Advice needed, please

[NeedMoneyAdvice]

DH and I have just found out we are about to lose £500 a month income.

I had started another thread, but I was advised to come here for some advice. We don't know what we are going to do and I wondered if anyone could help us. Name changed because lots of these details would out us.

We have just taken on an 18 month lease with a letting agent. We have spoken to them this morning, and we cannot break this. We could simply not pay, but we would lose our deposit, and would struggle to find a landlord that would take us on if we did this.

We currently earn about £30k between us, take home about £23k.

Rent is £1000
Council Tax is £200
Gas and Electricity is £190
Phone/Broadband is £50
Childcare is (currently) £350
Car insurance is £60
Car payment is £140
Petrol around £80
Home insurance is £20
Gym membership is £75

Think that is everything. Obviously, this leaves us over budget. I genuinely don't know what we will do without this money?

We aren't entitled to any benefits, including WTC and CTC.

I genuinely don't know what to do.

So HMRC have banned you from claiming tax credits?

Because they suspected fraud?

You might as well tell us, we really are trying to help and you've NCed anyway.

Are you going to apply for the housing benefit and council tax benefit - you need to, each change in circumstance you can then just phone up and they will amend the claim?

Credit card is tricky. You would need to get a normal one and one of the fantastic 0% interest rate deals one. If your credit rating is ok then this should be doable.

You would then have to shop etc. on the normal one, once it was due to be paid transfer the expenditure on to the interest free one. You usually have 3 months in which you can transfer balances onto it - so that would give you 3 months of free shopping, I guess stock up as much as possible in those 3 months. I would also pay for a years car insurance up front using it too - again perhaps only you can be insured on the car from now on!

Maybe we should try the benefits agency one more time then?

Would we really be better off on benefits, if I stopped work? How is that possible?

"The heating is only on in the morning and evening,"

well yeeeeessss but you said 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the evening, which makes 6 hours already which is a long time.

Have you checked the lease to see if it has a break clause? Quite often an 18 month tenancy will have a break clause after the first 6 months.

Hmm. Our credit rating isn't great, we are working on it though but it is a slow process. We paid off a load of debt over the past couple of years and now have none, but the score won't go back up for a while.

We saw a financial advisor last year who really helped us out.

I've just taken DH off the car insurance. Saved £16 a month thanks for the suggestion (sorry I forget who suggested this, fast moving thread!}

Okay I will reset the timers for heating to be on for an hour in the morning, maybe 2 in the evening (it's SO COLD here that I am a bit worried about such little heating? Will we get damp? Sorry if that is ridiculous, I remember my mother used to say a cold house would get damp.)

So you cannot claim working tax credits due to past circumstances.

You claim CB so why not TC's?

Is there a backstory to this, because your claim for TCs would be perfectly legitimate if you gave up enough earned income in order that one of you cares f/t for the dc's and would have the added advantage of not needing a car anymore either. Seems like a reasonable short term solution to me

Do I just contact the G&E provider and tell them I am planning to use less heating so can they reduce the DD?

It is possible you would be better of as a SAHM short term because you would not have childcare costs and on just one income with two children should also qualify for HB and Tax Credits.

But there is a big diff between DP earning 20k and 11k. Which is it?

And you need to come clean about why you think you cannot claim Tax Credits.

Also whereabouts in the country are you?

In the sarf east only I'd say £1k rent seems reasonable but pretty much everywhere else it seems ridiculous unless there is some niche property place with no-where else at all nearby that is cheaper to live.

I cannot imagine where you live. You say not SE so not central London. You must be living in a palace to have rent and council tax at that level.

The bottom line is though you have to find a way out of your contract and move to somewhere cheaper. Also preferably near to your sons school. You say you are in a city, 5 miles from school in a city is a massive distance. You should think about moving schools too probably.

Free dentist and prescriptions suggests Scotland or Wales.

PP guessed E'burgh or Bath based on the high rent.....

Yes, there is a backstory to the TC's...

Sigh. I would rather not have divulged this in the interest of not being outed, but since no one will take me at my word..

We claimed TC for a years, then they sent a letter asking for evidence of childcare. I sent this, and they claimed that in 2011 I hadn't informed them of a change in our circumstances which meant our childcare had gone up (as we added breakfast club on) even though I was adamant that I had told them.
So they said our claim was not viable, and have requested 2 years worth of TC back. So, not only do we not receive any payments, but we owe them money too.

Ok. THAT is what you need specialist legal advice on.

'come clean'? Jesus. I am not lying, just because I don't want to divulge every part of my life.

I have said we aren't entitled and that should be enough. It wasn't, so read my last post.

Do you have up-to-date meter readings with the G&E and have you checked you don't have a balance building up?

And you don't have to quit all your jobs, but if only one requires the car and/or paid childcare then quitting that one and then downgrading the associated expense might save you money.

So your childcare costs went up but you didn't inform them and they failed to increase the childcare element of tc's and beacuse of this oversight they have majorly sanctioned you

Ok then.

But I can't accept advice that isn't feasible for us?

but carrying on as you are is not feasible: you need to change how you spend £500 per month.

^ this is unavoidable.

you need to work harder to get suppliers to let you out of contracts. can you downgrade any packages?

because

It wasn't that i doubted your word OP

If you did nothing wrong, then legal advice could help you sort it out.

On the other hand £500pcm of undeclared gifts could cause you trouble if discovered.

fideline what part?

Yes, we are in Scotland. It is expensive. We are already on the outskirts of the city. We are onlyjust on the edge of still getting public transport in our area. We moved here, because it is cheaper.

Trust me, it is bloody far from a palace.

If you started claiming them again would it reduce your repayments as they take them from your current TC first? Or get specialist legal advice as a PP said.

You don't need to declare gifts from parents. We absolutely checked this. They are tax exempt. The tax has already been paid on it (or something) and it is not declarable income.

I will try vodafone again.

OP there's no point asking for budget help and then being mysterious about why you cannot claim the one payment that might help you

It was impossible to advise until you "came clean"/divulged....