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Better off Financially living apart or as a couple?

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Hi,

I currently live in my own council flat and my girlfriend lives in her flat with our 6 week old son. I am starting part time work ( 16-20 hours a week). and want to know if we as a family are better off living apart or together. she has a claim in for child benefit and is about to send off the form for child tax credit. she also recieves income support with a incapacity benefit top up totalling about £125 a week plus child benefit of £18.10 when it come through. I will be earning between £85 and £113 a week.

Would I be able to claim Working Tax Credit only working 16-20 hours a week

We are concerned about rent & Council tax costs if we live together.

Any help is much appreciated

C & A
«13456722

Comments

  • Oldernotwiser
    Oldernotwiser Posts: 37,425 Forumite
    Wouldn't it be in the best interests of your child for you to all live together as a family? If you were to get a full time job you might even be able to support them.
  • djdoc1975
    djdoc1975 Posts: 16 Forumite
    I'd rather not go into why we dont live together and why i can only work part time. thanks
  • margaretclare
    margaretclare Posts: 10,789 Forumite
    djdoc1975 wrote: »
    I'd rather not go into why we dont live together and why i can only work part time. thanks

    OK. Then you can't expect much of an answer, can you?

    Either you are a family or you're not. If you're a family, and want to bring up your son together as a normal couple would, then living together would be the normal thing to do. What is your son going to think as he grows up - that it's the normal thing for Daddy and Mummy to live apart and only come together for the purposes of more conceptions?

    If our country hadn't lost its way over the past few years, this question wouldn't even be asked - it would be unthinkable.

    Margaret
    [FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Æ[/FONT]r ic wisdom funde, [FONT=Times New Roman, serif]æ[/FONT]r wear[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]ð[/FONT] ic eald.
    Before I found wisdom, I became old.
  • djdoc1975
    djdoc1975 Posts: 16 Forumite
    I thought this was a financial site and not a personal website and people should be helping with the question i asked and not asking about personal details. There are reasons as to why we dont live together at the moment.

    I just wanted to know if i was working part time and living with them would would my partner and son be better off financially?
  • seven-day-weekend
    seven-day-weekend Posts: 36,755 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Margaret, with all due respect, the OP did not ask us to judge his family circumstances, just to give advice based upon what he asked. We don't know why his circumstances are the way they are and he does not have to tell us.

    djdoc, I don't know the answer - try putting your details into www.entitledto.co.uk and/or visiting a Welfare Rights Officer at the CAB.

    Hopefully someone will be along soon who can answer your question.
    (AKA HRH_MUngo)
    Member #10 of £2 savers club
    Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is the Book of British Birds, and you have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on theology: Terry Eagleton
  • healy
    healy Posts: 5,292 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    Unless further details are provided it does sound an iffy question because people will get the impression that the aim is to maximise the benefit paid rather than live as a normal family.
  • kelloggs36
    kelloggs36 Posts: 7,712 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    However, he will automatically be asked to pay child maintenance from the CSA at 15% of whatever his net income is. Also, it is actually collusive separation what you are doing to be honest - what you are asking is whether you will be better off together or apart and if apart you will remain so. That is not the right thing to do. I'm afraid I'm totally with Margaret on this one. If you are a couple and have a baby together then act like one and just take what you are entitled to as a family and don't concern yourselves with how much better off you might be as single people.
  • kelloggs36
    kelloggs36 Posts: 7,712 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I think I might 'separate' from my husband just to get more money. Off to the Tax Credit office then to make my claim....oh, and income support and council tax benefit and housing benefit, whilst still maintaining a relationship with my husband albeit by staying at his twice a week and him visiting me for conjugal rights....
  • djdoc1975
    djdoc1975 Posts: 16 Forumite
    I have a history of violence and thats why we live seperately, although i am getting better at keeping my temper...and hope that soon we can live together as a family. I am also looking into starting my own business and thats why i am asking if we would be better off financially until the business provides us with the income we need to live on. so we dont have to rely on benefits just to survive......sorry if i wanted to keep that to myself but it is quite personal stuff. I'm not doing it for the financial gain although that is attractive till the business provides us with enough money to live on.

    Thanx Craig
  • You'd be better off living together in my opinion, espescially in the first year.

    If you were living alone, then you wouldnt qualify for WTC as a single person living alone with no children/disability needs to be working 30+ hours per week, but if you were living with a child then you would only have to work 16 hours per week to get WTC

    Obviously she would lose her income support but the WTC would make up for that. I'm not sure how your income would affect the incapacity benefit but assuming it didnt, your HHincome would be around 12500/year, so you would still get a fair amount of CTC.

    The reason why I say that you'd be likely to be much better off in the first year is the tax credits 25k income disregard, where you can earn up to 25k more than you earned in the previous year, so if you didnt work last year, then the award would be based on would be the incapacity benefit.

    Sorry I didnt get to reading your mail earlier, as I would have given this answer without needing to pry into your circumstances. I try to be positive about people and assume that they are being honest rather than automatically assuming that they are trying to beat the system.
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