Affording a baby?

[meow951]

Me and my partner have moved in together and we recently got engaged. We would both rather wait until we are married to have children and also we will both be a bit older.

I am one that likes to plan ahead and im just thinking is this feasible?

My man earns about 12K after tax a year and i only work part time and earn about 5k. We wouldn't be bale to afford childcare so i would have to be a stay at home mum until i could maybe work evenings or wait until the kids start school.

I know you can get tax credits etc but dont know if we would qualify if i was at home or how much roughly you get from various benefits. Also i wouldn't want to be seen as sponging off the government?

Can anyone help

 

[angie79]

hi

i myself have been looking into things recently and as a couple you can earn upto 17000 combined to recieve tax credits and if you was not working your oh would be entitled to get tax credits as he earns under that amount.
Also you would be entitled child benefit of £20 per week and child tax credits too

go onto google and put in directgov benefits adviser and once on the site click on benefits advisor service - you put all your details in and it will tell you what you can be entitled too at the end.

I think of like we have been paying tax by working all these years why shouldnt we get some back

 

[AP]

You sound exactly like I felt to start with. i didnt expect i would need to be a stay at home mum though, and I didnt want to be seen as a scrounger.

But at the end of teh day the scroungers are those who get pregnant for the council house, and have never worked a day in their lives.

You work - you pay tax, why not get a bit of help!! Its what we pay our taxes for!



I think you are being sensible planning ahead though and not rushing into things. Good luck!

 

[Frufru]

Hey Lady,

You would receive child benefit - current rates are £20 per week for the eldest child. If you have any other children you receive £13.20 per child.

As for tax credits this is worked out on an individual basis. If you follow this link you can put in your details to get an indication of how much you could expect to receive: https://www.taxcredits.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/Qualify/DIQHousehold.aspx

One thing to bear in mind is that tax credits are slightly higher in the first year your baby is born so your payments might go down once your baby has had their 1st birthday. Also the output will only quote how much you would receive for the rest of this financial year IE from now until April 2010.

Good luck with your sums - I hope you can make them add up

 

[PeanutBean]

If you stay at home and your partner earns more than about £7k pa you will get about £3k per annum (after baby's first year). I know this as my partner earns similar to yours after tax (the ctc is all worked out before tax) and I looked into whether I could stay at home. There is an allowance of around £3k per child and this is the maximum you can get. If you qualify for income support (which you won't on that income) then it might be higher, I don't know about it as we don't qualify.

As frufru says you'll get child benefit whatever.

Here's a breakdown:
Child tax elements:
Family element 545
Child under one 545
Per child 2085
Disabled child 2540 (extra)
Severely disabled child 1020 (extra)

Working tax elements:
Basic element (all claimants) 1800
Couple of lone parent 1770
Works more than 30hr pw 735
Disabled worker 2405
Severe disability 1020
Over 50 years old 1235 or 1840 if working over 30 hrs
Childcare 80%

Sounds fab but it's really not. Here's how to work it out. Add up all the elements you are eligible for except the family element. Work out you taxable income per annum, that's all income but you can take off pension contributions and is before tax and NI. Even include income from savings if over £300pa. Don't include benefits or other tax free income. Also take off the first £100 per week of maternity or paternity pay.

Working tax elements are applied before about £7k pa. If you have working tax elements deduct £6420 from your income total. If you only have child tax elements deduct £15,575. You then multiply this by 39 and divide by 100 (i.e. 39%). You then take this away from the sum of your elements (still not including family element) and that tells you how much tax credits you will get. If your income is £50k or less you will get the full family element in addition to the tax credits you worked out.

For reference, with a baby over one, a combined income of about £25 and £108 childcare per week we don't get anything in addition to the family element. It sucks.

 

[lovehearts]

I have no idea what we would be entiled to when we eventually have a LO. Its scary really to think that women have to survive off such small amounts!!

 

[PeanutBean]

Sorry just noticed my typo, I did of course mean £25k not £25!!

 

[Dream.A.Dream]

Tax credits confuse the life out of me xx

 

[Pinkgirl]

Hey hun
Know how you feel, Me and OH moved in together July, Engages Aug and plan to get Married Aug 2011 (Gave in a decided to wait till we are married before having children)
I hope to save what i can between then and now so i can go parttime, but its so difficult with a house that needs looking after and a wedding to plan!
x

 

[plutosblue]

I know how you feel, I earn about 10k after tax plus any commision but luckily my OH earns a bit more about 17k after tax in security but even then we still manage to spend it all and go into debt! I think you live to your means more than anything, I once said we could earn a tiny amount or be rich as kings but we would still spend what we earnt and more! Plus my OH is terrible with money and I would want to be a stay at home mum or go down to part time which obviously is a bit pay cut... We can't win! and tax credits confuse me.