To ask you to help me work this out?

[Lulu2021]

My head is a mess as I'm going through some relationship difficulties with a young baby and I'm trying to make sense of my entitlement to financial help.

I've done a UC calculation a few times but it comes out with an amount that i think is an overestimate.

My details are;

• FT salary of £47,126, net monthly income £2,516 after deductions.
• 2 DC (ages 15 years and 6 months) - no childcare costs for eldest, costs of £700 pm for youngest when I go back to work from mat leave.
• child maintenance of £120 pm for the eldest child only.
• private rented property
• no other benefits claimed
• no significant savings

It's telling me I'd be entitled to in the region of £650 pm as a single parent. Does this sound right? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Wow! Maybe I should tell my daughter and son in law, who are together on about £1,500 monthly take home pay and expecting their 2nd child any day, to start looking into benefits that they may be entitled to !

@GinPin2

Wow! Maybe I should tell my daughter and son in law, who are together on about £1,500 monthly take home pay and expecting their 2nd child any day, to start looking into benefits that they may be entitled to !

Yes sounds like they would definitely get some help with 2 kids on that wage .

How many times does she have to say the youngest childs father wont contribute, no point saying “ make him” it been explained many times that he just wont do it

@isadoradancing123 the CMS do have the power to make him though.

Whether it's worth OP doing it or not is another matter

Jesus… my husband and I earn just that, pay £850pm for childcare before tax free top up and have a £900 mortgage.. would we be entitled to UC?!

What an eye opening thread.

[quote QuestionableDanceMoves]@Lulu2021 I do yes, based on childcare costs of £758.33 per month and lha rate of £87.45 per week[/quote]

Thank you

[quote Stressed21]@isadoradancing123 the CMS do have the power to make him though.

Whether it's worth OP doing it or not is another matter[/quote]

Have you read any of my updates regarding this? They are consistently writing to him telling him he owes nil rate because they think his only income is from a self employed business that is turning over nothing anymore. He also is a salaried employee earning a net income of in the region 2,500-3,000 pm (overtime dependant). They seem to be missing this piece of information somehow, so he's getting away with nil rate. I have absolutely no idea how. But he is.

@Pbbananabagel

Jesus… my husband and I earn just that, pay £850pm for childcare before tax free top up and have a £900 mortgage.. would we be entitled to UC?!

Yes maybe around £300 a month. It does depend on you and your husbands net earnings each month and how frequently paid and whether one of your children was born before April 2017.

And also assuming you don't have savings over 6k as that would reduce any UC. savings over 16k would mean you could not claim at all.

Yes I pay rent

@Lulu2021
OK you have mentioned the youngest is 6 months old, if you are on maternity pay at the moment you will have a lower pay and will get more UC but won't be getting childcare if you are not submitting it.

UC is calculated on the earnings you ACTUALLY get, THAT month, not on your yearly salary, so while your pay is lower and there is no childcare because of maternity the calculations are invalid.

Maternity pay is treated like any other pay, your entitlement is £1223.37 without childcare, which £2234.86 is the most you can earn.

When you think about UC you have to think about changes in wages and circumstances, which is why no-one can ever give you an amount that you will get without fail even month. My own UC amount changes every month depending on how much childcare I submit.

It is different because you have to submit the childcare each time you pay it, it is not a fixed amount just added to the UC each month.

When I did calculations for my sister using the work calculator I did over a dozen calculations depending on how much she claimed in childcare, what rent she would be paying, (as she was considering changing areas which would change the lha rate) how many children she would be able to claim for (3 were born before 2017, but we were not sure if she could get the nonconsensual exception for the 4th because of an abusive relationship until she got a social worker to sign the form) what job she had, if the benefit cap would kick in (she was unemployed, but had the 9 month grace period from the cap due to ex partner earnings for the last year) it just varies so much for me, my sister, and my customers. Only the other day my sister was saying that this month was only the second time she had had the same amount from UC in the entire 2 years she had been claiming.

A single calculation is not going to be enough, you need to know more about how it works to know when you will get some and when you won't because changing circumstances from month to month makes a difference.

Lol we earn less than this as a couple and we pay more in childcare. We get no help.

I was also told that we would be entitled to almost £300 pm on UC, but our income combined is less than your salary. Unfortunately, when they worked it out, with deductions taking our income into account, they would have actually ended up deducting more than we were entitled to!! 🙈 I would double check again OP.

@Perfect28

Lol we earn less than this as a couple and we pay more in childcare. We get no help.

Do you have rent to pay?

Hey @Lulu2021! I've rtft and just wanted to say I think what you're doing is amazing.

Leaving an emotionally abusive relationship is HARD, much more so with a young baby. You're protecting your job which is essential for your children's futures. You're sorting out living arrangements with the stress of a young baby and a break up. I would not have been as strong as you.

Wish you all the best x

@Boobahs

I was also told that we would be entitled to almost £300 pm on UC, but our income combined is less than your salary. Unfortunately, when they worked it out, with deductions taking our income into account, they would have actually ended up deducting more than we were entitled to!! 🙈 I would double check again OP.

Do you have rent to pay like op does?

Hi op
So glad you have received such good advice above re auction calculations
Was working it out roughly then came back to see the great help provided by previous posters .

Also wanted to add that once your eldest child reaches the age of 16 and then you would be entitled to the 3 bedroom LHA rate so if properties you are currently considering and looking at are above the 2 bedroom LHA rate it’s worth remembering that as soon as the age of 16 is reached your entitlement would increase

Best of luck with everything the finances can seem so scary when you are planning to leave but trust me there are so many other areas where you reap positives ( peace of mind/ control of your life etc

Have been there and am a couple of years on and so so much happier. I rediscovered me 💐

@TurnipTales

Hey *@Lulu2021*! I've rtft and just wanted to say I think what you're doing is amazing.

Leaving an emotionally abusive relationship is HARD, much more so with a young baby. You're protecting your job which is essential for your children's futures. You're sorting out living arrangements with the stress of a young baby and a break up. I would not have been as strong as you.

Wish you all the best x

Well said

Been there and it is a scary journey

Wishing you the very best OP xx

[quote Musereader]@Lulu2021
OK you have mentioned the youngest is 6 months old, if you are on maternity pay at the moment you will have a lower pay and will get more UC but won't be getting childcare if you are not submitting it.

UC is calculated on the earnings you ACTUALLY get, THAT month, not on your yearly salary, so while your pay is lower and there is no childcare because of maternity the calculations are invalid.

Maternity pay is treated like any other pay, your entitlement is £1223.37 without childcare, which £2234.86 is the most you can earn.

When you think about UC you have to think about changes in wages and circumstances, which is why no-one can ever give you an amount that you will get without fail even month. My own UC amount changes every month depending on how much childcare I submit.

It is different because you have to submit the childcare each time you pay it, it is not a fixed amount just added to the UC each month.

When I did calculations for my sister using the work calculator I did over a dozen calculations depending on how much she claimed in childcare, what rent she would be paying, (as she was considering changing areas which would change the lha rate) how many children she would be able to claim for (3 were born before 2017, but we were not sure if she could get the nonconsensual exception for the 4th because of an abusive relationship until she got a social worker to sign the form) what job she had, if the benefit cap would kick in (she was unemployed, but had the 9 month grace period from the cap due to ex partner earnings for the last year) it just varies so much for me, my sister, and my customers. Only the other day my sister was saying that this month was only the second time she had had the same amount from UC in the entire 2 years she had been claiming.

A single calculation is not going to be enough, you need to know more about how it works to know when you will get some and when you won't because changing circumstances from month to month makes a difference.[/quote]

Thank you, that's helpful. My monthly pay won't change when I'm no longer on mat leave - it is a set amount. My childcare costs however might vary depending on holidays I take etc. So that's useful to know.

I wasn't planning on making a claim whilst on mat leave to be honest. I have enough savings left to see me through until I go back to work, and obviously I don't need to pay childcare at the moment. I was thinking ahead to my situation when I go back to work needing to pay childcare.

@TurnipTales

Hey *@Lulu2021*! I've rtft and just wanted to say I think what you're doing is amazing.

Leaving an emotionally abusive relationship is HARD, much more so with a young baby. You're protecting your job which is essential for your children's futures. You're sorting out living arrangements with the stress of a young baby and a break up. I would not have been as strong as you.

Wish you all the best x

thank you

www.gov.uk/help-with-childcare-costs/childcare-vouchers

Not sure if you've looked on this OP.
I hope you get some help with everything.

@Babyroobs.

The people on the phone are subcontractors from sodexo, they have about 2 weeks training and only taught the most basic and minimum about it, anything more complicated is handed over to me and my colleagues as a case manager, I have about 1,500 claimants to myself that I get the handovers for.

I have had some bad experiences where the telephony agent tells them something and then I have to call them back to tell them no and they insist that the telephony agent said they could and so I have to, I can't say that the telephony people know jack shit, and all my protests that I am the case manager and I know better get ignored because they want what telephony promised.

But yeah I got moved over from IS about 4 years ago and I like to think that I am quite good at my job.

@Tevion28

I don't understand this im single with no very young children just a student son who is at uni who im trying to help and I also suffer from mental health issues. I earn £1400 and get nowt threads like this make me feel bad.

So you've got £1400 for one person to live on. OP has 3 people to house/feed etc. Plus childcare. So it isn't the same. Unfortunately, once children are at uni you get no financial support while being expected to financially support them (hint, they can and should work while at uni and most do).

@Babyroobs No, we have a mortgage but they said it wouldn't count for a while. It got my hopes up but then they were dashed with the minus figure at the end! 🙈 I called CAB to run through it all, they were really helpful OP, it's worth a phone call 👍🏼