Extra tax credits with second child?

[missmaryp]

Hello lovely ladies,

Just wondered if anyone has been in/is in my situation and can share any wrds of wisdom. We are currently looking at our finances to see if we can 'afford' a second child.

I've just been on the 'd I qualify' calculator thing on the tax credits site and added our info as if I already had a baby as well as our 6 year old. I was a bit surprised to see that it didn't increase the amount we would receive!

We only get £10 a week anyway, but I thought you got more for a child under one? Just seems a bit odd that having two children would not increase the amunt at all... Can anyone offer any clarification please?

To be honest, I was hoping it would give me a fugure that would help persuade my lovely practical man that we can afford it, not the opposite!

It depends how much you earn

btw you will get flamed for this ,so get your hard hat ready

Your calculation was probably correct. I have one child aged 3 used to get £10 a week until the government changed things and now we get nothing. However if I gave up work and was a SAHM and only my husband worked i'd get the £10 a week back again, regardless of one or two children.

You may get an increased amount if you pay childcare for two though and you work although i'm not sure. Also, you do get more Child Benefit with a second child of about £20 a week I think from memory.

Ok, i'm a newbie but why would the op be flamed? She's just asking advice about tax credits.

Thanks both, and thank you kblu for asking the question on my mind. I am just asking for advice, a bit concerned now though!

just ignore me ,sorry

If you are only getting £10 per month I assume that it is because you are a high earner in the eyes of tax credits. As such they will have deducted a massive amount due to your income and even when you add the extra entitlement for another child the deductions are still much greater than the extra you will get.

The way they do the deductions is also weird, in that they deduct off one part of the credit and not another. It might be that they have deducted all of your tax credit to make it zero and you are left with a bit of working tax cedit. Even with another child the child tax credit element is all deducted due to income.

Sorry if that is a bit convoluted. Bottom line message is that I am not surprised because of the mechanics of the deduction due to income process.

missmaryp - We are also trying for a second child and i've wondered if we can afford it but I know we will because you just do! I went from full time wage to part time wage with number 1 and remember thinking "how the fuck are we going to live on that" - but we did and we got used to it. Now we're thinking about number two and have realised that it won't be worth me going back to work because cost of childcare will swallow it up so we will have to manage on husband's wage plus the small wage I get from my self-employed business which some weeks is okay, some weeks is dire.
But we'll be okay I know we will!