Baby due in April - Worried about childcare costs when returning to work

zagfles

duchy wrote: »

As you're not well paid it may be worth considering your wife staying home with the baby so no childcare, more time to cook economically, shop cheaper etc, possibly no second car etc and you'd be able to claim tax credits legally as well as housing benefit. Another option to explore-with the advantage of legality to it ! Don't really understand why you'd not want to claim housing benefit yet another benefit (claimed illegally) like tax credits is OK?

On one income of £25k with one child they'll not get much in tax credits, likely nothing for the first year due to the disregard and maybe only 400 a year or so after that.

poppasmurf_bewdley

For goodness sake. Didn't it occur to you to check all this out before getting pregnant? Most parents I know have worked out the costs of having children and know how many they can afford.

username200

Icequeen99 wrote: »

No, because it is part of WTC and if you are getting WTC you are exempt from the cap.

IQ

Are you sure? How can you be exempt?

The benefit calculators disagree with you.

I put all details in, and they say with child ax credit, WTC and housing ben I am over the 500 cap. So I wont get all my housing ben.

tomtontom

username200 wrote: »

Are you sure? How can you be exempt?

The benefit calculators disagree with you.

I put all details in, and they say with child ax credit, WTC and housing ben I am over the 500 cap. So I wont get all my housing ben.

Are you saying that, as well as your income from working, you will be entitled to benefits of over £26,000 a year? :eek:

username200

blondebubbles wrote: »

I havent read all the rules re the benefit cap but it does say you are exempt if you qualify for WTC

https://www.gov.uk/benefit-cap

Sounds too good to be true, can anybody else confirm?

My calculator says I would not get all my housing benefit over the 500cap, even though the WTC is only £88 of the 500. Most of it is rent.

zagfles

username200 wrote: »

Sounds too good to be true, can anybody else confirm?

My calculator says I would not get all my housing benefit over the 500cap, even though the WTC is only £88 of the 500. Most of it is rent.

You want some random stranger on the internet to confirm what it says on an official government website? OK...

If you get WTC then the benefits cap doesn't affect you. But HB has an income taper too, so most people who get WTC don't get full HB.

lukieboy96

I give up!!!

wetcaterpillar

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

For goodness sake. Didn't it occur to you to check all this out before getting pregnant? Most parents I know have worked out the costs of having children and know how many they can afford.

How is this helpful to the OP? Are they somehow going to be able to stop being pregnant 7-8 months in?

No, they aren't.

They asked for advice, not other people to tell them what they could have done last year.

marliepanda

Why are you bumping two week old threads to tell people how unhelpful they are.

That's not helpful.

poppasmurf_bewdley

wetcaterpillar wrote: »

How is this helpful to the OP? Are they somehow going to be able to stop being pregnant 7-8 months in?

No, they aren't.

They asked for advice, not other people to tell them what they could have done last year.

Are you on some sort of mission to save the world, or just p'd off at what I said about you in your other post?