Income & Expenditure

Scarlett.1974

Would anyone mind casting their eyes over our I&E and telling what they think please? I did post this on my diary too, but I think it may be a bit lost in there

Incoming:
H incapacity benefit - £310
My salary - £758 (net)
Tax Credit - £593
DLA (son) - £186
DLA (H) - £147
Child Benefit - £131
Maintenance for son - £120
Total - £2250

Outgoing
Rent - £620
Council tax - £105
Gas - £45
Electric - £27
Water - £39
Contents Insurance - £6
TV Licence - £11
Petrol - £40 (we won't have a car, the one we have now is on finance and we're not paying it so they can re-posess it. This cost is for H to borrow my Dad's car at the weekends to collect and drop off his son who lives 25 miles away)
Car insurance - £20 (as above, to be added onto my Dad's insurance)
BT phone - £28
My mobile - £30
Daughter mobile - £15
Pet insurance - £5
Food / Housekeeping - £450
Clothing - £145
Holidays - £80
Hairdressing - £30
Pets - £15
Care needs son - £186
Care needs H - £147
Child costs and expenses - £131
Total - £2175

A couple of questions:

1. You will see I have listed BT, my mobile and daughter's mobile seperately. I am assuming the OR will not allow both mobiles. I read on another thread that up to £55 a month is "allowed" for phone. Would I better off making BT £55 a month, my mobile £18 a month and leaving off daughter's phone altogether?

2. Have I done the correct thing in listing the DLA payments and child benefit payments under the outgoings like I have?

We don't have any dry cleaning costs because H doesn't work and I work from home. We also don't have any dental/prescriptions/opticians costs because we are exempt from these due to our tax credits.

Many thanks

NekoZombie

IMHO some of your expenditure seems high, but it looks like you have special needs an tbh I have no idea how the OR will approach that.

Scarlett.1974

Thanks for your reply NekoZombie

Are you referring to the last 3 entries on the 'outgoings'? The reason I did that was I was told that DLA and Child Benefit don't 'count' towards income, but I guessed I should list them anyway. Is there anything else you think looks high?

Richard_S

Scarlett.1974 wrote: »

A couple of questions:

1. You will see I have listed BT, my mobile and daughter's mobile seperately. I am assuming the OR will not allow both mobiles. I read on another thread that up to £55 a month is "allowed" for phone. Would I better off making BT £55 a month, my mobile £18 a month and leaving off daughter's phone altogether?

2. Have I done the correct thing in listing the DLA payments and child benefit payments under the outgoings like I have?

We don't have any dry cleaning costs because H doesn't work and I work from home. We also don't have any dental/prescriptions/opticians costs because we are exempt from these due to our tax credits.

Many thanks

Hi Scarlett,

It seems o.k to me, and given that the O.R doesn't take benefits into account for calculating an IPA then you should be fine. In response to your questions:

1. I would be tempted to put BT up to £55 and leave your daughter's mobile out.
2. That's the most transparent way of showing benefits; if you don't include them then it skews your Budget, and the way you've accounted for it is perfectly straightforward.

The O.R might be tempted to reduce some of your expenditure, but I wouldn't have thought by much, and an IPA really is a remote possibility.

Regards

Richard

Scarlett.1974

Many thanks Richard

Right, onto the next section <wipes brow in dramatic fashion>

Scarlett.1974

<boing> for wherediditallgo

debt_doctor

Dont forget that child tax credit does not count for IPA purposes as income, If they try to give you an IPA dont sign it and post all the details on here.

DD

tigerfeet2006

Scarlett you haven't allowed anythig for birthday's and christmas. I am assuming you get a lot of your dentistry/opticians/prescriptions for free.

Is your contents insurance really that low?

Scarlett.1974

DD - thank you, I HAD forgotten about that. From our tax credits, about 80% (I don't know for definite without getting the paperwork out) of it IS the Child Tax element

Tigerfeet - I didn't put anything for xmas/birthdays because I didn't think it would be allowed because I've put food and holidays quite high and I was also wary of making the income *too* close to the expenditure amount. Do you think it's worth putting in too then? How much would you recommend?

That's right, we have an exemption certificate due to the high rate of tax credits we receive, so don't pay for prescriptions, dental or opticians.

Yes, it really is that low! Churchill if you're interested! I used to pay £42 a month for buildings & contents through Direct Line and changed to Churchill for £18 for both. When I called to cancel the Buildings part when we moved in here, that's what the contents on it's own came out as!

Thanks,
Scarlett xx

tigerfeet2006

Scarlett just pop £20-30 down for birthdays/christmas and the same for personal expenses. This brings you closer to your total but not completely and gives you a bit of lee way if the OR starts disallowing or reducing things.

Thanks for the tip:) did you do it through Quidco?

Scarlett.1974

Thanks tigerfeet, I'll do that

I did indeed and got £70 cashback for my trouble