Husband giving up work to mind children...

emsywoo123

Wow OP, welcome newcomer to the benefits board, where you will get good advice about benefits, but also plenty of people with their opinions as well!! :eek:

SingleSue

Could a solution be that your other half works in the evening when you are home and thus, negating the need for childcare?

Even working until 11 will allow a good nights sleep and it would certainly help with the pennies coming into the household (and makes you less eekk if/when they change the goal posts for receiving tax credits)

It was this solution that me and now ex husband used as childcare was impossible to find for two disabled children plus a 'normal' child, it also allowed me to go in for extra shifts during the day once the boys were at playgroup/school, even if it was for only an hour or two. My normal working hours were 6 until 10 4 nights a week plus I bumped the hours up as and when I could to bring more pennies in/escape from my lot and this worked very well for us and it meant there was always a parent available to look after the children while the other one worked and no childcare amount of pay out, saving hundreds of pounds a month...yes I was tired but that was mainly because of the boys/husband's needs overnight (hubby was a brittle diabetic with addisons disease) meaning that I was surviving on pretty much an hour or so sleep a night (hence my breakdown in 2005!)

I am no help on the housing benefit side of things I am afraid but I would suspect that your earnings plus any tax credits would put you over the amount for receiving it...but then I could be very wrong there too!

[Deleted User]

I think you may have made a mistake claiming Childcare Vouchers rather than Childcare Tax Credits. Martin did a guide on here and basically if your combined income is less than 42k you were better off claiming Tax Credits rather than vouchers. I think the guide is here http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/childcare-vouchers#how

Also could you not consider moving to a cheaper property? Your rent is well above your LHA.