child maintenance payments

[daisymay1]

I am just entering the world of single parenting. I am a little worried about how much I will get form ex. He has a good job approx 45k per year. We have a home with mortgage. The house has no equity and is worth approx 150k, we owe 100% on the mortgage.
I have been reading things that ex only has to pay 15% (we only have 1 child) of his net salary. Is this right? If so that doesn't cover the mortgage (£600 pm)and my child is still too young for me to work full time. He takes home £2200 pm, so he only has to pay a grand total of £330 per month for his child to survive??
Is this right??

IvyKaty - Is that figure right? £225 child and tax credits a week? That seems like alot! That final figure of 27k is more than mnay people earn working full time. So, if what you say is correct - many people are better off not working full time, just doing 16 hrs a week and claiming tax credits?

Also, surely if I/s takes maintenance into consideration, then so does/should tax credits? (you seem to know what you are talking about, so thought I'd ask as general query?)

Hando the goverment wanted to get single parents of the dole que so the incentives were high - stay onthe dole or work and get tax credits, working tax creidts and you get to keep you tax free maintenece (if you can get any) and you get child care costs of 80%

Ok so out of that figure you need to take 125 per week for childcare but still it would probably be enough to live on and if you can rent out a room to a single femal you can get tax free rent of up to £70 or 80 per week (it is either £70 or 80 not to sre) and that doen't count against your you tax credits as it is tax free money and any tax free money doesn't count so savings in isa or pensions dont count either.

yes the figures are pretty much 95% correct.

If it was me with one child and the possibility of renting a room, get a part time job and convincing a bank to let me have the mortgage onmy own - I certainly know what I would be doing...

As I said before the house is not got any equity it is a pure debt to take on.

now if only the government would do something about flexible childcare/holiday childcare etc then all their other incentives would be bloody marvellous..........

Yes Katy, it does seem like a great incentive to get single parents back to work - fantastic! It does make you wonder though, when people can earn more working 16 hours a week minimum wage than they can working 40 hours a week. But hey, there's always going to be swings and roundabouts to any scheme like that.

Overall though they will let someone work for the minumum wage - then pay more for the childcare than the single parent actually earns in the week...

I think it says it all

Hando - they are also left holdng the baby a full time job to do alone and go out to work so far more than 40 hours in the week

maristella If the govt bring in the disregard of maintenance as an income for IS purposes, then how will they decide if you have gone above the savings/income level where IS is reduced or stopped IYSWIM?

Hando - problem is that most of the minimum wage jobs are hourly paid ones and much less flexible in terms of time off, feeling compelled to go into work when you're ill etc (as statutory sick days invariably don't kick in when you're only sick for a couple of days so you just lose the money) etc etc - it' swings and roundabouts imo

True Katy - but some people are only ever going to be able to get jobs that pay minimum wage, however much they would like to earn more. I would much rather taxpayers money be spent on paying for childcare for a single parents who are working partime during school hours in order to make a life and pay their own way, then going to wards I/S or JSA for lazy people who can't be bothered to work. (again, no dig at SP or those on benefits for real reasons as I am until next week when new job starts).

Awassailing.. what do you mean about flexible childcare, do you not have holiday clubs where you are? We have a great holiday club (haven't used it yet though) and lots of childminders who work holiday times. In fact when investigating this to cover my strange shifts my new jobs involves, I have been surprised at the variety of options - breakfast clubs from 7am, after school clubs til 7pm, school holiday clubs 8am - 6pm, amazing childminders who do school runs both ways. Plus with tax credits as IvyKaty has said, those on a low income can get 80% of all this childcare paid for.

IvyKaty - Do you know the earning limit for tax credits?

I'm talking about childcare that starts before 7/7/30am, or finished at 6pm, and we have one holiday club - I'll put DS1 and 2's name down next week, but I'm 99.99% certain they won't get a place, unfortunately all those parents who are already working will have got their places already booked. Usually a good 1 1/2-2yr waiting list for it.

school hour jobs are virtually unheard of round here, they're all shift work, early morning or evening (or full time)

On the various occasions I've checked over the last 3-4yrs I've never been able to find a child minder that can take all 3 DS's. I did last year find one that could take DS1 (at one side of town), and another that could take DS2 and 3 (opposite side of town) (job I was thinking of going for was in the centre of town)

I know some places have loads of childcare options, unfortunately this town isn't one of them. I have quite a few friends that work, and their biggest headache is childcare.

Going to be a fun few weeks/months ahead for me trying to sort it

finishes after 6pm that should be

Awssailing - we do live in SE London, so perhaps the choice of childminder sis unusally high here. All that i spoke to said they would have my daughter until 6.30 at least.

I think we need to be realistic though. Although a school hour job may be ideal hours-wise, all that I have looked at have been nowhere near enough money once you pro rata it out. So I have had to choose a job that works around the childcare I can access. I am going to be doing shifts and I am lucky that my mum lives close by and will have my daughter before school, then she just spends a couple of hours with the childminder after school a couple of times a week.

Perhaps you need to move to a different area? Easy to say I know, but loads of people do it to make work/childcare work for them. 1 holiday club sounds very hard going for all the parents, no wonder it's hard to get a place there. Good luck!

Moving to a different area would mean moving to a different town (and almost certainly didn't county), uprooting my DS's from their (excellent) schools where they're happy, leaving my friends behind, leaving behind my church organist position (the only thing that's remained constant and kept me going, apart from the DS's, over the last 6 or 7yrs). Basically moving somewhere where I know absolutely no-one, not even having friends that can have the DS's for an evening so I can go out/whatever.

I know I'm not going to get school hours/term work, there just ^isnt' any round here. I'm just going to have to cross my fingers (and toes lol) and hope I can find something that works in terms of childcare, and money.

The holiday club thing is a total PITA, there are some "sports" type holiday things, but although they're (supposedly) subsidised by the council they're not really affordable to those on minimum/low wages. So all the parents on decent wages use those, and everyone else fights for the other holiday club.

If you see someone frantically waving their arms in a couple of months gagging for air - that'll be me - doing my OU course, looking after the DS's, doing my church music stuff, and (hopefully) working

6.30 would be still too early for most of the shift work round here - 'tis a total farker, I must remember to buy the paper on Thursday next week for the jobs section (haha - wonder if it's more than 2 pages again yet)

people don't advertise in the newspapers much - you need to go to the job center online and put in your post code - lots of jobs come up, yes many are minimum pay but there is a whole selection of jobs as it is free to advertise on the goverment webwsite...

Hando - what do you mean earning limits? Do you mean at what level of pay does tax credits dwindle - that is around 21k and then you get £10 per week, but of course if single you still get 80% of your childcare paid..

Then it is around the 50k make before the tax credit stops, this is from what it was 4 years ago you would need to check that out as the figures may well have changed slightly.

Basicly though the tax credits are mostly mainly there for people earning under 20k after that it is a small amount that used to be the married persons tax break and it was pulled together with the tax credits when that came in.

Ivy - I look on there too - actually I usually look on the job centre website weekly even when I've not been looking for a job as I like being nosey. I even have it bookmarked

I'm looking forward to seeing if it starts going to more than 1 page of jobs (before it starts showing me jobs in Essex - I'm 100% certain there are jobs in between here and Essex lol), average used to be about 4 pages, hoping it will go back up to at least 2 pages soonish.

oh and the council website for the school jobs the council website is best, for thelunchtime supervisor (dinner ladies when I was a kid ), or TA jobs , and actually some of the school cleaning jobs I've only seen advertised on there, and occasionally in the paper.

daisymay - You can be at home with your child. Personally I felt my children needed someone home with them until they were three, particularly because of the difficulty (and instability) of their relationship with their father who had been abusive to me and spent several years using the children to fight with me after he left. I chose to stay home and on benefits (and studying) until the youngest went to preschool. As it was I met someone new, married them and gave birth to twins before the youngest started preschool (was left when pregnant with her). I'm still a SAHM and plan to remain so until the twins start preschool too because the family dynamic is still, sadly, affected by my ex and his relationship with his children. Now I'm supported by my husband rather than the state, people who don't know my history smarm me now where they look down on single parent benefit claimants because we are relatively well off.

I understand that other people choose to work, I am in no way saying my choice is better and that I believe all children would be better off with a SAHP because that is not what I believe. I think individuals need to make their own choices for their own families. What works for me or the next person may not work for you, you have to find your own way and there are people who will support you to do this. You will have to make sacrifices though, sometimes very big ones. Choosing to stay at home over your house for example. Being a parent on benefits is very hard, it is by no means an easy ride and there is a lot of discrimination and difficulty you will encounter if you choose this path even temporarily but if you really believe you need to be at home with your little one then it is possible.

meant to add it drives me mad when people look down on parents who choose to stay at home with children, whatever their economic situation.

I agree curiosity - to a a certain extent. I would never look down on a single parent who chooses to stay at home with their young children and claim beenfits for the first few years. However, OP isn't in a situation to be able to do that it seems. She has said the maintenance payments are not enough for her to live on, so I'm guessing benefits will not be either. Also - it appears she wants to keep her house and as others have said, in many areas housing benefit will not pay a mortgage. So for her to stay at home it would mean her ex-h paying more than the csa say he has to in order to support her and their child. Which of course is great of they decide that works for them, but not possible to enforce if he refuses.

However, I do agree with parents being forced to go back to work once their children are over 7 and no longer being able to claim Income support. There is "usually" no reason why a parent with a child over 7 cannot work. Of course it isn't easy to juggle work and childcare, but as KatyIvy has pointed out, just working 16 per week can put single parents on a good wage, even accounting for childcare.

By the way - I hate the jobcentre website. I looked and it was full of rubbish jobs from employers who didn't want to pay elsewhere to advertise. Maining all daft hours and minimum wage. I use monsterjobs or totaljobs, much better and much more on there.

I do second whoever said check the local council website. Ours advertise all schools jobs on there, perfect if you need term time only/ school hours work.

just to clarify housing benefit NEVER pays a mortgage- the interest mortgage payments are done by the DWP - and if the mortgage is in your name and on the relevant benefits you will qualify for it

bugger thought i'd just found a "room attendant" (cleaner/bed maker ) - then realise it's 14-18hrs a week.........over 7 days.......the "hours" 9am-2.30am would have been ideal if it didn't include weekends grrr

Have you looked on your local council website awaasailing? Ours advertise the school jobs all on there.

Are you in Kent?