What is my family entitled to after loosing a job

Cookieraider_2

just for the record he has been paying his NI contributions

pmlindyloo

You asked someone what they would do.

So this is what I would do.


First of all I would phone my mortgage company first thing in the morning and explain the situation. Ask for a mortgage holiday for a while.


Hopefully this will give you some breathing space.


Then I would get your OH to sign on for Contribution based JSA. Also asked to be assessed for income based JSA at the same time. Apply for Council Tax Benefit and get your tax credits sorted out.


This way your OH will get his NI contributions paid and hopefully get some help finding a job.


The main thing is to get some breathing space while you consider all your options and obviously your largest debt is the mortgage.


In these situations the best thing to do is to be 'up front' with everybody so if you have any other debts/bills that you can't pay then let them know the current situation.


Things will sort themselves out so try not to worry too much.


Good luck.

sablelady

2 years ago me and my husband were both out of work at the same time. Both of us signed up to various agencies and were working on contract within weeks. At £42k salary sounds like your husband is highly skilled, could he try this route in the short term? My husband was eventually employed by the second company.

Cookieraider_2

pmlindyloo wrote: »

You asked someone what they would do.

So this is what I would do.


First of all I would phone my mortgage company first thing in the morning and explain the situation. Ask for a mortgage holiday

We are interest only at 1.1% above base so there's nothing we can do. The fixed term has ended, we were making overpayments each month as that rate. But once the interest rates start going up we will need to fix it fast & our current mortgage company are not taking any new policy's on, so we'd have to get a different lender which won't be fun on a 200k mortgage both newly self employed with now low earnings. 😳

dundeediva

Have you considered getting more hours yourself to help with the shortfall in the meantime? Tax credits are worked per tax year so if he has earned already in this year you aren't likely to get that much more than what you get now. Eg. if he worked up to 23/11/12 for example, he would have earned about 27500 this year to date. Add this to your earnings of 2500 and the tax credits you would get would be based on 32500 [there's a 2500 disregard when decreasing your income]. For a family of 4 with that income you wouldn't get any ctc unless at least one of the children has a qualifying disability.

If your OH is still unemployed in April then that may change but up to then you won't get help from CTC. You don't work enough hours or have a low enough income for WTC.

Cookieraider_2

dundeediva wrote: »

Have you considered getting more hours yourself to help with the shortfall in the meantime? Tax credits are worked per tax year so if he has earned already in this year you aren't likely to get that much more than what you get now. Eg. if he worked up to 23/11/12 for example, he would have earned about 27500 this year to date. Add this to your earnings of 2500 and the tax credits you would get would be based on 32500 [there's a 2500 disregard when decreasing your income]. For a family of 4 with that income you wouldn't get any ctc unless at least one of the children has a qualifying disability.

If your OH is still unemployed in April then that may change but up to then you won't get help from CTC. You don't work enough hours or have a low enough income for WTC.

I started my own business in July and am trying to increase the work but it will take a while for the business to grow its only been 4 months.

Those figures are correct, I'm shocked that we would get no tax credits until April, 5 months is a long time!

Cookieraider_2

I have a child who may be diagnosed with ADHD, awaiting appointments. But I understand it would have to be severe to claim any DLA. And so I think we wouldn't qualify?

sleepless_saver

ljcook wrote: »

Im allready self employed working a few hours from home earning aprox £75 a week. So if he earn't £36 a week or more he wouldn't get JSA? -

Its hard to judge

Earlier on you said you were earning £2500 from self employment which is around £50 a week rather than the £75 quoted above? You will need exact figures at some point so worth checking out fully.


"We are interest only at 1.1% above base so there's nothing we can do. The fixed term has ended, we were making overpayments each month as that rate. But once the interest rates start going up we will need to fix it fast & our current mortgage company are not taking any new policy's on, so we'd have to get a different lender which won't be fun on a 200k mortgage both newly self employed with now low earnings. "

Benefit of hindsight and all that, but anyone tempted to use all their spare cash for overpaying the mortgage should be thinking of having 3-6 months emergency savings set aside first.

pmlindyloo

ljcook wrote: »

pmlindyloo wrote: »

You asked someone what they would do.

So this is what I would do.


First of all I would phone my mortgage company first thing in the morning and explain the situation. Ask for a mortgage holiday

We are interest only at 1.1% above base so there's nothing we can do. The fixed term has ended, we were making overpayments each month as that rate. But once the interest rates start going up we will need to fix it fast & our current mortgage company are not taking any new policy's on, so we'd have to get a different lender which won't be fun on a 200k mortgage both newly self employed with now low earnings. ��

I'm not sure I understand what you are saying.

Unless you get some income into the household pretty soon as you have no savings you may not be able to pay your mortgage

What I am suggesting is that you talk to your mortgage lender.

This situation is very common and there are government guidelines for mortgage lenders in these situations. They are expected to follow certain protocol.

Shelter has a good guide on this:

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/debt_and_arrears/mortgage_arrears

Cookieraider_2

sleepless_saver wrote: »

Earlier on you said you were earning £2500 from self employment which is around £50 a week rather than the £75 quoted above? You will need exact figures at some point so worth checking out fully.


"We are interest only at 1.1% above base so there's nothing we can do. The fixed term has ended, we were making overpayments each month as that rate. But once the interest rates start going up we will need to fix it fast & our current mortgage company are not taking any new policy's on, so we'd have to get a different lender which won't be fun on a 200k mortgage both newly self employed with now low earnings. "

Benefit of hindsight and all that, but anyone tempted to use all their spare cash for overpaying the mortgage should be thinking of having 3-6 months emergency savings set aside first.

My earnings vary massively I won't know exact figures until end if year.

Wish we did keep some back, we only overpaid for 6 months though.