Panic panic - DH has just received his first pay slip

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DH has just started his first year of teaching. He did his teacher training last year, we got by on the bursary of £600 a month, plus child tax credits, DH's savings (from the sale of his first house) and my salary (which went down 10% in April).

We're renting our house and just bought a new house. All fine as we did a budget for doing up our new house (was cheap as it was in a terrible condition), we should end up with between £1k-£4k savings by the end (depending on whether we get the roof fixed and the cost of curtains etc). Not as much as we hoped, but it's something.

We also have a spreadsheet of our new incomes and outgoings. It worked out I'd end up with £50 each month (as long as the petrol to get DSS to school isn't more since we'll be a bit further away) and DH would have £200. We're planning on TTC in a month or so-knew we wouldn't be rich but we're paying back tax credits DH got by mistake of £190 a month so we thought we'd probably be able to just scrape by (will have cleared that by Nov '10).

DH has just emailed me excited that he got his first pay slip. It's £183 less than I'd worked out using the tax calculator on the net-I assume it's the pension contributions . I don't know what we'll do or how we'll afford simple things like presents or school shoes. If we start TTC then I don't think we'll be able to afford maternity bras, let alone clothes.

I'm now panicking like hell and am worried we won't be able to afford to live, let alone have (more) DC.

For a start don't panic. I have never known a first pay slip to be 100% correct. There will be adjustments to be made for the wrong tax code, incorrect pension payment, the lot. Get him to speak to the payroll dept and check.

BTW we are in the same boat - DH has just started teaching too and is due his pay soon. But we are in the lucky position that we don't need his payrise as such - we cope OK without but are hoping to move house within the next year. So I may be joining you .

I will get him to check it but I do think that £183 could well be his pension. Don't know if he can pay less. I've emailed him back saying it's less than we expected (DH never remembers figures and he'd said we'd have to put it in the budget later).

I just wish we hadn't just signed on the house-the interest rates went up the night before so our offer was accepted but the mortgage wasn't signed on. Meant £70 difference to us which is a lot. The whole point of our house was we can fit more children in and now it could mean we can't afford them.

That won't be his pension - mine was about £129 on M5 in 2006. Unless NQTs are getting approx £30k pa and I don't think they are, then it may be his NI. Check the tax - if it's not an 'L' suffix on his tax code, then they are charging emergency tax, which will not have any tax allowance deducted.

So,

Aug 06 M5 scale point

Gross: 2162.75
Tax: 333.36
NI 162.92
Pension 6% 129.76

Net: 1536.71

Hope that helps.

Thank you.

He has been charged base rate (we assume until they know what code to give him) but his pension is £134 so I don't think it'll be more than £50 less than it should be. He's going to ask the pay roll lady today and if he doesn't get anywhere my boss (who's very lovely) will 'run it through' the system and see what he should get.

You could also put off joining the pension for a year or so until you feel more financially stable.

Oo I didn't realise that-will mention it to him. If the tax rate is right then it might be worth doing. If not, I don't want to do 'last resort' until we need to (and possibly when we have a baby).

Oh the joys of adulthood. I should have stayed young free and single!!

what salary calculator in the net did you use? I find this one very useful.

If he is on a BR tax code at the moment then when his proper one gets sorted out then the amount taken in tax should be less than this month. Also if he has not had a (taxable) salary this year then the amount he gets Sep - March will benefit from his personal allowance (tax free amount) being spread over 6 months rather than over 12. Not sure if this affects the first month or two only or the whole 6 I am afraid. So you may well have different amounts for the first few months while everything gets sorted.

Excellent thanks. According to that (and I had to fiddle the pension as I had no idea of the percentage just the end figure) he was paid £100 too little which would be very handy if that works out.

Fingers crossed as I really really want to start TTC, let alone living without worrying one of us needs a second job every month!!

Ah I didn't know about his personal allowance. He hasn't had any salary for over a year but he did make £5k on his savings (now all gone on our new house) so I don't know if that would count?

My accountant at work thought the BR wouldn't be too much above what he should be paying which worried me even more.

BR is way to high a code at the very most should be 647L/m1. Dont worry though when correct code applied any over paid tax will be got back through pay. Has he been given a P46 to sign? Get him to get in touch with the payroll people and ask why they've used BR and to get in touch with inland rev ASAP to get correct code.

Make sure he is paying into the pension. Rules change all the time, and it's a fairly generous one at the moment.

A friend who's a teacher was put on BR when she started. She hadn't been given a P46, so she asked for one. But he shouldn't be on BR. Once the correct coding comes through any tax overpayment should come back.

Definitely keep paying into the pension scheme if you possibly can. TPS is a good 'un.

BR means that his tax is being deducted at Basic rate, which is currently 20%. This percentage will have been applied to all of his earnings (after the deduction of his pension contribution).

A standard tax code at the moment is 647L, which means that the first £6,479 pounds he earns each year will be free of tax. This is apportioned out throughout the year, meaning that each month he can earn £539.92 before he gets taxed on it. He will not stay on BR once he has declared to his employer (form P46) that this is his only job. At that point he will get a tax refund (through his payslip) for any overpaid tax.

Also, if he started work even one day into the month, his salary will not be for the whole month but for a proportion of it only. So, if he started on the 3rd September, teo days pay will have been deducted this month, even if they are weekend days!

Hope that helps!

He will have started on 1st September, that will be when his contact is from as a teacher, even it was still school holidays.

could also be subs for NUT and/or GTc?these i think are taken from your salary

The BR tax code would mean that he is paying just over £100 too much tax this month (and that is an underestimate if he has not had another job since April this year).

The GTC fee is refunded through salary as well. It doesn't cost anything for a state system teacher.

If you are stuck for money, can YOU possibly work more hours?

I know that with teaching, when you start, there is no real way to bump up your hours/responsibilities.

No-my salary went down 10% in April and there's no sign of them going back up again soon. The bosses also cancelled all overtime over a year ago whilst trying to avoid redundancies. I'll possibly end up having to get an evening job (if his take home salary was right) but I already volunteer once a week and am not keen on being away from DH and DSS even more, let alone my physical/emotional awakeness if that happened!

Glad we seem to agree that he's been underpaid about £100. Helpfully, the pay roll person in his school is never there and currently ignoring DH's emails. He's hoping to go and find him when he gets a free lesson.