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.

Could be help towards childcare. I used uk get a % of my childcare back as a single parent

It's great to know that after all the tax you have paid from your earnings there some on here "hope" you don't get any financial help to see you through a tough time in your life.
Nice to see that they are grateful to those who pay a significant portion of their salary in tax should be entitled to nothing.

@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?!

I'd use an online calculator and check, though as you have a mortgage rather than renting it will be slightly different.

"Hoping"

Just a thought… do both your kids have the same Dad? Just if he’s contributed to your eldest, surely he should also be contributing to his younger child.
What an arse

[quote Musereader]@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.[/quote]
A 1500 caseload is a lot. It sounds like you are doing a good job. People seem to think that the people who work for UC don't seem to care but I have had contacts with some really good case managers. I work with people with cancer, many of them terminally ill and the case managers really seem to get things moving quicker if they are aware of the situation. And like I said before, I have found one really good contact who will pass messages on to case managers in my area so that I can bypass the telephony people , and a resolutions team who are great too.

[quote Lulu2021]@ANameChangeAgain

"Most families" might not have studied and worked their arse off for over a decade to be professionally where they are, making multiple sacrifices along the way. Sorry but your comment has infuriated me. [/quote]
Lots of us have done that. Unfortunately it's not a golden ticket. Life doesn't work like that. ☹️

Wow I have learned a lot from this post and I think CAB have failed to help me when I probably should have been entitled to it!

2 years ago I gave birth to our first DC. DH was earning £26k. I was receiving smp from my job, around £145 per week for 9 months I think. We rent privately £700pm and really struggled financially. During mat leave, I went to CAB and was told that we were entitled to nothing apart from child benefit! We ended up running up loads of debt trying to survive that year and still have a lot to pay back.

We now have a household income of £42k although slightly less than this as I've been furloughed for 18 months and unable to find a second job due to childcare. Childcare is £150pw before the tax free discount and we still rent privately for £700pm.

According to what I've read here we should be entitled to benefits and should have been the whole time? If this is true I feel like crying for the amount of stress and financial issues we've had to deal with the past few years! I'll need to try and reapply because this doesn't seem right to me.

OP if you are 10 miles from school then your dd is definitely entitled to free school transport ( unless of course she is at a fee paying school)

@LaurieFairyCake

Freeze the debt and offer to pay £10 a month Give your kid a packed lunch Rearrange hours so you can drive kid to school saving on the bus Get rid of phone contracts and pay £10 a month for giff gaff

List all the other expenses in the £955 you have left and cut them to the bone

It sounds like you can afford to stay where you are ... moving is really expensive

Sensible post. 👏

@Lulu2021

Quote "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"

Fair enough, me and my sister have both left abusive relationships that resulted in children and debt, my tax credits during my maternity went entirely on the 4k of credit card debts my ex ran up while I was living on the maternity pay only. It is hard when you have money stresses and a small child, but I promise things are easier out of the relationship because you don't have him to stress you or cause more problems. And both of us are far more financially secure when it's only us making the decisions. My sister now has more money than she ever did in 10 years of marriage to him. Its hard, scary and so stressful to leave the father of the child and there are longterm effects (my sister is still going through the family courts about his child access) but both of us are happier and better than when we were with them.

It gets better and you will be better off without him. Don't lose heart, you are doing all the right things getting the information and making a plan. Take the leap and get away, regardless of the money, you will work it out and you will never regret it.

@saleorbouy

It's great to know that after all the tax you have paid from your earnings there some on here "hope" you don't get any financial help to see you through a tough time in your life. Nice to see that they are grateful to those who pay a significant portion of their salary in tax should be entitled to nothing.

I know

@HollaHolla

Just a thought… do both your kids have the same Dad? Just if he’s contributed to your eldest, surely he should also be contributing to his younger child. What an arse

No they have different dads. My eldest's dad contributes for her. It's my youngest's dad who is highly unlikely to - and she's the one I'll have childcare fees for.

@Hopeisnotastrategy

Don't take my comment out of context. Put it in the context of the shitty poster's comment towards me. Then it will make more sense.

@JaffavsCookie

OP if you are 10 miles from school then your dd is definitely entitled to free school transport ( unless of course she is at a fee paying school)

Really? The school have never mentioned this...

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.

@Lulu2021 yes I read your updates which is why I said in my first post you have to be persistent with them. If he's employed they can sort it easily if they want to, but you need to keep on at them.

@Hopeisnotastrategy

"The rest of us"?! You mean tax payers, like myself??

Thanks for pointing out that I chose my partner several years ago before he revealed himself to be emotionally abusive. That's a really, incredibly insightful and helpful contribution to the thread. I'm awfully glad you popped along.

@Stressed21

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.

@Lulu2021 yes I read your updates which is why I said in my first post you have to be persistent with them. If he's employed they can sort it easily if they want to, but you need to keep on at them.

Ok - I will be persistent. Thank you

@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?!

It really depends on how many children you have too

The difference in basic entitlement for a couple to a single person is eg single person £324 couple £509
Also the work allowance difference when not paying rent is not equivalent to the LHA housing entitlement

So a couple with 1 child no rent and £850 childcare would have an entitlement of
Couple 509
Child. 282
Childcare max 646

Total. 1437

First £515 ignored

So earn £2700 less 515 = £2185

Entitlement reduced by 63p in every pound of £2185

2185 x 0.63 = £1376.55

Entitlement 1437 - earnings deduction £1376. =
UC £61

The biggest difference is the rent versus increased work allowance ie an extra £200 of earnings is ignored when you don’t pay rent but your initial entitlement is also reduced as it doesn’t include housing costs

@LaurieFairyCake

If I "freeze the debt and offer £10 a month" I'll be screwing my credit rating. No way I'm doing that to myself because of him.

@Bluntness100

I can't rely on it as he has found a loophole to avoid paying for his other child

Gosh did you know this when you got with him and stayed with him?

I don’t know why people are being so snippy today, it’s clear what’s being said, that it’s dismaying thag someone earning nearly fifty grand a year is being given over six hundred pounds a month of tax payers money,

Yes op you’ve very high outgoings, and can’t afford to live as you do without the government subsidising your lifestyle with tax payers money.

@Bluntness100 on this I agree with you.

@LaurieFairyCake

I could give my eldest a packed lunch but sadly she wouldn't eat it. So it would be pointless and she would be hungry all day.

OP your anger is misdirected. I get your frustration to a point, I really do, but the source of your unhappiness is your useless, immoral fellow procreator.

Rearrange hours so you can drive kid to school saving on the bus

Driving to the school each morning would be a 20 mile round trip on top of my already 15 mile commute. With a baby in the car.

I start work at 8.30am. There is unfortunately not much flexibility with start times.