Just cant believe its right!

[hulahoop09]

Hiya

Okay so hubby has struggled where he works for a few years (he has been there over 6 years) its causing him to be really down and depressed and I hate seeing him like that. Atm we cant afford a paycut as I am due to go on smp BUT after going onto the forum on MSE I have been on entitledto.com and input various wage drops to see if we can afford it when I go back to work after smp. Well one of the scenarios I thought I would be nosey at is what would happen if hubby quit work to look after the children. I am SHOCKED to say the least!! Basing it on him earning the previous year but then earning £0 in the current year it is saying we would get £266pw (thats like over 13k per year) ctc/wtc. Obviously we wouldnt have childcare to pay but it means we would actually have more money left each month for him to stay at home and look after the children than what we would paying someone else to take care of them!!! I mean surely that cant be right?!!!

Anyone else found this to be the case?

xx

 

[AP]

I would tread carefully TBH. We get higher rate tax credits and its not even that much, and DH is a SAHD and I work. These things can often be wrong

 

[hulahoop09]

Thanks hun. I am not about to make any drastic decision as I am soon to start maternity leave for 9 months but just find it hard to understand that based on me earning 12k for 30 hours per week and hubby being a SAHD that we would be entitled to 13k ctc/wtc! Its a bit mental. I am gonna have a nosey on the actual tax credits calculator which has been pretty much spot on before when I divide between weeks left in the current tax year. Lol.

 

[hulahoop09]

Checked hmrc tax creds calc and that advised £690ish pm so not sure where entitled to got its figures from! Makes me feel better knowing we arent working for nothing but we can afford for hubby to take a pay cut if needs be next year! Lol.

xx

 

[aimee-lou]

Checked hmrc tax creds calc and that advised £690ish pm so not sure where entitled to got its figures from! Makes me feel better knowing we arent working for nothing but we can afford for hubby to take a pay cut if needs be next year! Lol.

xx

That's about what we get - I am currently unemployed and about to pop, 2 children, hubby working full time over the summer but having earned £0 last year as a student.

 

[Laucu]

Best thing to do is probably give tax credits helpine a call. I done it recently to see how much we would get if DH's contract ended.

I never trust the online estimates, because I have been wrong about so many bloody times! Lol

 

[Pearls18]

The risk with this though is you never know when things can change with all the cuts. I have done those depressing calculations before where I look at how much we would get if I earned £0 and sometimes it isn't much difference, but for me working is a long term investment taking myself out of the job market now could make it much more difficult down the line when we don't have childcare worries and I want to get back into work. Plus I do actually like working, I couldn't be at home and I know DH couldn't either. Is he keeping an eye out for other jobs? Remember it is generally much easier to find work when you're in work, so even if he comes out temporarily that might make a job search more difficult.

 

[hulahoop09]

He isnt going to give his job up, we wouldnt risk it. And he said male pride In my working life I have claimed 1 months worth of JSA (approx 12 years of work) and he has never claimed benefit (12 years also. We obviously get child benefit and we got about 5 months worth of ctc when lo was born but then they changed the criteria and we earnt about £500-1k too much to get the basic ctc still. We rely on each other and thats about it.

Yeah he has been looking for years but as his wage is so high for the job he does it is difficult and the fact we dont drive and we both walk to work so no transport costs involved atm etc. And he is also v.worried about starting at a new job and the company going bump or them making people redundant. There are lots of agency temp jobs around where we live for the work he does but the pay would be a drop from approx £8 off ph to £6 off ph. With me going on maternity leave next month also it isnt possible for us to take a pay cut right now unfortunately.

I have looked if he were to take a pay cut (he currently earns 17k per year and he gets quarterly bonuses which can range from 30 upto 170 sometimes so his P60 last year was around 18k) and if he was to take a job between 13-15k we would get approx £700-£800 pm in tax credits (mainly ctc) inc help with childcare and we would still be left with approx the same (if not a bit more) as what we would with him doing the job he is doing now (approx 400-600pm after bills etc) as we are currently in process of a few debts being paid off so money will be better in a years time.

xx