what do I do?

Claireabell

Hubby was self employed in IT when we met. Business was slowing up, customer going bust so couldn't pay him...

Hubby moved to my town as travelling putting stain on finances, work was so low he was going to try setting up in new town- handful of customers gained

Hubby had heart attatck in March (2 wk before we got married) and could not work- no ESA as not enough contributions

Hubby declaired fit for work again now but not enough customers so signed on JSA- no payment as not enough contributions.

Can't claim income support as I work

He applying so jobs- but so are the other 100's of people- no luck so far

I work 30 hrs a wk. Have an 8 yr old daughter

Do I drop hours to claim income support?

Do I try and increase to 37 hour but loose on tax credits?

Money we got in gifts from wedding and my limited savings have kept us afloat until now... this month the morgage came out and it put me in the red... already done the insurance/utility trim. shopping at Aldi to reduce food bill...

Starting to make me ill with worry

pmlindyloo

Claireabell wrote: »

Hubby was self employed in IT when we met. Business was slowing up, customer going bust so couldn't pay him...

Hubby moved to my town as travelling putting stain on finances, work was so low he was going to try setting up in new town- handful of customers gained

Hubby had heart attatck in March (2 wk before we got married) and could not work- no ESA as not enough contributions

Hubby declaired fit for work again now but not enough customers so signed on JSA- no payment as not enough contributions.

Can't claim income support as I work

He applying so jobs- but so are the other 100's of people- no luck so far

I work 30 hrs a wk. Have an 8 yr old daughter

Do I drop hours to claim income support?

Do I try and increase to 37 hour but loose on tax credits?

Money we got in gifts from wedding and my limited savings have kept us afloat until now... this month the morgage came out and it put me in the red... already done the insurance/utility trim. shopping at Aldi to reduce food bill...

Starting to make me ill with worry

OK, to recap, what benefits are you claiming at the moment?

How much are you currently earning?

Just a couple of points before you answer the above.

Although your husband cannot claim JSA because of your working he should still be signing on so that he can get his NI credits and support for finding a job.

Secondly, you would not be entitled to Income Support whatever you did because you have a child over school age.

Claireabell

I bring home £850 per month. We get tax credits, child benefit.
We get mominal contribution towards council tax
Hubby is signing on and getting his NI paid. They do job search for him as well as him looking/applying at home.
Tax credits went down when we get married.

princessdon

It looks like you have the maximum amount of benefits, is there anything else you can cut down on?

pmlindyloo

Did you notify tax credits when your husband stopped working?

You can check your entitlements by putting your details into http://www.turn2us.entitledto.co.uk/entitlementcalculator.aspx

You could also put in your details with your upping your hours to 37 hours a week (you mentioned you could do this) and see the difference.

The only other thing I can think of is advising your mortgage company of the difficulties you are in and asking if they would allow
mortgage holiday/extend the mortgage period to make the payments less/going interest only until your husband finds a job.

Usually lenders are reasonable about trying to help.

Otherwise, could you take in a lodger to give you extra money?

I know you have said that you have cut everything down but a read through the Debtfree Wannabe forum is an excellent place to start to see if you can make any further savings - a great bunch of people over there.