What am i supposed to do know????

Feisty_Fairy

Hi there!

I am at my wits end and am desperate. We received our new Tax Credits award in april and we were surprised to see we were still getting quite a lot of help for childcare fees, which we checked with the Inland revenue and it was confirmed to be correct.
That helped us out considerably as we pay approx £550 per month in nursery fees, we have also had to buy a newer car recently as ours died! So that another £200 per month.
Anyway to cut it short we have received a new award notice and they have dropped ur payments by over £300 per month!!! We have spoken to them and had this confirmed againa se being correct. So what the hell do i do know??? We will have to find another £300 per month for the nusrery and we simply havent got it, things are tight already what with the mortgage, and the car and of course having 2 kids! We have loads of urgent work we need to do on the house too and i am just so worried. I earn more than my partner so its pointless me going part time, so he may have to but is there any other option???

Pleas any advice will be greatly received!
Thanks in advance

Feisty!

irs101

That's a massive drop, did anything change to trigger the recalculation? Have you submitted your annual return with a big increase in income?

If you want to post details of your circumstances, then I can try to fathom out the calculations.

Or you could try for yourself at www.entitledto.com

irs

sarahlouise210

If your income has increased and this means you do not qualify for as much help with your childcare for 2005-6 there is not a lot you can do about that. However, if you told I.R. of a change of circumstances (I am assuming you did as you say you were surprised and they told you that the payments were correct) and they failed to act on your information then you could appeal against any 2004-5 underpayment that is possibly being collected through this years award. Your payments could have also reduced if you have a baby that is now over 1 year old. As you income is higher than your husbands the only other option would be for your husband to look after the children in the day-this would save you the £300 straight off. He could work some evenings instead but of course this is not ideal relationship wise. It would solve your nursery fees worries though.

Spendless

Did one of your children in nursery become 3 so they should have had the non-means tested funding the term after their 3rd birthday? This would have reduced your bill and so your childcare bit of tax credits would also reduce.

Feisty_Fairy

Hi

Yes our circumstances have changed a fair bit, the fist years incomes were low because i was on maternity leave so we only had my partners earnings coming in. Then the following year i was earning, 15500 and partner was getting 1300, (the money from Tax credits dropped a bit) and now we have been given pay rises, so now i get 17750 and partner gets 1400.

When our new credit awards came in they hadnt dropped and so i rang to check it was correct, i was told that because they work a year in arrears we would be ok this year and the change would take place next year and so we would be receiving almost the same amount as the previous year. They assured us this was correct! Now they have told us that they dont work a year in arrears at all and that was just the 1st year! So eventually they catch up and that is apparently what has happened!

My children are almost 2 and 6. Even if i didnt have to work i would still have my youngest in nursery part time as he gains so much from being there, he is just so clever and outgoing!

I am just so worried, i dont know what to do, i find it extremely hard to believe that i should even be considering quitting work in order to 'be better off' but that the way it is! I am thinking of asking the nursery if they have any work there and then i get reduced fees and although i would get much less wages i would get help for the nusrsery fees and get to spend time with my youngest son whom i miss terribly!

Also my partner doesnt drive either so he cant get out at all, to do any shopping or take the kids anywhere, and we live out in the sticks! We were planning on getting some driving lessons soon but cant even afford that now either!

am i well and truly knackered???

thanks again

Feisty!

jellyhead

sorry if this doesn't seem like a very helpful post, but i'm wondering why you spend £550 a month on nursery bills if hubby doesn't even earn a quarter of that in a year? wouldn't it be best if hubby gave up work? just a thought ... how far out in the sticks are you? even if you cut the nursery right down to the hours when hubby is working then used taxis or buses would that be cheaper than what you're doing now? why doesn't your hubby earn more? could he look for a full time job if you're using full time childcare?

when your youngest is 3 there will be some help with funding for nursery, so not long to wait for that. i think it's for 2 and a half hours per day.

Spendless

As me and others have mentioned there is non-means tested funding the term after childs 3rd birthday that you can use towards nursery fees. The private nurseries I know count 1 session in the morning, and another in the afternoon. You have to pay the difference. So if you work 2 full days you could have 4 sessions paid for in total, that's if your nursery does it this way,. I know other members have said that other places only funded 2 and a half per day. You can have 12 and a half hours in total per week for so many weeks of the year (the equivalent of putting them in a schoool nursery).

Whilst this doesn't help you now it's worth considering next year. The other option is if either workplace offer childcare vouchers. You can salary sacrifice upto £50 a week in return for childcare vouchers and the £50 you've sacrificed is exempt of tax and NI.

You can also use childcare vouchers in conjunction with the funding at 3.

Feisty_Fairy

Hi again everyone

Sorry i made a typo in my last post! Partner was earning, 13000 and is now earning 13500 and i was earning 15500 last year and now earn 17750. I am wondering if i should get a little part time job and even though we will be better off than we are at the mo, at least i will see my kids! We live out in the sticks! We actually live on an estate which consists of just 90 houses, 3 prisons, loads of fields and no through road!

My little one is not even 2 yet so its a fair way off till we get the nusrery help mentioned, but like you all said its something that will come in handy late next year.

I just dont know waht to do, i need to be able to cover my loan (car, £200 per month), council tax, car insurance, phone bill, the list is endless!

i am getting really down about it now, i already feel i spend too much time away from my kids as it is so me staying in a job i hate to work my !!!!!! off for basically nothing seems even more pointless!

hope someone can give me some more advice! Thanks again for thos of you who have already tried to help me!

Feisty!

Spendless

Hi

well if you can't get any more childcare help via tax credit system and the funding at 3 won't come in till next year, the other alternative is the childcare vouchers I've mentioned previously.

Is it worth asking if your and/or OH employer do them? Or if they are prepared to.You are allowed to both salary sacrifice for the same child (if both employers offer these vouchers) and you can use them for more than one childcare provider (if for example your older child has after school care).

My daughter attends a private nursery one afternoon a week and I asked if they would accept them there (as my hubbys employer offers them). They said yes I'd just need their registration number.

Have you also looked round the site for help on reducing your phone/utililities bill,any debt you may have. Also look on the Oldstyle board for ideas about reducing your grocery bill.

jellyhead

ah i see, the typo makes all the difference lol! hmmm ... how much do you hate your job? try putting some figures into https://www.entitledto.co.uk and see how much help you'd get if you gave up work. i think you'd have to work part time for 16 hours at least, otherwise you'd get no help with childcare. 16 hours at minimum wage would be £77.60 a week (£4035.20 a year) and there wouldn't be any tax or NI to pay on that amount. of course you can't say for definite what your hours, wages or childcare would be because you could be working in school hours, evenings etc. so wouldn't know which children would be in childcare when but you could make some guesses and see how the figures affect the finances. remember if it's a daytime job you'll need childcare for both in school holidays. or just see what the figures would be if you gave up work completely and did all the childcare yourself.

can you do your current job part time do you think? what would you like to be doing in 3 years time when your youngest is in school - assuming that you're not planning any more babies. would you like to still be working, would you miss your old job? if so it might be worth asking if you can do it part time instead of giving it up completely.

there are comparison websites such as uswitch who will tell you if there's a cheaper fuel supplier in your postcode. i did it and switched to powergen. they give tesco points for switching, and also points on the money you pay them every month but even without the points they are the cheapest for me.