Cant afford to work!

fabforty

If you are thinking of getting a second job to bost your income, I would advise you to check with the CSA to find out what affect the extra income would have on your child maintenance payments. My understanding is that everything that you earn is used to calculate child support, which means that you will probably end up paying more and might not be any better off.

fluffymovie

Hi there

Your Council Tax is huge and should be addressed. Depending where you are based, your Ctax should be about half of that. If you have arrears, then you probably have gone to court on that. If you have made a special arrangement, the council might be able to amend the amount they take. Or you may be able to go to court, have them grant a liability order and have them attach your earnings. They then take a % set by law which might be less than you are currently paying. Not an expert on Ctax as work in benefits but happy to help if I can

Oldernotwiser

fabforty wrote: »

If you are thinking of getting a second job to bost your income, I would advise you to check with the CSA to find out what affect the extra income would have on your child maintenance payments. My understanding is that everything that you earn is used to calculate child support, which means that you will probably end up paying more and might not be any better off.

He may well end up paying a certain percentage (15%?) of his extra earnings as child maintenance, but surely this would be a good thing? I can't see any way he'd have to pay 100% of the extra he might earn; what makes you think that this might be the case?

fabforty

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

He may well end up paying a certain percentage (15%?) of his extra earnings as child maintenance, but surely this would be a good thing? I can't see any way he'd have to pay 100% of the extra he might earn; what makes you think that this might be the case?

I noted that the OP earns £192 per week. As his earnings are less than 200 pw my understanding is that the CSA will calculate his support payment at a lower rate. Once his earnings go over 200p.w the standard calculations will apply. He is also in receipt of WTC. If for example, he took a part-time job earning an extra 20-30 pw, but found that as he was now over the 200 threshold, his support payment was calculated at the normal rate, his WTC reduced, or the CSA take more money to clear the arrears sooner, he might find that he loses out or that he is only marginally better off. I do think that getting a second job is the best (only really logical) solution, but he might have to ensure that it pays over and above a certain amount to make sure it made any sort of difference. He only has £1 pw left to buy food, so I guess anything would be an improvement on this, but I'm really just advising him to do the calculations first.

LizzieS_2

£192pw = reduced rates = £28pw to csa
(25% of £92 plus £5)

If earnings go to £200pw then 15% is payable = £30pw to csa

If earnings £220 = £33pw to csa

If earnings £240 = £36pw

NB: csa use net earnings after tax and include wtc.

elektra-2007

What about looking into a college course so you can improve your earning potential, then you can see if your entitlked to the Adult learning grant, it could be upto £30 a week, and although it will take you a while eventually you will ahve new skills and qualifications for a better job, mite be worth taking a look.

skiTTish

Yep ,having kids is blooming expensive!!
Condoms on the other hand are free

borders_dude

semiskimmed wrote: »

hi, im putting this here in order to try and get some help or advice on what i can do in the situation im in.
basically im a single man living on his own with no children that live with me. ive got a young daughter who lives with her mother and i work full time but only earn minimum wage.
now for over a year now ive been trying to get the child support agency to calculate how much i need to pay towards my daughters up bringing and theyve only just come up with this amount and its crippling me financially as its got the arrears from the past year which need to be paid off over a year apparently so theyre not prepared to budge on the amount i pay each week, which is 25% of my total take home pay. this amount doesn't even let me pay fully for my traveling expense each week let alone food to eat.
ive tried getting help towards my rent but i only get something like 50p a week towards it and council tax i wont get anything.
i also get a bit from working tax credit but its not much and still doesnt help me pay for a weeks worth of food, if i carry on liek this im not going to either at or manage to pay my rent.
ive tried all the things i can think of to try to get either help towards bills or benefits whilst working.
the only thing i can think of is quitting work and claiming job seekers but im not sure how far the reason would take me that not earning enough?

any help would be fantastic and sorry for a huge long post

So it took the CSA a year to make an assessment?

You should look into why it took so long. If it was because of any kind of mistake or unnecesary delay on their part you could put in a complaint of maladministration.

If it is found that maladministration was prevelant in the handling of your case you more than likly will get a small payment of around £60. But more importantly if you can argue that because of their maladministration the arrers have built up, you will find that they will be more flexible in terms of timescales for paying back this money.

Oldernotwiser

elektra-2007 wrote: »

What about looking into a college course so you can improve your earning potential, then you can see if your entitlked to the Adult learning grant, it could be upto £30 a week, and although it will take you a while eventually you will ahve new skills and qualifications for a better job, mite be worth taking a look.

ALG is only available to full time students.

Oldernotwiser

fabforty wrote: »

I noted that the OP earns £192 per week. As his earnings are less than 200 pw my understanding is that the CSA will calculate his support payment at a lower rate. Once his earnings go over 200p.w the standard calculations will apply. He is also in receipt of WTC. If for example, he took a part-time job earning an extra 20-30 pw, but found that as he was now over the 200 threshold, his support payment was calculated at the normal rate, his WTC reduced, or the CSA take more money to clear the arrears sooner, he might find that he loses out or that he is only marginally better off. I do think that getting a second job is the best (only really logical) solution, but he might have to ensure that it pays over and above a certain amount to make sure it made any sort of difference. He only has £1 pw left to buy food, so I guess anything would be an improvement on this, but I'm really just advising him to do the calculations first.

I think, giving the situation described, that it might be a good idea for the OP to work more than 4-5 hours extra in a part time job! However, thank you for explaining the calculation as child maintenance isn't something I'm that knowledgeable about.