after some advice, to sell or not to sell??

chappers

Personally speaking I would think very seriously about taking the equity in your house and investing it in a new business.If your business goes belly up you will find your selves back to square one, you probaly can't borrow the money from anywhere as your OH is only earning "£13K". I hope his new boss is making it worth his while and paying him over £100 per week as a "bonus".
As his apparently low wage is maybe preventing you starting your business by maybe using unsecured borrowing.

mitchaa

duck_egg wrote: »

ok ok, now you've all given me a bashing without asking questions i'll attempt to explain!
he has one daughter from his previous marriage, his ex left him for someone else when his daughter was just 18 months old, she is now almost 14. £107 a week is a very very high amount but it seems in this country the more you earn, the worse off you become and his cash bonus although illegal is nowhere near £13,000 a year!!! his previous wage of £26,000 used to work out as follows....
his top line per week was £499, after deductions and csa he bought home just £274....we got no tax credits, no nhs help, nothing....we struggled to make ends meet and with 2 small children at home i was unable to work without using childcare.
his cash amount now keeps our heads above water and we pay a reasonable amount to the csa while continuing to have his daughter every weekend, giving her pocket money and providing uniforms, school books, school trip money and anything else we can afford to do, my husband is by no means shirking his financial responsibilty to his daughter and never has, in fact he has gone without for many years.

my original question was about selling the house and asking advice, not to be personally attacked. although having lurked on this board for the last few months i should have expected it really.

Are you aware that your husband has been paying way over the odds in the past?

£26,000 has a take home salary of £1620pm. £1620x12/52 = £373pw take home pay

For 1 child the CSA will take 15% of this (Amilliondollars - Mortgage payments and other expenses are not taken into account now)

15% of £373pw = £55.95pw

However it gets better,

You have 2 children of which he is a dependant for so you will receive a discount from the 15% down to 12% because of this so

12% of £373pw = £44.76pw

However it gets better again,

If you have his child every weekend for 1 night per week, you will receive a further discount from 12% at 1/7 for every night he/she stays over

So for 1 night per week = £38.37pw
For 2 nights per week = £31.97pw

Assuming your partner has his child every weekend, he should have been paying £32pw to CSA.

So if he was paying her £100pw, he was paying her far far too much.

It may be worthwhile thinking about going legit and doing things proper from now on. Saves all the hassle with on the side payments etc.

Additionally you've just said, he's been offered a job for £21k. Well £21k equates to £309 pw so he would have to pay the CSA £26pw for his other child.

Have a look here and put in the details yourself..

https://secureonline.dwp.gov.uk/csa/v2/en/calculate-maintenance.asp

Basically you've been had with £100pw payments;)

Now you know what you need to be paying, is £26pw really unreasonable? I think not Go legit and save yourself all the bother with doing things illegaly.

nixinix

Just read this thread, and mitchaa seems to have been very thorough Assuming there were no other reasons as to why you had to pay £100 per week before can you claim any monies back? (I am fortunately not in a position to know much about the CSA) Also do you not receive money for your children from their father? sorry I know you wanted advice about selling up.

Personally my priority, as a mom with young children, is school catchment areas ect - so if you did sell up can you afford the rent for a property in a good school area? Also the economy is not at its strongest so please consider if now is a good time to go self employed (after mitchaa post hopefully you maybe could postpone this thought until a better time??) My biggest worry would be what if you invested all/most of your money in the business and it failed and you lost everything (of course it may succeed and you may become millionaires ) but I believe you need to be prepared to deal with the worst...if you have thought it all through and are prepared for the worst as well as the best are then go for it, if not then don't....I've waffled loads, sorry, and been distraced by small children, so I hope this makes sense..... good luck in whatever your choice...it's not easy trying to make the 'best' decisions for your family is it?

duck_egg_3

thanks michaa....just rang the csa with the info you supplied but apparentyl that doean't apply to us as we are on the old system! pre 2003 people are assessed on an individual basis which means we would be paying around £60 a week on a £21,000 salary. I agree totally though, £26 a week is more than a fair amount to pay and i'd happily hand that over for an easier life!!!

Apparently we can only move on to the new system if dh's ex requests it, this is highly unlikely but something i will look into!!

just to add, our assessment was £85 per week on £26,000, the extra came from arrears which we have been trying to appeal against as we have no idea how they have come about......been waiting over 12 months for a breakdown of said arrears!!!

duck_egg_3

nixinix wrote: »

do you not receive money for your children from their father?

unfortunately not, he has never paid a penny in maintenance and has dodged it by being unemployed and then self employed!!!

mitchaa

duck_egg wrote: »

thanks michaa....just rang the csa with the info you supplied but apparentyl that doean't apply to us as we are on the old system! pre 2003 people are assessed on an individual basis which means we would be paying around £60 a week on a £21,000 salary. I agree totally though, £26 a week is more than a fair amount to pay and i'd happily hand that over for an easier life!!!

Apparently we can only move on to the new system if dh's ex requests it, this is highly unlikely but something i will look into!!

just to add, our assessment was £85 per week on £26,000, the extra came from arrears which we have been trying to appeal against as we have no idea how they have come about......been waiting over 12 months for a breakdown of said arrears!!!

At the moment you are giving her £26pm, it would be in her best interests if you switched over to the new system. Just inform her of what she will get if she does so

nixinix

duck_egg - could your dh talk to his ex and try and sort it out. we do seem to have digressed from your original point though! I have to say the CSA system seems very unfair with one rule for one (pre 2003) and one for another...prob. won't change anything but you could complain to your local MP....