My Husband and I have seperated where to start!!!!

noosa666

Hello

My Husband and I are seperating, we have 3 Children, twins aged 3 and a 2 year old, I am not working as child costs ect are to expensive for 3 under School age, he has Kindly offered to let me stay in the house whilst he continues paying the mortgage, but said thats all he will be able to pay for any bills ext because he will have to find somewere to live and his wages arnt great.
I have never claimed benifits and dont even know who to call or start to even know what I am entitled to?, I'm pretty frightened that I will end up on the streets, can anyone help.

Thank you

Caz3121

Do you currently claim child tax credits, if so you need to close down the joint claim and open a new single claim, you are also looking to claim income support

KeaneFan10

Get yourself off to the jobcentre plus this is the best place to start ..give them a call they can arrange any forms that need to be filled in there ... i would do it this way then at least things wont go missing in the post !
Best of luck x

shiprob195

(((((((((HUG)))))))))

I was in a similar situation to you in July last year.
Make sure that you do a calculation for child maintainence (on the CSA website)...I think its 25% of his take home pay for 3 children.

My ExH is paying half the mortgage at the moment in lieu of CM...When the marital home is signed over to me, as part of the divorce settlement, I will be getting 20% of 80% of his take home pay (more complicated for me cos he has moved in with a single mum of 2 kids).

Child maintainence options are usefull too "google"...I can't seem to get the hang of adding links!

I hope you get it sorted soon x

Addy

Once you're in receipt of child tax credit and/or income support you can apply for Healthy Start vouchers, which you can use to pay for fruit/veg and milk. With 3 under 4s you'd be entitled to £9.30 a week.

http://www.healthystart.nhs.uk/

merlin68

you can't just go to the jobcentre to claim any more you have to ring up first.
Op you need to ring income support and child tax credit and make a claim over the phone.
Then go to your local housing benefit office to claim council tax benefit. Also as you have 3 children lots of water companies do discounts for people on benefits. Bt and british gas also have cheaper energy and phone lines.

merlin68

You are entitled to stay in the house until the children are 18, you need to see a solicitor, and he has to pay maintenance if your claiming income support.

moggins

I've been placed in the same situation recently and you will be surprised how helpful the DWP staff now are, they made sure that I was aware of exactly what I was entitled to.

If your situation is anything like mine (I have three children too but one is under the age of 1 so the sums are just a little bit different.)

You should get:

£65 per week income support
£187 four weekly child benefit
approximately £140 per week tax credits
£3.10 voucher per child under four for milk, fresh fruit & veg.

You will no longer be liable to pay council tax and after 13 weeks your mortgage interest will be paid.

You will also get to keep 100% of any maintenance paid to you for the children from your husband.

It is do-able but I know it seems overwhelming at first. I had to go on to benefits after my contract finished as I had my baby two days after finishing work and I was petrified but there aren't any 60 page forms to fill out now, they do most of the work for you and what forms have to be completed are short and to the point.

Oldernotwiser

merlin68 wrote: »

You are entitled to stay in the house until the children are 18, you need to see a solicitor, and he has to pay maintenance if your claiming income support.

He's paying all the mortgage!

vaporate

In other words the male gets stitched up?

Caz3121

merlin68 wrote: »

You are entitled to stay in the house until the children are 18, you need to see a solicitor, and he has to pay maintenance if your claiming income support.

not always the case, it is possible to stay in the house and possibly pay the mortgage yourself with a mesher order for your husband to get his share when the children are older, however if you are reliant on him to pay all the mortgage and he cannot afford to house himself by doing this it may not be possible and it may be that the house has to be sold and probably the PWC will get a higher % (and possibly all) the equity. This could take some time though. Is it a high mortgage? how does the mortgage payment compare with 25% of his net income?