can someone help me please,new so poss in wrong place

clarainabasket

hi,sorry if this is a bit 'me me me' however today a bailiff arrived at our house re council tax (i owe all this years)
we're really,really,really skint.
my partner earned £20,072 last year before tax.
i don't work-we have three children aged 15 (and in full time school) 3 (today-so a particularly nice touch with the bailiff arriving!) and 10 weeks.
'Entitled to' and the 'dwp website calculators' both say we should get around £142 a week in tax credits plus child benefit of around £48-we get £680 every 4 weeks instead of around £800.
we have a mortgage so can't get housing benefit.
pay full council tax\school dinners\dentists etc. (actually i don't pay council tax hence the bailiff but you get my drift)
both calculators give a much higher figure than the one we've been awarded.
does anyone know why this would be and how we might access some help- i could weep,i have wept, i'd like to be much less skint and think somewhere something has gone wrong.
(i earned nothing last year either by the way)
thank you in advance if you can help we'd really appreciate it.

KimYeovil

If you are skint on a £20K wage £170 benefits per week then a missing extra £20 per week will not make any difference. You have to start paying your bills and spending your incomes on food, housing and taxes before wasting them on whatever it is you are spending them on.

dmg24

Did you receive any maternity pay? Will you be returning to work once baby is a bit older?

The figure given by HMRC is more likely to be correct than that given on website calculators. You could ring HMRC to check, but if your renewal paperwork was correct it is unlikely to change.

Do you have lots of debt? If not, it should be possible to live quite comfortably on £20,000. It would be worth posting on the Debtfree Wannabee board for ideas on how you can cut your outgoings/ manage your debt.

seven-day-weekend

I agree with others that you should get to the Debt-free Wannabee board.

Also, pay your Council Tax before other debts (except the mortgage). It is much more important and worryingly one of the few you can go to prison for not paying. Give your children sandwiches instead of school dinners and get rid of Sky/Mobile phones. Use the money to pay the Council Tax.

Not getting at you, just friendly advice.

black_paw

if you ring cccs Consumer Credit Counselling Service. or go on line they have a good help centre .they are free and call you back ..they can put you on a plan and help sort your money worries out/offer advice to save cash ...like stop sky tv,cut out contract phones , if have two cars sell one..cut food budget down cigs/booze ect..saved my brother and many friends

themull1

why dont you do a statement of account and see if you can cut back in any areas?

Jowo_2

Do you have other debts and if so, how much? Here is a link to some starter advice on dealing with debt. As per the previous poster, you should do a SoA on the Debt Free wanabee board.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/ManagingDebt/index.htm

Council tax is considered a priority debt, defined as "ones where serious action can be taken against you if you don't pay what you owe. For example, you could lose your home, be disconnected from a service or even go to prison."

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefits/ManagingDebt/PlanYourWayOutOfDebt/DG_10013291

Your council tax of approx estimated at £100 - £150 per month should be easily affordable on a monthly net income of approx 2k per month, being around 5 to 7% of your household income.

Download the budget planner on the free tools section of this website and work through the site to identify where to make savings. This site has been set up by a member who has devised cheap nutritious meals that feed a family of 4 for £100 per month, for example. You mention paying for school dinners so its time for your eldest to start taking a packed lunch and this gesture alone could save a tenner a week.

http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/