Moving into new home, need advice.

tawecdl

Hi,

I have recently started a new job and taking home approx £1200 per month. I am ready to move into a flat by myself (having my children weekends) and I just wanted to check if I may be entitled to anything I am currently unaware of, (or indeed any moneysaving strategies)

I am a 27 year old single male and as mentioned above, I have my kids weekends. My rent is £400 per month. I will have council tax, water, gas, electric, TV license on top of that. I pay approx £200 maintenance per month towards the upbringing of my children also.

There seems to be so so so many different benefits / tax credits / grants etc. that I just haven't got a clue where to start.

Any advice anyone can give will be fully appreciated. :beer:

Tom.

caeler

For starters you need to apply sharpish for your council tax single occupancy discount (25% off).

BigAunty

You can put your details into the Turn2us online benefit calculator but I doubt as a single male without primary care of the children that you will be entitled to a bean other than a 25% single persons council tax discount.

Your child maintenance is ignored as an expense when it comes to means tested benefits.

You could ask the parent with primary care of the children to consider giving you a portion of the child benefit/tax credits that she may get but she doesn't have to.

In terms of moneysaving, download the budget planner on MSE and then work through the site to identify how to slash costs. There is a host of info on cheap tariffs for energy, telecoms, insurance, etc. Plus plenty on how to live ultra frugally, such as very cheap recipes. See the old fashioned money saving forum, too.

tawecdl

Thank you all, very quick response. It looks like I need to get the 25% discount and work hard hoping for a pay rise within the year.

I wouldn't dream of reducing the maintenance payments as I know she is struggling more than me.

It will be hard but we're all in the same boat, thanks for your advise.

BigAunty

Blimey, what a mature response - this guy is in an identical situation and he's furious that he isn't entitled to tax credits, housing benefit and so forth.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3778475

Make sure you check the entitlement for your ex-partner, too - generally, for example, a lone parent not in employment with 2 children will get around £200 per week in benefits (income support, child tax credits, child benefit), plus whatever the father pays does not affect her benefits, plus all or nearly all of her rent paid with local housing allowance (if she's a tenant) and no council tax.

So her income will be broadly similar to yours in the above guesstimated scenario with no or low cost for rent and no council tax to pay, so less expenses than you (albeit she has extra costs for the kids).

gingergee

B.A ? Thats what i thought. Makes a nice change? x