benefit and tax credit help

credit_crunch_victim

Hi my first post on here and looking for some advice if possible
i am self employed and have run out of work i did 2 days last week and 1 day so far this week with nothing in the pipeline
i am married with 3 children in full time education and have a mortgage we receive wtc and ctc
if i sign on i take it that we will lose our working t/c but do we still get the child t/c
also i assume i could apply for a discount on our council tax
mortgage wise i know we will get no help for 39 weeks
what are the normal amounts of benefits for a couple with 3 dependant children
we are trying to work out if it is better to try and survive off of the wtc and ctc that we get plus the few days work or sign on and then declare the few days work
any help or advice gratefully received

ellionic

Hi yes your lose working tc and still get child tc and yes you can claim money off council tax.
jobseekers rates are
Both aged 18 or over: £94.95 couple rate
Dependent children Rate

• Payable from birth up to the day before their 20th birthday: £52.59

http://www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk/JCP/Customers/WorkingAgeBenefits/Dev_015272.xml.html
Its here if you want to take a look

credit_crunch_victim

thanks for that link
so do you get the 52.59 for each child under 20 and how is the child tax credit amount worked out
do we get the same amount as we are getting now or is that re assessed
thanks again

mcc28_x

Suggest you go to https://www.entitledto.co.uk website and put in your proposed circs.

credit_crunch_victim

i have done that and got a figure of 130-00 for child tax credits
i just cant see us getting the following amounts

130-00 ctc p/w
94-95 jsa p/w
157.77 for dependant children p/w
114-00 c/tax p/m

Oldernotwiser

Don't you have to work a certain number of hours per week to get tax credits?

ellionic

I think the £50 child money is per child i am in the middle of trying to sort all these benefits out for my family as OH just been made redundant as i am hoping it per child i also went onto tax credit website and filled forms in on there to get rough est for the child tax credit.

ellionic

sorry forgot to add i think the child tax credit bit sounds right to me if you have 3 children.
when OH was working we claimed child but not working because he earned to much we have 2 children both at school and get about £75.00 a week.

credit_crunch_victim

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Don't you have to work a certain number of hours per week to get tax credits?

is that for working tax credits and not child tax credits

Oldernotwiser

credit_crunch_victim wrote: »

is that for working tax credits and not child tax credits

I thought that was the case for WTC, but they're really not my thing. I'm sure someone will clarify soon.

DreamerV

If your hours have dried up, I'd phone up tax credits asap and tell them the date the average hours went under 30 per week (if you had more than 30 before) or under 16hrs (if you had between 16 and 29hrs work before). While doing that, I'd give them an up to date estimate of how much your net profit will be this year taking into consideration loss of however many weeks work you've lost so far. This will likely increase your ctc, but it will end your wtc.