CM Club: Any single parent cms?

[mogs0]

I was just wondering if any cms here are single parents and on Income Support? I hope I'm not being too personal/nosey, I just wanted a bit of advice. TIA

im a single parent mogs but not on income support,dont think that would work with being self employed?
i do get tax credits though which help!............................a bit!!!

It is possible but now I have three mindees (part time) my earnings may take me over the threshold for IS entitlement.

Mogs I'm a single parent and childminder but not claiming IS. I have got some information on this though. What did you want to know?

oh thats interesting to know,particually as my earnings are low at mo.
sillybillybee what can you tell us???!!!!!

Sorry its took a while to get back to you.
Right as a childminder you can claim IS if you're a single parent working only as a childminder. The "2 thirds disregard" rule applies so only a third of your income is taken into account. Also you take off your NI contribution and the single parent £20 disregard usually applies. Any income left over is taken off your IS.
So e.g. if you earn £150 p/w your earnings for IS are £50 - £2.10 NI - £20 = £27.90 so would would take this off your IS which is currently around £70 I think.
This means you would actually get just over £40 IS plus your £150 from childminding. Remember though that any child maintainence will be reduced if you claim IS.
HTH and makes some sense.
SBBx

very interesting sillybillybee. thanks for that.
my earnings are low at the mo so may have to investigate. thanks.

Sorry, I've been away for a couple of days.

I am currently receiving IS and working as a childminder.

I have been asked to take on another child which will take me over the IS threshold (by about £10) and just wondered how difficult it would be to change to tax credits. I'm a little nervous of doing it. Also, does the 2/3 disregard still count with tax credits?

Hi mogs, I'm afraid that the two thirds rule does NOT apply to tax credits.
One word of warning about tax credits, you have to be very much on-the-ball with them, 2 years ago they tried telling me I owed them £3000 when I owed them about £150, if I hadn't known how they were worked out I wouldn't have disputed it and would have been £2850 out of pocket. If you want a hand working tax credits out give me a shout. Like I say I have quite a good idea about them from past experience.

That's the kind of thing that worries me!!

Ideally, I would prefer to not have to rely on any benefit but, at the mo, that's just not possible.

Hmmm, will go and work out my figures again!

Thanks for the help!!