Really struggling to understand benefits calculators etc!

ironman1

I have asked on here a couple of times before but now we are really close to our baby Boy being born and I really want to find out what we will be entitled to.

My gf will only be receiving the statutory pay of something like £125 a month for 39 weeks (she wasn't in her new job for too long before falling pregnant and they don't seem to really want to know if their employees go on maternity leave, despite being a nursery!).

I am a self employed builder working for a firm and earn around £18,000 a year before tax, depending on hours.

Whenever I do the online calculators to get an estimate of what we would be entitled to it asks for what you earnt between 2009-2010 for some reason? Well last year I had to have a bit of time off and hours were low so I only earnt around £16,000 (my partner earnt around £12,000) both before tax.

I just can't work out what sort of benefits we will receive? On my wage and lack of overtime etc at the moment I don't think we will cope when my gf's £125 a week maternity pay runs out. Our bills come to around £1,400 a month including travel (this is without a car aswell) and my wages will only bring in £1,270-ish a month after tax. Plus I have to have bank holidays and Christmas time off with no pay.

So what will we roughly receive? We are in a shared ownership property so have to pay mortgage, rent and service charge. Looking at our bills there is no way we can cut back enough to get my wage to cover it.

I have heard we will receive something like £80 a month in tax credits or whatever they are. Does this seem about right with the info I have given?

Thanks in advance

mrsspendalot

When you go on to the calculator on https://www.turn2us.org.uk (I think), when you input last year's income it asks you at the bottom whether income this year will be same. Say no, and the input your best guess for what your income will be looking forward. You also need to put your gf's full estimated income for the coming year on maternity, and then it asks how many weeks she received maternity pay for, to which you answer 39. This is because whilst on maternity, you knock off £100 a week for tax credit purposes, so £3900 for the year needs to come off her annual estimated income. That might help give you a better idea?

Princess_Coupon

Based on an income of £18,000 (the MA won't count as income or almost all of it won't) looking at this years calculations (it will change a little in April) you would receive approximately £245 a calendar month

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/leaflets/wtc1.pdf

You would also receive £20.30 a week child benefit this is about £88 per calendar month

Giving you an approximate total of £333 per calendar month

ironman1

Wow that sounds great, much more than I expected.

How long would we get that for, roughly? Would love for my gf to be able to take more than a year off and if we got £333 odd a month for a while I think she'd be able to:beer:

JoJoB

That amount of tax credits would last until your baby's first birthday, then the amount would drop a bit as the new baby premium would no longer apply.
When baby is a year old perhaps your girlfriend could find part ime work that doesn't interfere too much with family life? I work just on a saturday for instance. Not a princely sum, but every little helps!
Are any of your monthly bills debts? If so now would be the time to tackle them with a dmp or similar if you are going to be struggling otherwise.

Spendless

Isn't the baby element of tax credits stopping this April?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/22/2010-budget-child-tax-credits-cut

(Scroll down to find them mentioned). Unless they have done a recent U turn on this?

I had a p-time evening and weekend job when my eldest was a baby, to fetch in a 2nd income without having to pay childcare costs. Is this an option for the future?

vroombroom

SMP goes up to £128 from 3rd April:D

ironman1

Spendless wrote: »

Isn't the baby element of tax credits stopping this April?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/22/2010-budget-child-tax-credits-cut

(Scroll down to find them mentioned). Unless they have done a recent U turn on this?

I had a p-time evening and weekend job when my eldest was a baby, to fetch in a 2nd income without having to pay childcare costs. Is this an option for the future?

I admit I didn't read all of that but the bit at the top suggests homes earning over £40k will lose the credits? We get half of that.

And yeah my gf wants to go back to work after the first year (I think she HAS to for a while anyway due to the maternity pay?).

DX2

Spendless wrote: »

Isn't the baby element of tax credits stopping this April?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/22/2010-budget-child-tax-credits-cut

You are correct the baby element is being cut this April.

DX2

ironman1 wrote: »

I admit I didn't read all of that but the bit at the top suggests homes earning over £40k will lose the credits? We get half of that.

And yeah my gf wants to go back to work after the first year (I think she HAS to for a while anyway due to the maternity pay?).

This is the part that you need to be reading:

He also announced that the baby element of child tax credit would be abolished from the beginning of the next tax year. This is paid, in addition to the family element, to each family that includes at least one eligible child under the age of one. The baby element is paid up until the youngest child's first birthday

.

ironman1

And how much is that, is it the £80pm? Great we miss out on the £190 grant now this, really is barely worth working in this country. They do make it easier for youngsters getting pregnant and given council places etc