Please help, I've never had these problems before

Cherryjack

Good Afternoon,

I'm after all the advice I can get at the moment. I feel very worried, I will explain whats happened.
I work full time (i'm a newly single mum) and I have an 8 year old son and 3 year old daughter. My son is Disabled and I recieve High Rate Care and low Rate Mobility for him. My Wages after the childcare bring in £1000. I receieve £520 in working Tax credits (disabilty element) along with child maintenance/benefit.
I also own another property from many years ago which brings in £3500 a year profit.
The house I'm in at the moment is still in joint names with my ex but he is not allowed to the property and I need to arrange before September that the house is signed over (its in negative equity, interest only and I had put all the deposit into the house).

My son is very very ill now and has been in a locked unit for 9 weeks suffering with a mental illness. The social worker has come round today and said that if he is to come home I will need to be home to care for him. I know a childminder would not be an option now with all his conditions.
Please could someone give me an idea of whats best to do, part time work, or leaving work to care for him? I'm really scared I wont be able to pay all my bills.

Thank you for reading x

Poppie68

Cherryjack wrote: »

Good Afternoon,

I'm after all the advice I can get at the moment. I feel very worried, I will explain whats happened.
I work full time (i'm a newly single mum) and I have an 8 year old son and 3 year old daughter. My son is Disabled and I recieve High Rate Care and low Rate Mobility for him. My Wages after the childcare bring in £1000. I receieve £520 in working Tax credits (disabilty element) along with child maintenance/benefit.
I also own another property from many years ago which brings in £3500 a year profit.
The house I'm in at the moment is still in joint names with my ex but he is not allowed to the property and I need to arrange before September that the house is signed over (its in negative equity, interest only and I had put all the deposit into the house).

My son is very very ill now and has been in a locked unit for 9 weeks suffering with a mental illness. The social worker has come round today and said that if he is to come home I will need to be home to care for him. I know a childminder would not be an option now with all his conditions.
Please could someone give me an idea of whats best to do, part time work, or leaving work to care for him? I'm really scared I wont be able to pay all my bills.

Thank you for reading x

Is part time a viable option if he needs care, will he be at school?...Then you need to think about holidays.

Not working you would be eligible for carers allowance and income support..
You would lose your wage plus any WTC so would be a big drop....What about housing costs, do you pay mortgage?

Caz3121

what a terrible time for you

I guess much will depend on what you intend to do re the house come September. If negative equity and looking to have over to your name only you would likely need a deposit to get the LTV down and also an income sufficient to qualify for the mortgage in your name

Re part time or leaving work, you can model the different scenarios on entitledto or similar site
The second property may have an effect on means tested benefits if you chose to leave work (eg if the equity is over £16k then you would not receive income support or SMI help with mortgage interest payments) you would lose your working tax credits so would have your child tax credits, income from the rented property and maintenance together with your son's DLA and carers allowance

Cherryjack

Im hoping he will go back to school, but I just dont know at the moment. Everthing is up in the air.. I currently pay my mortgage which is £520 a month interest only. Im thinking if he did go to school I could manage a few hours. Or i'm not sure if the other household income could be classed as the job?
Ive worked hard all my life so I just trying to figure out what my options are and what I need to do. Thank you Poppie x

rogerblack

Several issues.
Means tested benefits.
The house you own which you do not live in will count as capital for means-tested benefits - so these would not generally be claimable.
This would mean that income support and support for mortgage interest is not payable.

I think carers allowance may be payable, and rental income does not count for this (needs checking).

This is however only 61 pounds a week. This does not come with any mortgage help.

You could in principle earn up to 102 pounds a week alongside this.
https://www.gov.uk/carers-allowance/eligibility has more details.

How secure a tenancy does the rental house have?
If you're in negative equity - moving there might in principle be an option opening up more support.

Poppie68

rogerblack wrote: »

Several issues.
Means tested benefits.
The house you own which you do not live in will count as capital for means-tested benefits - so these would not generally be claimable.
This would mean that income support and support for mortgage interest is not payable.

I think carers allowance may be payable, and rental income does not count for this (needs checking).

This is however only 61 pounds a week. This does not come with any mortgage help.

You could in principle earn up to 102 pounds a week alongside this.
https://www.gov.uk/carers-allowance/eligibility has more details.

How secure a tenancy does the rental house have?
If you're in negative equity - moving there might in principle be an option opening up more support.

Sorry OP, rogerblack is correct with regards to the income support and your other property....
What a stressful time for you!

Cherryjack

Oh what a big mess I wonder if working the 16 hours would be a better option for Tax credits? Just trying to find a happy medium.
Need to win the lottery lol.. things were so different last year

Icequeen99

Have social services done an assessment of your sons care needs at home? They should do that and then once they work out what care he needs, they will carry out a financial assessment to see what your contribution is.

You need to press for that to happen as a starting point.

Of course it may be you want to do the care yourself, but this might allow you some support to work at least part time if you want to.

IQ

Miketan9787

I totally agree. You have a serious problem and it would be best to talk with professionals dealing with such and similar issues.

borkid

Would selling your rental property and using the profit to pay down the mortgage be an option? Depe.nding on the figures it might enable you to keep your current property

GirlFromMars_2

I'm not sure how soon your son is being released from hospital, but if he is there for much longer his DLA may stop. I believe (thank you google - http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/hospital-stays-and-your-benefits ) that for a child under 16 the cut of point is 12 weeks in hospital.