Child Tax Credit - Do we tell them about this?

billykeats

My gripe is that the goalpost are constantly changing and when we are looking for a little bit of help it seems to get taken away.

The £25K redundancy we got we have used to reduce our mortgage so we are living off just one salary and therefore unable to save the £300 now due to increases in everything else. My wife does not want to go back to work just to have her salary just cover the cost of the ridiculous nursery fees. My wife will only be claiming for JSA purely because our redundancy insurance will only pay out on receipt of JSA so will get that for 6 months.

And why should only single mum's not have to go back to work until their child is in education?

mildred1978

Who said that?

I've just done the same as your wife (except that the figures in my case are higher and I'm not claiming JSA) and am staying home with my son for a while. My husband earns way too much for CTC to come into the equation. I'll probably go self employed rather than look for work. It's no bad thing in my eyes, but I'm supporting myself with my redundancy payment. You can't have the penny and the bun.

Bobl

So you deliberately deprived yourself of capital by reducing your mortgage even though you will receive help in paying it with her insurance payout, but you still want the tax payer to fund her lifestyle choice to stay at home. Not sure you are going to get any sympathy here!

billykeats

Not wanting sympathy, was looking for advice. Don't need this abuse

I actually followed Martin's advice and paid off our mortgage with this redundancy money as we cannot get savings better than the current mortgage rate we are currently paying. We have not been able to claim against our redundancy insurance due to my wife being paid Statutory Maternity Pay until December and they won't pay out until my wife gets Job Seekers.

We are not spongers we were following Martin's advice again to Boost Our Income by claiming what we were entitled to. Our gripe is that as soon as we seem to be entitled to anything we either miss out on it or gets pulled because we try to work honestly

If you have nothing constructive to say then please keep it to yourself

mildred1978

You probably made the wrong decision there.

I'm mystified as to what is costing £300 more (plus however much the £25k paid off)?

billykeats

Should we have not paid off our mortgage?

As we are living off just my salary now we don't have that £300 surplus. Once all our bills are paid for or money put aside for future bills i.e. water, car maintenance, car tax & insurance; we have leftover £225 between us. The Child Benefit currently goes into my baby daughters savings account so we try not to touch that. So we are ok but any extra money will be much appreciated so disappointed that the Child Tax Credit will stop come April 2012

mildred1978

I wouldnt have paid all of that off the mortgage if you have no other cash buffer (6 months salary in liquid cash assets at least). Didn't I read that you're on an interest only mortgage anyway?

If you can't afford to save the child benefit, then don't.

I think an SOA is needed here so that you can get some help on incomings and outgoings. you don't seem to have made particularly good financial decisions recently.

Tehya

OP I'm sorry to say this but if your wife is not planning on going back to work she'll actually be committing benefit fraud by claiming JSA.

To claim Job Seeker's Allowance the claimant i.e. your wife has to sign an agreement with the JC+, she will have to jump through a hell of a lot of hoops to get the payment this can include job seeking activities similar to job club as well as having to apply for any jobs her advisor feels are suitable. If she doesn't apply (and they do check up) then she'll be sanctioned and could lose the claim.

billykeats

Got £6000 in an ISA saved as a buffer. In the process of transferring utilities. We put money away for just about everything in a savings account for when we need it e.g. insurances, birthdays, xmas, car, water bill, tv licence. We hardly go out now that we have a baby. Live in area where public transport is not very reliable and I travel into the city so have 2 cars in the family for my wife to get around. Do everything I possibly can to save money or get money in the way of Cashback and everything that Martin Lewis advises us to do. Apart from maybe paying off our mortgage to reduce our bills. I check my accounts on a regular basis and have spreadsheets set up. Move savings accounts all the time. I would say I was pretty good with my financial decisions. Any more I could have done?

lovinituk

billykeats wrote: »

we have leftover £225 between us.

What does that figure relate to? Disposable monthly income?

billykeats wrote: »

The Child Benefit currently goes into my baby daughters savings account so we try not to touch that.

Its nice to save for children but if you can't afford it then it becomes a luxury.