Help! What am i entitled to?

[laura20]

I'm currently 5 months pregnant and work full time on a salary of 15k my partner is out of work and we are currently looking to rent our own home. I've looked online but I'm quite confused as to what help we will be entitled to. Does anybody have any advice?

You will be eligible for some housing benefit on that salary, go on www.entitledto.co.uk and put in your details, it'll tell you specifically for your local area. Once the baby arrives you will get working tax credits and child tax credits as well (if your partner gets a job then this will change).

And don't forget child benefit, which is £20 a week.

or in that area

You should be entitled to around £22 per week working tax credit now.

If you applied for Housing Benefit now (ie. Local Housing Allowance) you would get the following allowances:

Couple over 18 £111.45
Couples' Earning disregard £10
Couple (as long as one of you over 25) working over 30 hours £17.10

This would give you a total allowance of £138.55 if one of you is 25yrs+ or £121.45 if neither of you is over 25yrs.

Your wage gives £250.34 per week
Your Working Tax Credits would be £22 per week.

That means your total income would be £272.34 per week. This assumes your partner does not get JSA.

Housing benefit is calculated by deducting your allowance from your income, to find your excess.

Using your maximum allowance of £138.55, your excess would be:

£272.34 - £138.55 = £133.79

65% of your excess is deducted from your Housing Benefit:

£133.79 x 0.65 = £86.96.

This is the amount that you would need to pay towards your rent.

You would be entitled to rent a 1 bedroom flat/house at the moment, then when the baby is born you will be entitled to rent a 2 bedroom flat/house.

You can look up the Local Housing Allowance Rate for your area. You must find a house/flat that costs equal to or less than that rate, or top-up the difference from your own income.

Once the baby is born, your Working Tax Credits will remain £22 and you will be able to get Child Tax Credit of approximately £65 per week.

The Child Tax Credits will reduce the amount of Housing benefit you get.

lougle that is the best explanation of benefits I've seen, including the government websites! Thanks!

Thank you, Redlips

I hate it when people are given the impression that the benefits system is too complicated for 'normal people' to figure out.

For Housing Benefit, it is actually just a case of adding up the bits that apply for you, taking it away from your income and work out 65% of the remainder. That's what you have to pay toward your rent.

For Tax Credits it's a case of adding up all the bits that apply for you. Then, add up your income, take away the 'disregard' of £6420, then work out 41% of that figure. Take that amount off of the total of all the bits that apply for you, and you get to keep the rest.

Thanks very much for the advise, I wasn't aware I could apply for working tax credits before the baby is born.