universal tax credits - please explain clearly and easy to understand!!

[miaboo]

I'm going on maternity leave soon with dc3 and was planning on not returning to work for a couple of years and taking some time out as I have always worked with my children.
My husband earns around £20000 per year which is expecting to stay the same next year and going on a rough estimate of what we could claim from tax credits meant that even though it would be very tight we could afford to do this.
With the universal tax credits coming in would this all change? Am I going to be forced to now find another job or would I be able to continue with the plan it's all so confusing!!

No one knows but given the economic climate I wouldn't rely on the tax credit system - could you manage on the £20,000?

The full white paper is here if you want to go through the whole thing.

The main differences I can see are a) combining many benefits into one single payment, b) capping the payment at various levels and c) more conditionality for claimants. In the case of couples, the conditionality of finding a job only kicks in once the youngest child is of school age. However, as your DH is working, this means the payment cap is going to be higher than a family where no-one works.

Agree that it's unwise to rely on benefits as a big part of the household income