single mother

meryl78

Hi there. I am about to give birth in the next couple of months and am wondering what i will be entitled to as I have split from my partner and am now going to be a single parent. I am struggling at the moment as I have a morgage and am working only 19 hours per week. This will be my first child.

kelloggs36

Provided you continue to work, you will be able to claim tax credits, child benefit and child support. Child support will be 15% of your ex's net income (after tax, national insurance and pension contributions) if you decide to go the CSA route.

Blob

If you can avoid the CSA rout it will save a deal of trouble between you and your ex as they will only mess it up and get both of you at eachothers throats. It really depends on how well you get on with your ex.

kelloggs36

However, if you have a private agreement, any money you get should be counted for tax credit purposes (or it certainly used to be - they only ignored maintenance which came from the CSA)_. You may want to check this out for sure.

DX2

kelloggs36 wrote: »

However, if you have a private agreement, any money you get should be counted for tax credit purposes (or it certainly used to be - they only ignored maintenance which came from the CSA)_. You may want to check this out for sure.

Maintenance is no longer counted as part of tax credits.

Tax Credit award

• Any child maintenance money you receive has no effect on your Tax Credit award.

http://www.cmoptions.org/en/maintenance/prepare.asp

Found_true_love

meryl78 wrote: »

Hi there. I am about to give birth in the next couple of months and am wondering what i will be entitled to as I have split from my partner and am now going to be a single parent. I am struggling at the moment as I have a morgage and am working only 19 hours per week. This will be my first child.

Hi meryl, I hope that you are looking forward to having the child and that he/she will be a source of joy in your life and not one that will lead to resentment and anger.

I hope I am not being out of line here in offering some friendly advice before the system gets between you, your child and the childs father.
Because if you listen to some advice on this forum, solicitors, the CSA etc you will get bitter and twisted and your life with your lovely unborn child will be FOREVER irrevocably altered for the worse.

The system is totally on your side (and I hate that but there you go) It is totally down to your responsibility to use that power for the true benefit of your unborn child. You can abuse it but do so at your peril for the child will eventually find out how it was abused by you when it was young by the behaviour your showed to its father.

So, if the father wants to be part of the childs life (and he is of no risk to the child) please please let him be, the child will benefit greatly.

For the first six months or so of the childs life, overnight contact with the father would be less likely but when the time comes please allow it, do not use the CSA method of blocking contact to get more maintenance from the father this is totally counter productive to the well being of the child and will lead to unnecessary tension and anger between you and the childs father.

Find out ways that father can contribute to help ease your financial burdon rather than just cash maintenance. Be reasonable and fair with your position. Even though you have split up from your ex, and there may be anger towards the situation keep calm and objective.

DO NOT LET SOLICITORS GUIDE YOU......they have a vested interest in CONFLICT they get paid for conflict not resolution (this is my experience) they will get you into a battle far faster than you will realise.

Be sure you know your rights but just because they are set down in law does not mean they are morally correct! so tread the path of reason please.

Your ex may eventually meet a new partner, this will change things maybe dramatically, you may find yourself becomming jelous and feelings of resentment of his apparent "freedom", you want to at all costs, avoid the situation that the ex's new partner hates him passing over money to you because it seems unfair to her, so if you are reasonable then that trap is avoided.

Think about your childs future, for one thing is sure, both you and your ex took part in the creation of the little life you now carry, it is now down to you both to look after that life and for its sake, somehow create its future with both its parents in a loving environment built out of a common shared goal

THE CHILDS BEST INTEREST (not yours or your ex's)

Good luck

Loopy_Girl

Friendly advice? More like a patronising sermon assuming that all PWC money grabbing, contact blocking, jealous of a new partner 'wimmen'

Although I'm not surprised obviously:rolleyes:

ERICS_MUM

Loopy_Girl wrote: »

Friendly advice? More like a patronising sermon assuming that all PWC money grabbing, contact blocking, jealous of a new partner 'wimmen'

Although I'm not surprised obviously:rolleyes:

I can understand your comments, but I have been helping my brother for two years now since he had to leave home and then getting divorced and I can say that in his case many of the points made by Found True Love are absolutely right. Very unfortunate but I don't think the points should be dismissed out of hand, even though clearly I hope they won't apply to the OP.

Linda

Found_true_love

Loopy_Girl wrote: »

Friendly advice? More like a patronising sermon assuming that all PWC money grabbing, contact blocking, jealous of a new partner 'wimmen'

Although I'm not surprised obviously:rolleyes:

Ah my point is that it does not have to get to be like that.

We had a presentation given by the director of CAFCASS (local). He stated that their aim was going to be focussed (from then on) on early intervention in order to PREVENT anger and hostility setting in.

Some intervention measures were going to be, councilling, dispute resolution, mediation etc and to happen BEFORE solicitors became involved.

Solicitors have a conflict of interest, thier sole aim is to EARN MONEY, the more the better, they love conflict it makes more money, they dont work in the best interest of the child they give unhelpful advice at times.

The message from CAFCASS would seem to be more conciliatory and that is what I am trying to promote here not conflict.

DX2

Found_true_love wrote: »

Ah my point is that it does not have to get to be like that.

We had a presentation given by the director of CAFCASS (local). He stated that their aim was going to be focussed (from then on) on early intervention in order to PREVENT anger and hostility setting in.

Some intervention measures were going to be, councilling, dispute resolution, mediation etc and to happen BEFORE solicitors became involved.

Solicitors have a conflict of interest, thier sole aim is to EARN MONEY, the more the better, they love conflict it makes more money, they dont work in the best interest of the child they give unhelpful advice at times.

The message from CAFCASS would seem to be more conciliatory and that is what I am trying to promote here not conflict.

A little too late for some of us then.

Blonde_Bint

Loopy_Girl wrote: »

Friendly advice? More like a patronising sermon assuming that all PWC money grabbing, contact blocking, jealous of a new partner 'wimmen'

Although I'm not surprised obviously:rolleyes:

In all honesty Loopy I dont think FTL meant it to come across as patronizing:). Think she was just trying to stress, try not to let your life become a battle ground and that its very easily done and very difficult to stabilize when all hell has broken loose.

She might have a point of feeling bit jealous when your baby's father meest another woman? someone said that to me when me and DH had our baby that our pwc could be bit jealous, I didnt think so at the time maybe she was, maybe it felt a bit strange for her so she had digs at us I dont know