Is this right - benefits question

[Freeflight]

Hi all,

So I am starting to separate from my husband and currently we live in the same house (things are amicable at the moment although I am driving the split)
I am trying to research into the prospective future and so have used the "entitled to" website to see what financial situation both myself and him would be in to see if we can afford to live separately.
We have 2 kids (9 & 3) and would split the cost of nursery for the 3 year old. My intention is that we would coparent 50/50.
I earn £30k a year and if I bought a new place my savings would drop below the £6k threshold.
Is it right that I would be entitled to over £600 a month? This seems like a lot compared to what I expected so feel I must have done something wrong.
Any one got any thoughts?
Clearly this makes a big difference as to of we can afford to live separately or not.

I dont know the answer to your question about benefits. But I’d be very careful with your plans . You say that “ your plan “ is to parent 50:50. But what is his plan ?

Many men will say that they intend to have their children 50:50, so they don’t have to pay child maintenance. But very very few actually have their children half the time and even fewer do half the parenting.

Is he doing more than half of the childcare / parenting / wifework now? Because if not that’s not going to change after the separation.

Most non resident fathers see any time they spend with their children as “doing a favour for their ex “. They see it as something they will fit in when they can, as a time that suits them when they are not doing anything else such as socialising or working.

Many men start to date again / move in with someone else very quickly, and often stop seeing their children as much .

It’s also common for them to move some distance away to avoid doing any /much childcare , then refuse to see the children unless you transport them both ways .

Im sure you think that none of these things will apply to your husband and I hope you are right. But I’d caution you against making your plans on the basis that he will have the kids half the time and pay half the nursery fees. Because you are the one who will pick up the slack if he doesn’t.

I definitely think he will be involved with the kids. He currently does school pick up and drop offs as he works from home, he is very involved and the I think the kids is why the split is so emotionally hard for him.
We live close to his parents, not mine, so he would have no incentive to move away at the moment.

Entitled too is very hit and miss, universal credit goes on your monthly pay and if you get paid twice in one period you won't be entitled that month. Only way to know is to open a claim really.

I started claiming UC for the first time a couple of years ago. Payments are calculated on your net take home income (excluding child maintenance payments). Sometimes, I get a small annual bonus from work which means the UC payment for that period will be a lot less (and rightly so). The UC section on the gov.uk is the best place to look imo because it has all the figures for the new tax year and you can work out using pen and paper what you could get.

I'm concerned that 'your plan' might not go exactly to plan though! I get the impression you think your DH is going to play ball but I wouldn't rely on that. He may be passive now but when reality hits, I think he may start fighting.

My advice to you is go and pay for an hour's session with a solicitor to talk through how things will work. Sorry. I know that's not what you asked for in your OP but couldn't not say it. I hope it all goes smoothly for you.

@Newgolddream70 i have had an hour with a solicitor but it seemed much more about steps to separate ie financial orders, pensions, how the process works, and the costs of solicitors, time frames etc.
I guess I need a more definitive idea of money coming in.
And I know I can't be sure that he will play ball, but there would definitely be push from his family to maintain a relationship with the kids and I expect they would step in to support his share if he dicked off. If things did go down that route then I'd want to be living separately anyway, this is more for can we afford to do it to start with or do we need to stay living together for the foreseeable.

@MeMyCatsAndMyBooks thats good to know. I'll take a look at what a "period" is as I get paid once a month and the "entitled" to calculator tells you per week and per month so I just presumed that would be each month.

Can't say for definite without more info. You mentioned buying a house so I assume you will have a mortgage and won't be renting. For a working single parent paying mortgage rather than rent, UC is pretty generous. This is the manual calculation:

Standard allowance £368.74
Child element for DC1 £315
Child element for DC2 £269.58
Total maximum entitlement £953.32
(plus childcare element which I have not included as I don't know your childcare costs, but up to 85% will be covered)

Net earnings £1935 (nb I've estimated this, the figure depends on your exact salary, pension contributions and any other deduction)
Minus £631 (work allowance) = £1304
Deduction for earnings: 55% of £1304 = £717.20

UC award: £213/month
(plus up to 85% of childcare costs, as above)

Note I have assumed none of you have a disability or health condition and you are not claiming DLA for either of your children.

You can see how it's all worked out at https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/universal-credit/on-universal-credit/check-how-much-universal-credit-youll-get/

And if you want to double check you can contact Help to Claim and ask them to calculate it for you https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/universal-credit/claiming/helptoclaim/

Entitled to includes child benefit in the amount shown, it’s not all UC. If it’s 50/50 are you sure it will be you claiming the benefits for the kids, or will your ex? Will you need to give him half of the children’s benefit awards for his time spent with them?

@TeaKitten good point. I assume I would need to give him half of the child portion. This is why it is difficult to do on the website as it doesn't ask about your custody arrangements, just if you have children in your home.
The calc says £368.74 standard UC, £839.58 kids (assume that would actually be £419.79 then?) and £769 deducted for my salary. So would that mean £20 and then half the £172 child benefit so actually I'd only get just over £100?

Actually @Freeflight the way it works with separated parents is that the resident parent is the one entitled to child benefit and (if eligible) child element of UC. If residence is shared 50/50 the parents have to agree between themselves who will claim them (but I would agree with PP who asked whether it will be exactly 50/50 in reality? And is that in the best interests of the children?) If the parents can't agree they can both claim and HMRC/DWP will decide. But once it is decided which parent is claiming, there is no (legal) obligation to give any of it to the other parents. Whether there is a moral obligation depends on each of your financial circumstances and on the financial settlement in the divorce, I guess. Are his income and savings significantly higher than yours? If he did claim for the children, would he be entitled to anything? I guess if care is really 50/50 and finances are more or less equal, you could claim CB & UC child element for 1 child each. Note you get more for your older child though (details in the link I shared above).

I don't tend to use Entitledto for benefit calculations so I'm not sure how they've arrived at that figure for the children - as PP said maybe it includes CB? What about childcare costs, presumably you put those in when you did the calculation?