What benefits (if any) can we claim if i don't go back to work!!

[waiting4bambino]

It seems like Working Tax people won't tell me! It's a secret!
Basically, i used to earn around £17000 before we had dd1, my dh earns around £18000. Therefore, we get no Working Tax credit (even though everyone i know seems to get it!), and I get Child Tax Credit at £84 a month, and the usual Child Benefit.

I would love to be able to stay home, but because of our mortgage and bills etc, i don't think i'll be able to. My dh would have to double his contribution to our bills acct, leaving him little or no money for his personal bills like carloan and credit cards etc. I also have smaller personal bills like credit cards etc.

However, every time i ask the benefits people what we could claim if i potentially didnt go back to work, they just ask me what i will have earned from tax year Apr 08 to Apr 09, and my employers wont "predict" that because of bonuses, change of hours etc etc.

I've never been on the dole, never claimed a single penny till now, and it just seems that i'm being forced to go back to work at a time when i want to stay home - just until my dd goes to skool. I'm sure i would've cost the government more if i'd have had her in my teens and made them give me a council flat while i claimed benefits for the next ten years!!

Why will no-one tell me what i can and can't claim?!

entitledto.com

thanks, will have a look on there asap

maybe give up your house, go in a b&b for a few years then claim benefits 0- that life is soooooooooo easy innit!

Your husbands earnings alone put you over the WTC bracket so if you give up work you'll just get CTC and Family Allowance.

No one is forcing you back to work, you chose to have a child so need to be financially responsible for the child. Did you not think of that before deciding to start a family?

i think that's a bit harsh happymumofone!

I had all intentions of returning to work after DS1 was born (I earned more than DH and it made sense that he become a SAHD), but I couldn't face it when the time came. We're all entitled to change our minds!

TBH I can't really help, because I don't get anything other than child benefit and basic child tax credits either . I have been off for four years now, and the only way we have survived financially is by starting our own business (on top of DH working full time), so we still have 2 incomes (albeit much less than we had before), and really tightening our belts.
It has been particularly hard on DH who has been effectively doing 2 jobs, although I am now working part time for the business as it has taken off.
HTH

HappyMummyOfOne, yes, i did choose to have my child and thought of the financial implications beforehand! However, i did believe that we would get more help than we do, as everyone I know seems to get WTC!! The issue i have is that, for example, I know girls who left my skool, had child after child after child, and did not even get a job, and they get to spend all their time at home with those children. I have worked since leaving skool, claimed no benefits, and it seems unfair now that i actually want to stay off for a year or two, that i cannot actually afford to! I guess i am just feeling sorry for myself....