benefit entitlements for F/T "househusband"???

[Ponders]

The situation:

Baby is a few months old.

Father's older children live permanently with his ex
Mother's 2 older children switch between this house & their dad's (no idea if she gets any maintenance. I assume she gets the CB & tax credits)

Father currently working, on about £25K, but out of this has to pay monthly

£235 to his ex
£125 council tax
£400 council rent
£200-250 fuel for commuting (120 mile round trip)

They also get approx £300 tax credits atm

Mother is on maternity leave from TA job, will return in Sept.

He plans to give up his job now & go on benefits. He will be able to do seasonal self-employed work over the summer which will earn c £6000. When she goes back to work he will be F/T househusband.

He has calculated that they will actually be about £1500pm net better off under this arrangement - they will not have to pay council tax, or rent, or maintenance to his ex, & will be entitled to £1000 tax credits instead of £300, & will save the fuel costs. (But doesn't it take ages for tax credits to catch up with changes of income?)

These are friends of friends. They are really struggling financially atm but I fear he has missed something, or hasn't allowed for the changes to the benefits rules, & they will end up worse off. Anybody know?

He's giving up work so that he doesn't have to support his kids financially? What a shit.. Think they are wrong assuming council tax and rent will be fully covered as there are well-publicised changes to both in the pipeline. Giving up a perfectly good job I think means you don't qualify for benefits for a time. Does 'seasonal self-employed' mean he's moonlighting really? It all sounds pretty cynical and hope they crash and burn...

Wow, sponge off the state to avoid paying for his children. What a catch.

well, yes, there is that, & normally I would say the same, but that's not the reason for this (& he's never allowed to see them anyway. they have been bribed "persuaded" not to want to see him)

leaving the judgeypants aside, does anybody know any more about the figures?

he really doesn't want to become a benefits scrounger - he just can't see any other way out of the financial mess they're in. If he could get an equivalent job locally he would.

Tax Credits ignores the first 10K decrease in your income, so he might want to check that this has been taken into account when he works out his figures. And judging by the Universal Credit threads, once the switch to UC comes in he'll be expected to look for full time work anyway.

How does he know how much ctc they'd get? How much does the wife earn? Would they get wtc too? We currently get ctc, but dp works pt and i am looking for a job, but also want pt and i haven't dared look at the new universal credit as i fear we will lose out so badly...

Gah mrsmc i think you just told me what i didn't want to find out...

"leaving the judgeypants aside, does anybody know any more about the figures?"

It doesn't matter if his ex has persuaded his kids not to see him. They're still his kids, he's still responsible for them and it's maintenance we're talking about, not paying for his kids by the hour. Sorry if you find that 'judgeypants' but I get very annoyed at people contriving to deprive their own kids of a decent life.

For the rest why not put his details into the www.turn2us.org.uk benefits checker?

thanks for that, mrsmc - will pass it on

janek, I don't know how much the wife earns - not sure if she's FT or PT - but TAs don't get a lot

If she earns under £16k they currently would get working tax credits - under UC he would then have to look for employment anyway.

Anything he earns in a financial year will impact on how much they will receive as your tax credits are based on the full financial year's income so if he earns £6000 over the summer that would mean lower tax credits the rest of the year.

Is she full or part time employed? If working less than 24 hours between them they would lose their tax credits.

Presume the rent and council tax comes out of their combined income when she isn't on maternity leave? Would it make sense financially to share the maternity leave eg she goes back to work and he takes the rest of their maternity entitlement, saving the petrol money? Could he look for a job closer to home, even with a paycut it would save then a lot of money? Could he find another way to get to work, I know it used to be cheaper for me to get a monthly bus and train pass rather than driving to work and paying petrol and parking (although obviously it wasn't as convenient), they could get rid of the car if necessary?

Trying not to be judgey about him quitting work to avoid paying for his kids

Thanks for further advice, cogito & rockchick

have passed on the turn2us website, cogito. (fwiw his ex & their kids have a lot more disposable income than his current household, & also his new partner's ex does not pay any maintenance at all, so he is supporting her kids. it is all a bit JK )

rockchick, apparently she only works half-time, so nowhere near £16K? have passed on the suggestion that he takes the maternity leave temporarily & tries to find a job locally.

alternative routes to work really not an option - by car it's over an hour each way, even leaving at 6.30am - public transport would take twice as long & probably cost more.

in fact I just checked, currently a town centre-city centre season ticket would be £250 pm for a 2-hour journey with 2 changes, one of which is a 5-minute change which would fail if 1st leg was at all late; plus bus fares both ends - if suitable buses available

the outward journey would be at 0640 & there are no buses to connect at that time so it would be a taxi. the return journey would require a lift/taxi from work to the station, then a 2hr+ train journey, then a bus ride home; his work day door-to-door would be at least 14 hours

we live in the sticks

My DH car-pools with him a couple of days a week, which cuts his fuel costs a bit (& explains my interest, as it also cuts our fuel costs as well as giving both of them a break from the driving)

what's really sad is that because she's lived there so long they have the option to buy the council house at c 50% of market value but literally can't afford it.

they are a bit odd though...hard to advise...DH has suggested talking to CAB but according to him they are useless (based purely on opinions of people who have absolutely no experience of them)

So he'll support someone elses's kids but not his own!!??. Maybe his new partner should get onto the csa so that their actual father coughs up!

do please consider that removing support from his own kids is not the reason why he's thinking about doing this!

new partner's ex is officially unemployed

(hence JK comment)

(there are 3 other teenaged children from that relationship who I didn't even mention )

Will he get housing benefit & council tax benefit paid in full though? And tbh, if they are better off financially then he should still pay the maintenance to his children

dunno about those benefits, Helen

& yes, I agree about the maintenance

anyway it's all still in flux. am crossing fingers that he will discover that he'll be even worse off by resigning...

Wow, who is this guy, I wish he were my friend too!

Supporting the new wife's kids but not wanting to support his own, superstar!

I don't think he could claim JSA for a few months anyway, if he voluntarily gave up his job.