MSE Pregnancy Club 21

mrsspendalot

LabLover wrote: »

Thanks Pigpen, ice baby and mrsspendalot. It doesnt make that much sense to me , but I finish work on the 13th June so will ring them then and get forms sent out , then once bubs is born I will fill in and send away. The thing that scares me is that they say inform us as soon as anything changes , We will need to fill in based on last years earnings,mine are just normal but OH was self employed and earned peanuts . So I would imagine we will get something in the form of benefits . OH's financial year runs april to april (arent I a smart book keeper,lol) so from april 2011-2012 we would hope he will earn more than pervious year . Will that mean I would need to pay back benefits when I fill in forms again in April 2012 ?:o Does that make sense ?

At the moment there is an income disregard of £25k (but that is going down to £10k, maybe this April, maybe next, not sure). This means that you can earn £25k more in 2011/12 than you did in 2010/11 without it changing your current payments, so no you wouldn't need to pay any back. The following year 2012/13 would then be based on the increased income from 2011/12 and would see a reduction in payments. Hope that makes sense? I'm sure that's how it works!

LabLover

thanks mrsspendalot , you make it seem alot clearer. OH never earns millions through being self employed. I think the best year he had financially was 16k earnings before tax.But last year was just shocking what he earned , im suprised we coped. He is waiting on a call to find out if he has secured a 30 week contract tho for this financial year , so fingers crossed

Apricot

I just tried that calculator thingy - it pickled my brain! Pretty sure it gave us the wrong entiltment per week (seemed like too much) but I only did it quickly so it's possible that I made a mistake.

mrsspendalot

I've got awful period-type pains

It's just started since I've come downstairs .... sat here with a hot water bottle

Had this 2 weeks ago and MW said it was nothing, but it hurts

mrsspendalot

Apricot wrote: »

I just tried that calculator thingy - it pickled my brain! Pretty sure it gave us the wrong entiltment per week (seemed like too much) but I only did it quickly so it's possible that I made a mistake.

I've always found it pretty accurate tbh - but the new tax year starts tomorrow so maybe it is in the process of being changed for all the new rates etc.

Apricot

mrsspendalot wrote: »

I've always found it pretty accurate tbh - but the new tax year starts tomorrow so maybe it is in the process of being changed for all the new rates etc.

Well if that is the case then it's looking for me :j Although I put down my baby was born on 1st April which may have mucked it up a bit.........

gratefulforhelp_2

dusty clever you he is fab.

mrsspendalot

Apricot wrote: »

Well if that is the case then it's looking for me :j Although I put down my baby was born on 1st April which may have mucked it up a bit.........

Ah! If you have a look on the first page where all the questions are about whether you're single etc, there is a question about calculation year. If you change that to 2011/12 it will give you a projection for the next tax year (i.e. from tomorrow). If you don't change that, it will base it on current rules, and will add things like the baby element of CTC which is being scrapped from tomorrow (£545 a year), and will ignore the rise in the main CTC coming into force from tomorrow, etc. That could be why it looks wrong?

Flower08

mrsspendalot wrote: »

I've always found it pretty accurate tbh - but the new tax year starts tomorrow so maybe it is in the process of being changed for all the new rates etc.

I'll second that. When we claimed WTC last year we got £2.00 more than the estimates it gave online for us so pretty good.

Apparently all the online calculator things are being changed today so tomorrow I'll be messing around on them and seeing if we can manage without me going back to work after baby is born. I know its really early to think about that, but I already know I really dont want to go back and want to be a stay at home mummy
I only work part time on minimum wage and my money has only ever purely been 'pocket money' for us so hopefully we shouldnt be hit too hard by me not working.

smileyface26

i think I'll do the calculator thingy tomorrow too. that way my 2010 - 11 earnings will be used (???) and hopefully give an accurate(ish) figure. Anything is a bonus but i think I'll give them a call in June time to get the forms out to me. It's all confusing stuff, I work FT, my OH, having just come to this country, wouldn't have earnt anthing for tax year 2010/11 - having said that, he's not entitled to claim anything anyway - but i figure it all has to be taken into account! I work FT and last year earnt between 24 & 25k - so i think i'l be border line with what i get (if anything!)