How will our situation be effected come April and redunacy?

mypie

Hi all and thanks for reading.

I am new to the benefit world and was hoping to get some advice as to how the changes will effect us as a family and also some advice on benefits should our family situtation change. We recently bought a house whilst under the impression we were in secure employment but since doing so my Oh have lost his job and my hours have been cut, we have had a baby and basically we like others have been flown into a world of uncertainity.


Current situation
We are a married couple with a 1 year old child
ME - in employment (28 Hours a wk) @ 10k per annum
OH - Self employed (varied hours) @ 3k per annum
£400 per month from child and working TC
£80 per month cb.

Will there be any change to our income when the changes come into effect in april 2012?

I do forsee that I will be made reduntant from my employment as my hours have been slowly cut down and there is talk of closing our office and moving all aspects of our work out of UK. I don't expect any redunacy payment. I have been looking for secure employment and have applied for 70+ jobs but haven't been offered a single one. We would like to have 1 more child but are reluctant to start planning at present as we feel things are very uncertain. We are hopefully that my OH income will increase in the coming years as he establishes a business.

If I was made reduntant how would this effect us financially in our current situation with 1 or 2 child/ren?

Would we be entitled to Income support, working and Child TC? If so how much?

If I was made reduntant and my OHs income increased to approx 20k. how would this effect us financially in our current situation with 1 or 2 child/ren?

Would we be entitled to Income support, working and Child TC?

BigAunty

No to Income support as I believe this is for lone parents. No to working tax credits unless you've got 24 hours of work between you with one of you doing at least 16 hours of it.

You can identify your benefit entitlements, model different scenarios on the Turn2us online benefit checker.

To understand how to deal with potential mortgage arrears, look at the Shelter website which gives info for struggling homeowners.

mypie

BigAunty wrote: »

No to working tax credits unless you've got 24 hours of work between you with one of you doing at least 16 hours of it.

QUOTE]
At present I work 28 hours a week and my oh works when he can get it and fits it around my working hours but is an average of around 16 hours a week.

Will we be effected in April?

BigAunty

mypie wrote: »

At present I work 28 hours a week and my oh works when he can get it and fits it around my working hours but is an average of around 16 hours a week.

Will we be effected in April?

Quite simply, the change in working tax credits is that in April, a couple is required to work 24 hours a week IN TOTAL, with one of them doing at least 16 of it.

The specific wording on the HMRC site is

Couples with children - new working hours rules for Working Tax Credit

At the moment, if you're responsible for at least one child and working at least 16 hours a week, you can get Working Tax Credit.
From 6 April 2012, the rules for couples with at least one child are changing. In most cases, to qualify for Working Tax Credit your joint working hours will need to be at least 24 a week.

This will mean:

• if you both work your joint weekly hours must be at least 24, with one of you working at least 16 hours a week
• if only one of you works, that person must be working at least 24 hours a week

If neither of these apply, your Working Tax Credit will stop from 6 April 2012.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcreditsbudget/index.htm#2

This article indicates that the change will potentially affect up to 212,000 households and will lose them up to £4k in WTC.

merlin68

You would get £105 jsa, £20 cb and £60 ctc. does your husband pay ni on his self employed income.