Need Benefit Advice Please, What help can i get?

Jowo_2

elaina79 wrote: »

... So if he has had the control of the finances then he has had the money from CB, CTC and WTC at his disposal as well as his wages. Once the OP and the children leave then he will only have his wages to live on plus he will lose a % of that for maintainance. ...

Good point. OP - how much does your husband earn and how much is the rent on the current property? What is the debt repayment schedule across the 12k worth of loans and how much is owed on the credit card?

Did you or he receive the child benefit, CTC and WTC? Currently you indicated there is a weekly income of around £140 per week Child Benefit and Tax credits which should be going to the resident parent (i.e. you) despite the fact that he feels entitled to keep half, plus £40 per week DLA. The tax credit amount could well change because it will be based on you being a single parent than based on his earnings. CAB should be able to advise you of the likely sum and how to apply for it.

Your husband will be running a Large house with, plus has big debts, plus his household income will shrink by £770 per month - through the loss of you and your childrens benefits, plus he will have to pay a percentage of his earnings to support them. How much does he earn? Time to go through the bank statements or find his payslips if you don't know.

Here's some handy links on how child support is calculated

http://www.csa.gov.uk/en/setup/how-maintenance-calculated.asp

A rough rule of thumb is the following but many factors are involved to determine it, including the father's income.

If the non-resident parent has to pay child maintenance for:
• one child, they will have to pay 15% of their net weekly income
• 2 children, they will have to pay 20% of their net weekly income
• 3 or more children, they will have to pay 25% of their net

weekly income.

Tulip09

Currently we are living in a 2 bedroom house, my girls share and my son sleeps in my bed, which is not a problem as my husband worked nights. According to the North Yorkshire website thing i am entitled to a 4 bedroomed house which is what we had agreed to rent. I will phone the council first thing in the morning and try and find out the council tax. The heating in the new house is oil which is apparently cheaper? My husband tonight said he will be fair no matter what I have told him i am going to see a solicitor etc and he said i really didnt need to bother with that stuff lol. A bit of good news i did get today is i have been awarded high rate care now and low rate mobility so the extra £50 a week will help out alot. I should also be eligable for some other benefits for people who dont work just now,

Tulip09

Jowo wrote: »

Good point. OP - how much does your husband earn and how much is the rent on the current property? What is the debt repayment schedule across the 12k worth of loans and how much is owed on the credit card?

Did you or he receive the child benefit, CTC and WTC? Currently you indicated there is a weekly income of around £140 per week Child Benefit and Tax credits which should be going to the resident parent (i.e. you) despite the fact that he feels entitled to keep half, plus £40 per week DLA. The tax credit amount could well change because it will be based on you being a single parent than based on his earnings. CAB should be able to advise you of the likely sum and how to apply for it.

Your husband will be running a Large house with, plus has big debts, plus his household income will shrink by £770 per month - through the loss of you and your childrens benefits, plus he will have to pay a percentage of his earnings to support them. How much does he earn? Time to go through the bank statements or find his payslips if you don't know.


I dont know what the loan repayment are yet a month as i dont really have that sort of access i dont think. I have his p60 from one job in the filing cabinet and that is 19,600 per annum for 26 hours a week last year, but i dont know how much he earns as he is self employed in his other part time (ish) job as a satelite engineer.

Tulip09

In answer to your other questions - i dont know who gets child tax credit but i think its me, i dont think we get working tax credit anymore as he moaned about it a while ago and i think i would get child benefit but not 100% sure, but i think the parent who has the kids will get it? My eldest daughter is 17 just now and she is my carer mostly and doesnt work or go to college just now. We dont get child benefit for her anymore since she was 16 and left school. My husband was on about taking half of the money awarded for the children because he will be feeding them etc when they are with him, and he will need to clothe them etc ( obviously not the eldest but the younger two)

Jowo_2

I'm not familiar with the prices but I doubt that oil heating is cheaper given the huge increases in the wholesale price of oil but this thread can give you some pointers and you can ask the folks on that forum for likely heating costs for a 4 bed property heated by oil. Then you can put it in your budget planner.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/258053#Comment_258053

Of course you don't need to bother with a solicitor if you are happy to pay off his debts for goods and services he's purchased in your name, hand over half your benefit money to him looking after his kids in the property he tricked you into moving into while he spends his money on his mistress instead!

I'd love to see his face once he finds out you are entitled to take the car, keep all the child related benefits and receive up to a quarter of his NET income. He was probably thinking he was quids in, retaining all of his full wages, you topping up his wages with your child related benefits, having a free motor and perhaps sending the debt collectors round to your new place. No wonder he's not keen on you knowing your rights and his responsibilities.

Yorkshire, you say? This guy knows how to peel oranges in his pocket, I bet....You keep saying how magnanimous and generous he is but now he's trying to dissuade you from seeing a solicitor. By the time you mention the dreaded word 'CSA' you'll see him not just twitch but out and out panic.

I did a quick search on the AA road planner website and it looks like it's a minimum of a 5 hour drive from North Yorkshire to Exeter. Have a check yourself to understand why joint physical custody is an impossibility - its at least a 10 hour round journey - and why as the main residence you will qualify to retain all their benefits. Take a look at train and coach services, too.

Tulip09

Sorry the rent on the current property is £550 a month but i dont know about council tax and stuff like that.

The drive takes 6 hours at least from this home to the new one

Tulip09

I really have no idea what exactly is in my name, i just signed what he asked me to as it helped us at the time to be honest. I wish i could be clear but i really dont know. I have let everything slide over the past 10 years and really not paid any interest to pretty much at all Is there any way i can find out what i will have to pay now or not? or what i am responsible for ?

Jowo_2

Tulip09 wrote: »

I dont know what the loan repayment are yet a month as i dont really have that sort of access i dont think. I have his p60 from one job in the filing cabinet and that is 19,600 per annum for 26 hours a week last year, but i dont know how much he earns as he is self employed in his other part time (ish) job as a satelite engineer.

You need to dig out the paperwork or if you can't find any, phone the finance company. You really need to understand your full exposure and get the balances.

In fact, you need to gather up copies of all your financial affairs (and it wouldn't hurt you to pick up some of his). Your solicitor and/or CAB will advise you how his financial status is verified when it comes to working out the support he must pay his abandoned family. I take it as well as joint accounts where he picks up the child benefits and pays out his debts, does he have his own sole accounts where he pays in his wages?!

Self employed as a sole trader or self-employed through a limited company? Was the satelitte installation work largely cash in hand? I think it is harder for women to get child support from the self-employed as it is easier for them to conceal or manipulate their income.

Clearly some of the time, he wasn't working but was philandering instead and perhaps the other part-time self-employed role actually earned him more money than the regular one.

My finger in the air formula is that his gross income could be £30,000 and he is likely to net £1900 per month, excluding the additional state benefits. It is just total speculation on my part but the premise in that total figure is that he earns a similar sum proportionally for the other job at 14 hours a week (to take his hours up to about 40 hours).

His major bills - rent at £550, council tax at £80, energy at £60, water at £20, food at £200 - could leave him with about a grand left for transport, social expenses and so on.

As I've said before, I can only estimate his income speculative and come up with a few basic household bills rather than his full expenses but quite why he expects you to handover £300 per month to him out of your child benefit and tax credits is beyond me!

Jowo_2

Tulip09 wrote: »

I really have no idea what exactly is in my name, i just signed what he asked me to as it helped us at the time to be honest. I wish i could be clear but i really dont know. I have let everything slide over the past 10 years and really not paid any interest to pretty much at all Is there any way i can find out what i will have to pay now or not? or what i am responsible for ?

If you signed jointly for anything, you are usually jointly liable but you really need expert advice on this from CAB and your solicitor, or raise a separate query on the Debt Free wanabee board.

Can you find the paperwork and give the lenders a call? Or can you remember which organisation you borrowed from and call them direct for an update?

Jowo_2

Tulip09 wrote: »

... My eldest daughter is 17 just now and she is my carer mostly and doesnt work or go to college just now. We dont get child benefit for her anymore since she was 16 and left school. My husband was on about taking half of the money awarded for the children because he will be feeding them etc when they are with him, and he will need to clothe them etc ( obviously not the eldest but the younger two)

Then look into applying for carers allowance if you are mid rate DLA care or higher. Also, raise the subject at the CAB meeting.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/CaringForSomeone/MoneyMatters/DG_10012522

Tulip09 wrote: »

...My husband was on about taking half of the money awarded for the children because he will be feeding them etc when they are with him, and he will need to clothe them etc ( obviously not the eldest but the younger two)

But we've just worked out that the 12 hour round journey if he collects them will make it very difficult for him to see them 50% of the time and even if they come to him on public transport, it's still not very realistic that they spend half the time with him. Plus he probably has loads of disposable income which he is doing his best to conceal from you.

EDIT - If you read that CSA document from the earlier link I provided, you will see that his CSA rate reduces if he has the children over - i.e. if he is obliged to pay you £70 per week, and the children stay over 1 night, it gets reduced by a proportional amount. Of course, he has already indicated that he is too poor to pay you child support. Also despite the fact that the children clearly can't spend 50% of the time there, he's also insisted that you must pay him to have the children when it is in fact the other way round! It's not a case of you paying him from your benefits but him paying slightly less to you from his employment income!

http://www.csa.gov.uk/en/PDF/leaflets/new/CSL303.pdf