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.

Hi OP - it's not ideal but does your employer allow you to take a short pension contribution break? It might give you a bit of breathing space while you get the benefits question sorted out. Good news that you only have one more year of student loan repayments; that'll make a difference when you have the additional £200 pcm.

@QuestionableDanceMoves

Single adult: 324.84 2 children: 519.58 85% of childcare: 595 2 bedroom lha rate: 378,95

Total entitlement: £1818.37

Less deductions, take home pay (not including student loan) £2719 - 293 work allowance= 2426 x 0.63 = 1528.63

1818.37-1528.63= £289.99 UC payment

This is assuming take home pay and childcare are the same every month. You have to pay for childcare upfront and then claim it back- only the dates of childcare used in your assessment period will be paid in the following months payment

This is incredibly helpful - thank you

I make it £92 per week U.C.

@Thadhiya

How does someone on 47k qualify for UC!? That's financial assistance for those in need, not bonus payments for people earning far, far above the national average.

And before you get all righteous, I'm not far off that salary myself and would never dream of taking from the public purse when I didn't need to.

It is possible with high childcare and rent but I'm wondering how on earth op only comes out with that net wages on a salary of 47 K ? My dh is on about 36k and comes out with around £2300 ?? Op are you paying a huge amount in pension contributions?

@ivykaty44

if your earning £47k a year then net monthly is £2968

subtract £700 for childcare and £800 for rent, you're left with £1468

subtract the £935 leave £533

Please see previous screenshot with breakdown of deductions- my take home is as I've said in my op - 2,500

Sorry just seen you are paying back student loan too.

@Babyroobs

I'll post this again

@Babyroobs

Sorry just seen you are paying back student loan too.

And 9.3% pension

One parent on 46k will be paying more tax than 2 people on 23k so save your ire for the other parent who gets away with paying nothing for his 2 kids with 2 different mothers. They made joint financial decisions like nursery furniture on credit but she's left paying 100% instead or 50% of the debt. There's a lot of judgement on here from people who would also panic if they became a single income household.
OP is doing the right thing by doing her sums while on maternity leave and seeing if there's any help now that her ex is liable for none of the cost thanks to the system loopholes which is where the judgement would lie.

Are you sure full time childcare would be £700 a month? That seems very cheap. I live in the north and I pay just over £700 for 3 days a week.

Most couples don't earn your salary and most have worked hard all their lives too. If you earn over a certain amount (£40k maybe?) you are, quite rightly, not entitled to tax-funded handouts. UC is for families who could not cope on their salaries. Not for families on nearly £50k a year.

@hauxwell

Are you sure full time childcare would be £700 a month? That seems very cheap. I live in the north and I pay just over £700 for 3 days a week.

I thought that seems low too. I’m sure OP is correct, but we pay £1,100+ for a full time place (which is guess is what’s needed here) and it was by no means the most expensive nursery in the area.

@Pea22ches

There's some shitty tones on here and it's disgusting. OP I'm glad you have stuck up for yourself! You don't have to explain where the child of your father is it's non of anyone's business... bloody cheek. You wouldn't dare voice that IRL. He could be dead or anything.

Back to OPS question though you can obviously see OP is unfamiliar with how benefits work.
www.entitledto.co.uk/

This is the most simplest benefits calculator. If you Google your local council it should give you the maximum amount for your area and show you what you would be entitled to.

But he isn’t dead, the OP says he just doesn’t want to pay maintenance!

He should be paying the OP maintenance towards the keep of HIS child and this should be followed up. Nobody should have a child and expect to walk away without any responsibility for that child. If he was paying, the OP wouldn’t have to move home or rely on benefits

Must admit, I’m slightly gobsmacked that someone on £47k is entitled to benefits. According to the Government website, UC is for people on a low income. I wouldn’t consider 47k a low income.

I just put your details into calculator, in my area you’d get almost £700/m.

Just put in your claim, if it’s right you’ll get it if not you won’t. Once you know what you’re getting then you can make decisions about other things like the rent - perhaps you can afford it after all with the UC?

If people don’t like the benefits system they should write to the govt (who, by the way, came up with the system!) rather than bashing the Op, who is evidently going through a difficult time.

However it’s easy to see from your entitlement calculations that if you didn’t have the childcare to pay you wouldn’t get anything at all - that’s the way the system is set up, it facilitates people working and in the long run people are less of a burden on the state if you invest in them during those difficult and expensive childcare years.

@hauxwell

Are you sure full time childcare would be £700 a month? That seems very cheap. I live in the north and I pay just over £700 for 3 days a week.

100% sure. My childminder charges £35 a day (discounted from £38 if you use it full time).

£35 x 5 = £175.
£175 x 4 weeks (on an average month) = £700.

I accept there will be slight variation on a 4.5 week month, for example. I've worked out an a rough average.

@BananaPB

One parent on 46k will be paying more tax than 2 people on 23k so save your ire for the other parent who gets away with paying nothing for his 2 kids with 2 different mothers. They made joint financial decisions like nursery furniture on credit but she's left paying 100% instead or 50% of the debt. There's a lot of judgement on here from people who would also panic if they became a single income household. OP is doing the right thing by doing her sums while on maternity leave and seeing if there's any help now that her ex is liable for none of the cost thanks to the system loopholes which is where the judgement would lie.

Thank you.

We are on a joint income of £39K and we are not entitled to UC.

I don't understand how someone earning £47K is entitled to UC and plenty of people who earn less aren't.

@Briony123

Most couples don't earn your salary and most have worked hard all their lives too. If you earn over a certain amount (£40k maybe?) you are, quite rightly, not entitled to tax-funded handouts. UC is for families who could not cope on their salaries. Not for families on nearly £50k a year.

A pp has worked out that I'll be entitled to around £290 a month, actually. 👍🏻

£175 x 4 weeks (on an average month) = £700.

I accept there will be slight variation on a 4.5 week month, for example. I've worked out an a rough average

Work everything like this on x4.33 and then you’ll get a better average to aim at.

I am also surprised at any entitlement on that kind of salary but op would only get Uc because of the childcare costs and the rent. At the end of the day UC is pretty generous to working people to keep them in work and give an incentive to work which is exactly what op wants to do having built up a career.
Once student loan is paid off in a year or so, take home pay will rise and there will be very little Uc to be had so all those thinking she shouldn't get help can be reassured that it is only for a short while. By being able to continue working op will be less reliant on benefits in the longer term.

FFS some of the people commenting on here have such a lack of understanding of the benefits system, the financial reality of needing to "rely" on benefits and are so quick to judge! It would be pitiful if it were not such dangerous ignorance.

Outrage at a working single parent who pays considerable taxes on those wages and is also paying off the costs of the university education also being entitled to benefits. Instead of wondering at the fact that even a respectable wage is not enough to live on if you need to pay for childcare! Not being outraged at the insanely high child care costs! UC in the op's case is how her childcare will be subsidised. When her children are school age/ old enough to not need child care, benefits will likely drop away.

Rents are high in the UK, cost of living is high. We should be outraged at UC paying landlords mortgages off, and subsidising low wages in the service/ care fields. But no, apparently, it is a working single parent that is the problem? Wtf. I mean really.

Everyone making snidey "you earn enough, the system isn't for you" type comments ought to reflect on the situation they would be, financially, if they suddenly had to find an extra £700 per month on their wage alone. I'm sure you'd all do fine and dandy, right?

@SuperstoreFan

We are on a joint income of £39K and we are not entitled to UC.

I don't understand how someone earning £47K is entitled to UC and plenty of people who earn less aren't.

Because it mainly depends on childcare costs and rent.

www.taxinnovations.com/specialist-tax-planning/

anybody want to get annoyed at these types of companies that specialise in making sure tax can be avoided by companies?