Confused please help

jimboness

Hi i currently earn 18k a year and the wife 22800
Her job is finished at the end of may so we will be dropping a lot in income
We have 1 child who is 3 in june and another on the way due in oct
She was planning to take statury maternity from august or september and claim jsa in between
Ive done the calculator and initially it comes it to £10 a week tax credits going up to £62 when the 2nd child is born
And the usual child benefit
We pay £550 rent to a private landlord and live in the tq12 area
What it comes out to doesnt seem much so am i doing it wrong?
Also how do i go about getting the right answers and sorting out applying etc? Mabey citizens advice?
Please help

allen35

Based on an income of £18,000 with 2 children you should be entitled to Housing Benefit.

When your income falls dramatically inform tax credits of this and request an estimate of current years income be used for the calculation, this should increase your Child Tax Credits. Be careful not to underestimate as this will produce an overpayment and give less entitlement to HB.

Obviously the wife will be able to claim JSA(C) but will have to meet the conditions, this may be difficult with a new baby on board.
Check this link https://www.gov.uk/maternity-allowance/overview

If not in work she may be entitled to maternity allowance instead of JSA if not in work and receiving SMP.

jimboness

I dont currently claim because i wasnt eligible as we earned too much so we cancelled it
Any idea what we would get?
Looked like bugged all when i checked so much for the working man

Horseunderwater

jimboness wrote: »

Hi i currently earn 18k a year and the wife 22800
Her job is finished at the end of may so we will be dropping a lot in income
We have 1 child who is 3 in june and another on the way due in oct
She was planning to take statury maternity from august or september and claim jsa in between
Ive done the calculator and initially it comes it to £10 a week tax credits going up to £62 when the 2nd child is born
And the usual child benefit
We pay £550 rent to a private landlord and live in the tq12 area
What it comes out to doesnt seem much so am i doing it wrong?
Also how do i go about getting the right answers and sorting out applying etc? Mabey citizens advice?
Please help

If your gross income is £18k and your income falls dramatically like this, then I think it may well be nearer to £78/week tax credits after new baby is born. But that is based on no income at all for your OH. To get a better estimate you need to know what her income will be to end of may when she gets let go from work. Will she claim JSA between end of May and August Sept as you have to actively seek work when doing so. And that might not be possible as time goes on. She might be able to get Maternity allowance but you'd need to discuss with Job centre plus/DWP to see. Not sure about housing benefit, but I think unlikely due to your income level. If this drop in income will cause problems then concentrate your efforts on paying rent, council tax TV licence utilities, home and car insurance then food, cut out luxuries like Sky and expensive phone contracts if you can. The debt free wanabee board on here can be very helpful. As can the old style money saving one.

jimboness

We have no debts apart from a 250pm loan thats got another 3 years
She will have earnt about 3400 by end may and would have met the conditions to get maternity pay.
We were thinking jsa first then maturnity cause wed need more money after the baby is here not before.
I did see we get more with 2 which sucks cause we still have 1 child to cover!

jimboness

Bump anyone?

bloolagoon

Would your wife work in the interim?

jimboness

Between this job end and maturnity? Probably not no point as no one will take her on when preg short term