One parent working, any benefits or not?

misschloe

First post here so hello everyone;)

Just wondering if any of you could offer my partner and I with some advice with the following situation. Basically we have recently had our first child and she is now 10 months old. My partner has just finished her maternity leave and returned to work. Originally we had a family member that was going to take care of our daughter. This family member, for various reasons, can no longer look after our child whilst we both work. With the cost of private childcare it makes no sense in my partner working. Most of what she would earn would be spent purely on childcare. With this in mind the obvious thing for her to do is to leave work and look after our child herself. Doing this means we will really struggle with mortgage payments, council tax etc etc. We are both around our 30's and never claimed a penny in benefits in our lives so we don't have a clue if we are entitled to anything. If we aren't entitled to anything then all 3 of us will be trying to get by on my salary of £26500 which will be a real struggle.

We haven't got a clue where to go from here so any advice or information would be appreciated. Thanks in advance to anyone kind enough to offer any assistance with this matter.:)

zzzLazyDaisy

Sorry I can't give you the answers to your questions but if you go to the turn2us website and input your details you will find out what you might be entitled to (if anything)

kingfisherblue

You will get child benefit and some child tax credits. Other than that, I think your income is deemed too high for benefits.

Could your partner either work part time, or change her hours to evenings when you can look after your daughter, even if this means changing jobs?

pandaspot

Yeah you definitely wouldn't get any council tax benefit. I think your income is to high to qualify for help

zagfles

Other than child benefit and the family element of tax credits (& baby element till April) you are unlikely to be entitled to anything if your partner gives up work. I presume you're getting these already?

If she carries on working you could get help in tax credits or through vouchers for childcare.