How are we going to manage?

chinagirl

Magentasue wrote:

Have to disagree about a water meter - I'm sure they're more expensive for families with four children.

Have to agree with you on that one. I have a house with a water meter, and it costs us £79. a month!!! We are 2 adults and 3 children. Our old house was just the same but paid on the rateable way, and that was only £30 a month. DON'T have a water meter! You will regret it!

chinagirl

barbie_babe wrote:

hoilday company might let you change hoilday.we did this one year we had payed a bit more than half off, then we lost our main job . we were due to go in july this all happened dec seven months before.we asked hoilday company what we could do they were more than happy to change hoilday for us so we just used money we had allready payed.we ended up going to same park in sept and they gave us money back.then we used money they gave back for food .all we had to do was save a bit to spend .

That was jolly descent of them. Nice to hear companies out there still willing to lend a hand when in need.

Spendless

exessexmum wrote:

Spendless and Bossyboots, I could kiss you both!!! Have just checked on the tax credit website and it looks as if you might be right and we can deduct DH's pension payments from his income.....currently his pension payments are over £2500 p.a. (Civil Service pension) so that might mean we are entitled to at least a bit of tax credit.....will ring them on Monday and find out. If I wasn't so skint, I'd buy you a :beer: :rotfl:

A virtual one is just fine thanks

Pal

There are three issues with the pension contributions:

- Firstly I am positive that, as mentioned by someone before, tax credits are not affected by pension conts, as it is income after contributions that count.

- Secondly, it is illegal for a company to run a compulsory pension scheme. Your husband has to be allowed to opt-out.

If the scheme is not a company pension scheme then it is a personal arrangement and he can stop at any time he likes, although he may lose out on any contributions his company makes so may not be in your best interests.

If things are really that bad then you could look into stopping the pension scheme membership for a while. However think very carefully before doing so, as a pension scheme where 30% is being contributed would be worth a lot of money when it comes to retirement, so you should try and cut back in other areas first. It also may include very valuable life insurance which will protect you and your family if anything happens to your husband.

- Finally, it is illegal currently for someone to contribute more than 15% of their salary to a company pension scheme. If the arrangement is a personal pension or stakeholder then you cannot contribute 30% to it until your husband is at least 51 years old, and even then, it is not a compulsory contribution level.

I believe that your husband must have made a mistake on the amount of contributions required to the pension scheme.

Check into this and then post with details on the pensions board (I don't visit here that often). Give details of the pension scheme, the benefits it is supposed to provide and the contributions that are paid to it. Check out your husband's payslips to confirm the amounts.

It is not often that it makes sense to stop saving for retirement, but perhaps a more modest level of saving might be in order.

Cheers

Pal - Board Guide - Pensions

exessexmum

Thanks Pal. Since I posted that I have checked OH payslips and his pension is actually bang on 15% of his gross salary, after tax and NI it is more like 30%, but not quite (I was putting that as it was what he had told me....moral of tale: never believe what your OH tells you!) I have no problem with it being paid as I know how important it is to save for the future, it was more that the tax credit expect us to have a certain level of income based on his gross salary, whereas what we actually have in our bank account each month is an awful lot less. I will ring the TC helpline (wish me luck!) on Monday to find out, but according to their website it looks as if you don't include pension payments in your earnings.

Pere_Ubu

ruyareece wrote:

Totally agree, we have 3 children and when I worked it out we were £££'s better off without the meter!! Infact, it scared me to think what would happen if we did have one!

We have a water meter and 3 children. It is very expensive. I would never advise any one to have a water meter with or without children. My mom is 73 lives on her own and was being advised to have a water meter by her local water board. She won't have one because she knows she would be worried about flushing the toilet, cooking etc etc. Thumbs down to water meters!!!

black-saturn

Pere_Ubu wrote:

We have a water meter and 3 children. It is very expensive. I would never advise any one to have a water meter with or without children. My mom is 73 lives on her own and was being advised to have a water meter by her local water board. She won't have one because she knows she would be worried about flushing the toilet, cooking etc etc. Thumbs down to water meters!!!

I'm on a water meter and theres 3 of us in this household. I pay £10 per month in total to the incoming and outgoing water companies. I do have to be careful with the water but not to the extent we don't flush the loo, wash and bath etc etc.

chinagirl

Bossyboots wrote:

I agree Spendless I too thought it was your income after deduction of pension payments that counted.

I dont think so, I am in the Civil Service, and when I applied for Tax Credits, I am sure they took the gross figure on my P60. Correct me if I am wrong, but this figure is surely my earnings before my pension contribution is taken out?

margaretclare

Hi

I changed to a water meter some years back when I was widowed and also was going away a lot working. I paid for the meter over 2 years and it paid for itself in a short space of time. There are only 2 of us now, we pay £4.39 a month for water used and £11.00 for sewerage. We would pay much more if we were paying according to the council tax band 'C' that we're in. We use only showers, had the bathroom converted a few years ago - not specifically to save water but because of his knees and my hips, we can't manage a bath.

For one person, or two, it's ideal. Also depending on your council tax band. I think Pere Ubu shouldn't dismiss water meters out of hand - it might be of benefit to his mum.

Where it wouldn't be of benefit is if your council tax band is low and/or if there are more of you in the family, children etc, washing-machine going daily.

Before I changed to meter, I had a bloke come round, I told him what I used, how often washing-machine was on, and because my average water usage was much lower than the average family, he worked out for me that I'd be better off. And it has certainly proved to be the case.

Aunty Margaret

Bossyboots

chinagirl wrote:

I dont think so, I am in the Civil Service, and when I applied for Tax Credits, I am sure they took the gross figure on my P60. Correct me if I am wrong, but this figure is surely my earnings before my pension contribution is taken out?

I have dug out my notes on filling in the forms and what it states is that the employer deducts the pension contributions before putting the salary figure on the P60. This figure is therefore your earnings after the pension contribution has been taken out.