial support in the past were right (I was one of the only one of my antenatal group that got no CTCs at all- and we're in a fairly affluent area ), but that since some support was previously the norm I could see why OP might expect something.

Yes, there is very little to go around now, but it is not solely due to previous overspending. If big corporations paid decent wages and all their taxes then perhaps there could be more support for families.

But the op is not saying she is broke and won't be able to afford childcare. She is asking for a bit extra for here and there (unspecified) isn't she?

A combined income of 46k is hardly that much is it?