Want to leave but worried about money

[Bearandthebird]

I Want to leave my relationship. I won’t go into depth on here but I have to do it so I can have a chance at being happy on my own rather than miserable in a relationship.
I have 2 beautiful children age 4 and just turned 1 for background and will be renting when I leave.
I just have no idea how I’m going to manage financially on my own. I will be on around 20k a year working 22.5 hours a week (I am going to increase this next September when my little one gets more funded hours).

I have done an online calculator which says I can claim an extra 1500 a month but I don’t know if that’s true as it seems like a lot! I’ve never claimed any benefits before and haven’t got a clue how it works so any advice or help would be greatly appreciated! I just want what’s best for my kids and for them to be happy ❤️

I’ve got no experience about benefits either - go in and ask? Have you worked out what child support you’ll get? You’ll probably need to understand this before you know what else you can claim - and if you know the father’s income it’s easy to work it out.
However the money works out - the kids will be happiest if you’re not miserable- you’ll manage!

I’m not sure how much he earns as he’s always kept that to himself despite me asking. I would ask but I’m not sure where to go. Citizens advice? Job centre? I don’t even know where to start.

Okay now I’m worried if he’s so controlling that he won’t even share this, guess you’ve got no access to his account / statements? Getting your ducks in a row is always harder if someone has hidden the ducks….

try this below as a starter, but if you got to go, you got to go, sometimes you’ve just got to jump and sort it later

www.frolo.com/blog/what-single-parent-benefits-am-i-entitled-to

Are you married or just living together?

@Bittenonce weve had lots of arguments about finances. Only since I went part time after having the children (I’ve even said I’ll gladly go back to full time if he goes part time but he won’t do that) I’ve even changed my job while on maternity leave (I’m a nurse and have down-banded to an office based job with core hours of 8-4 to make sure someone is there to pick up the kids) so things are only going to get tighter with lower pay and no enhancements. Thank you for the link, I’ll look into it 🙂

@NoSquirrels we aren’t married but in a joint mortgage. He put down the deposit along with a gift from his parents.

You need to ascertain how much the house is worth abd how much equity (perhaps minus hus deposit/gift?).

If I were advising a friend I'd say go back to nursing, as you can't afford a lesser paid job without prospects.

How do you own the property tenants in common on joint tenants? Did his deposit get ringfenced?

@ByQuaintAzureWasp should get mortgage statements soon so will hopefully be able to see that. I haven’t left nursing, I’ve gone from bottom band 6 to top band 5 with lots of opportunity to progress as soon as a band 6 post comes up in the team. I’m actually very much looking forward to the role I’m starting and it’s a massive positive in my life at the moment 🙂

@RandomMess im not sure about the deposit, how would I find that out?