People that work full time and get help with childcare?

[BellaBoo0512]

Due to a major cock up on our housing benefit claim I am now £2,000 in rent arrears. Basically they cocked up saying we were entitled and turns out we aren't so we have received a huge overpayment and are now in rent arrears and could lose our house.

Currently we get OH's wages, child benefit, child tax credits and working tax credits. OH works full time and I stay at home with LO.

If I worked full time I would need to pay approx £175 a week childcare and £21 a week for my bus pass.

The last time I did a childcare help calculator thingy it said we would get around £20 a week towards our childcare which would put it down to £155 a week. My earnings would be around £210 a week so I'd be left with about £35 a week towards bills etc meaning we would more or less be in the same situation we are in now.. Struggling every month.

What I want to know is if the £20 sounds about right? I really don't trust these benefit calculators and I don't know who else to ask!

How much do you and your partner earn and how much help towards childcare do you get?

 

[Pearls18]

How much would you and your OH have earned by the end of March hun?

 

[BellaBoo0512]

My 2013-2014 earnings are £850 and hubby's are around £13,500 x

 

[Pearls18]

I've just had a play around with the calculator and I am fairly certain it will pay you (well) to work. Because your income was so low last year and they base it on the last year you'll get quite a lot this year (from my calculations more than the childcare actually is because you would get child tax on top) and then even if you got a wage similar to your husband's the calculator told me you would get about £125 a week. Don't take what I say as gospel because I obviously don't know the ins and outs of your situation, but we earn more than you guys, paid less in child care and we get a really good amount of tax credits, I can afford to work and pay £200 a month commuting costs so I would definitely look into it with confidence, you could also look into part time work to make your childcare cheaper because you may find your earning potential isn't all that different if you earn a similar wage to your hubby because the less you earn the more tax credits you will get. Not at all saying to play the system (I'm usually the one telling people not to do that lol) but your childcare costs are quite expensive so it may make more sense to be part time. But it depends on what your qualifications are, the more you earn the less tax credits you will get obviously.

 

[BellaBoo0512]

Thank you hun! I didn't know we could still claim child tax credits if we both work? I thought if we were both working we would have both of our wages and then child benefit.

I'm only a NVQ level 2 qualified administrator.. I work to a higher level but couldn't afford to stay on at college to get the qualifications. If I got a new job I would be on a similar wage to OH or maybe a bit less.

I'm just so confused as to how it all works... I did a calculator thing and it said we would be entitled to £300 a month (or every 4 weeks however they work it)

 

[Pearls18]

If your income is below a certain amount you can still get child tax credits, it's just one application though, they break it down but the money goes in all at the same time.

What calculator did you use? If it was HMRC remember they work out how much you would be entitled to for the rest of the year, there's only 5 working weeks left of this tax year so you get the total and divide it by 5. When I put £13,950 in it said you would get £1200 for the rest of the year.

 

[BellaBoo0512]

If your income is below a certain amount you can still get child tax credits, it's just one application though, they break it down but the money goes in all at the same time.

What calculator did you use? If it was HMRC remember they work out how much you would be entitled to for the rest of the year, there's only 5 working weeks left of this tax year so you get the total and divide it by 5. When I put £13,950 in it said you would get £1200 for the rest of the year.

This is what I got:

 

[Pearls18]

Yeah that's what I got if you were to both earn around £26000 jointly, so it's the £600 divided by 5 which is about £125 a week. But as you had a lower income 2013-14 you will get more this year.

 

[BellaBoo0512]

Ahh right! That's brilliant then because I'd only need to put £50 a week to it myself. I'll have to have a look on the job centre website tonight and see if there's anything I can apply for

 

[Pearls18]

Good luck hun

 

[BellaBoo0512]

Thank you

 

[Ceejay123]

.

 

[BellaBoo0512]

I've got a job interview on Monday.. Fingers crossed

 

[Pearls18]

Well done! Quick work, good luck x

 

[BellaBoo0512]

Well done! Quick work, good luck x

Thank you I only applied for it yesterday. It's been on the direct gov website for a month.. Don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing