Help for Easter holidays

[Deleted User]

harry7075 wrote: »

If he earns £100 a week he pays probably £25 a week CSA, if that. The OP, in my opinion, should stop whinging.

do you live on £75 per week and out of that pay £25 towards your rent?
if you cant help then butt out

Dunroamin

woodbine wrote: »

do you live on £75 per week and out of that pay £25 towards your rent?
if you cant help then butt out

The OP's household income, although limited, is rather higher than £75pw.

Morlock

I sympathise with you. I was in a similar position whilst unemployed, supporting two children for three days a week and half of the holidays, but officially still a 'single-person' and surviving on JSA of around £65 per week.

It is grossly unfair, and I suspect a big reason why a lot of fathers never see their children, they simply cannot afford to. I wrote to my MP, and received a letter from the Secretary of State who agreed that child tax credits and child benefit should be distributed between shared-carers. However, it was stated that the parents should distribute the cash between themselves, easy to say, not so easy in practice when the parent receiving all of the related benefits refuses to do so.

Unfortunately, all you can do is write to your MP to try and change the system, as you are not legally entitled to any support whatsoever. Good luck.

paddedjohn

My post seems to have disappeared so il ask again, OP is it not possible to get anymore hours to up your income? how do you manage when you have the kids for 14 days during the summer? it looks like the mother is keeping your overnight access below 52 nights so you cant get a discount on your payments, its all weighted in favour of the mothers.

nonnatus

I'm afraid I agree with Whiteknight! This is not an unexpected arrangement is it? Like Christmas, you knew it would be coming! So you could have planned for it, put aside £5 a week, started batch cooking for the freezer etc. Never mind, you will know for next time and it should not be a problem again eh?
As for this visit, your kids need to understand you're on a budget, then you can get on with spending TIME with them, rather than money on them.
Plenty of free stuff you can do with a little imagination, but you'll probably be exhausted at the end of their visit

Good luck and have fun...

Dunroamin

Morlock wrote: »

I sympathise with you. I was in a similar position whilst unemployed, supporting two children for three days a week and half of the holidays, but officially still a 'single-person' and surviving on JSA of around £65 per week.

It is grossly unfair, and I suspect a big reason why a lot of fathers never see their children, they simply cannot afford to. I wrote to my MP, and received a letter from the Secretary of State who agreed that child tax credits and child benefit should be distributed between shared-carers. However, it was stated that the parents should distribute the cash between themselves, easy to say, not so easy in practice when the parent receiving all of the related benefits refuses to do so.

Unfortunately, all you can do is write to your MP to try and change the system, as you are not legally entitled to any support whatsoever. Good luck.

Unless one parent has moved away from the home area, there's no reason why access has to mean overnight access, in the way that many people seem to think essential.

FBaby

I too struggle to really sympathise for the OP. Yes, it is hard to budget when you have children and you are on a low income, but his struggle is 3 weeks when the mother will struggle for the rest of the year, every single week. What the children cost will be way above double what he contributes weekly. If the children are 11 and 13, the pwc will be expected to look for work, or she and the kids will be supported by her partner who too will have to adjust their budget in light of the costs related to the children.

OP should have budgeted for these weeks (still can for the summer ones), putting £5 aside every week (or less depending on how much he considers he requires).

paddedjohn

FBaby wrote: »

I too struggle to really sympathise for the OP. Yes, it is hard to budget when you have children and you are on a low income, but his struggle is 3 weeks when the mother will struggle for the rest of the year, every single week. What the children cost will be way above double what he contributes weekly. If the children are 11 and 13, the pwc will be expected to look for work, or she and the kids will be supported by her partner who too will have to adjust their budget in light of the costs related to the children.

OP should have budgeted for these weeks (still can for the summer ones), putting £5 aside every week (or less depending on how much he considers he requires).

Bit of a generalisation there tbh, the mother may be minted or living with a new partner for all we know but one thing is for sure, she will be getting child allowance of approx £30/week and possibly child tax credits/free school meals and any other benefit that's available to her, even if the op gave her a grand a week she would still be entitled to all this help so please let's stop the 'single mothers are struggling' rants because they aren't.

BigAunty

Yes, I dislike the 'struggling lone parent' emphasis even though we don't have the full facts of either the OPs or partners' income.

Generally, a lone parent with 2 children will receive around £200 per week in benefits and have no council tax to pay and either all or virtually all of their rent paid through housing benefit. Child maintenance is paid on top. If the lone parent is in employment, then their income will be higher.

So it is possible that the OPs ex has significantly more income than the OP who loses a significant percentage of their income paying the top up to the rent that their housing benefit does not cover.

But the question has been answered - there is currently no benefit entitlement for the OP. If their ex will not share tax credits or child benefit to cover the periods they stay with him, he simply has to make do with the low income he has or find other ways to get it, such as a loan or overdraft.

FBaby

My intention was not to throw the sympathy line of the poor struggling single mum here, but that I didn't have more sympathy for OP because of his situation. Regardless of what the pwc earns, his contribution will clearly not be what his children are costing, so whether it is the pwc on her own making the difference, her partner or the governement, the bottom line is that the fact he has to provide significantly more on a few weeks a year and budget for it is no more a hard fact of life than those pwcs who have to do the same for the most of the time.