Child tax credits/benefits new couple

grangie

Hi to all, thanks in advance for looking.
My partner and i have a 7 month old girl and currently both still living with parents. I am in full time work earning around £16000 a year after tax and national insurance, so bringing home £16000. Partner is unemployed and full time mother as such, already receiving benefits as follows. Child tax credit - £20 a week, Child benefit - £59 a week, Income support - £135 a fortnight.
We obviously want to get our own place, she has been on the council list for a while but that is without me as a partner.
I cant get a mortgage as i have previous debts i am paying off but would like to rent so we can live together rather than her have a council house and me stay there as and when. Basically we want to be a couple rather than her be known as single parent.
What we need to know is what she will receive if we were to go ahead and whether i would get and "perks" or whether we will be punished for being a couple.
Any help is appreciated as we are both confused and dont know where to look.

merlin68

You can live in the council house with her, you know. All she would loose is the IS. You would still get some housing benefit and working tax credit if your over 25.

Cherry_Bomb

Why do you think you would be punished?
You're not exactly a high earner so you'd still receive a fair bit in benefits as a couple.

Have you had a look at the entitled to website?
https://www.turn2us.entitledto.co.uk/entitlementcalculator.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

zagfles

You will be "punished", in that her benefits will drop considerably, but you might get some housing benefit/LHA if you rent.

She'll lose her IS and the CTC will drop a bit, but you'll still get most of it (by the way you've mixed up child benefit and CTC above - it's £20 CHB and £59 CTC). The turn2us calculator mentioned above will give an accurate answer and you can include housing - make sure you supply gross figures for earnings (ie before deduction of tax).

zagfles

merlin68 wrote: »

You can live in the council house with her, you know. All she would loose is the IS. You would still get some housing benefit and working tax credit if your over 25.

They don't have to be over 25 for WTC as they have a child. But his income will be too high for WTC, assuming no disabilites (take home £16k is about £20k gross)

Caz3121

Tax Credits may well stay pretty much the same - if she is claiming the max and not working that will be £3,100 per annum, with one working and an income of £15k last year it would be £4,245 and £20k £2,195 so likely to be in between those amounts