something wrong

SLSKKJ

we have applied for tax credits to assit with the cripling costs of child care £170 p/w- my son is under 2 and we both work full time but with a joint income of £38K- commision also makes it that I can earn an extra £10K but only if I do really well- I dont even want to broach the nightmare that performance related pay schemes cause this system.

however i have a company car which not only means I pay extra tax every month but I get less tax credits as it is seen as a benefit, thought it is essential for the job. once we do the math and take the mortgage etc out of the equation it leaves us only £50 p/w to pay all of the weekly bills (and nappies arent cheap!)

we have been told that even with the cost of the child care and fuel for my wife to work totaling more than her monthly salary we are still only entitled to £10.10 a week!!

I was under the impression that the system was designed to help people stay in work and not make it better off for them to be out of work. :mad:

alison999

im sorry but 38K is A LOT OF MONEY! maybe it is because your income is so high that you cant claim any help with childcare?

Mips

alison999 wrote: »

im sorry but 38K is A LOT OF MONEY! maybe it is because your income is so high that you cant claim any help with childcare?

Wrong. On a combined income of over 40k we can still claim over 1k a month in childcare for me to work full time.

I worked out I would have to top my childcare up by only £87 a week - I do have 3 kids though and that is based on £350 a week childcare costs.

alison999

Dippychick wrote: »

Wrong. On a combined income of over 40k we can still claim over 1k a month in childcare for me to work full time.

I worked out I would have to top my childcare up by only £87 a week - I do have 3 kids though and that is based on £350 a week childcare costs.

maybe it depends where you live, with the cost of living and things??? i really dont know but my and my partner are on minimum wage so to me if you get £38k, plus a chance to get another 10K you may as well be a trillion billionaire lol the thing with tax credits is though it doesnt take into account the cost of your mortgage/rent.

SLSKKJ

once you take the cost of living out of our total income we are in the minus- I know £38K sounds alot but the cost of living is the reason we are now struggling- my wifes fuel bill has went up by nearly £50p/m which has a huge impact yet the tax credits seem to have gone the opposite way for us.

nb because of the type of car I am given- which I have little say in I pay an extra £150 per month tax! (or so I believe from my payslips)- so my whopping salary quiclky shrinks- but the real nighmare begins when you earn bonus as this totaly confuses the already complicated system-

I supose that my main gripe is that the system seems unfair to someone in my circumstance- we seem to be caught in a wage bracket where we need to either dramatically decrease/increase our income.

mouseymousey99

I wonder if you would get some help on the debt free board? If you were to list ingoings and outgoings perhaps someone on there could help? It sounds like a lot of dosh - but if you are paying out for mortgage/insurance/c cards etc there may be a way to help with the outgoings?

[Deleted User]

Dippychick wrote: »

Wrong. On a combined income of over 40k we can still claim over 1k a month in childcare for me to work full time.

I worked out I would have to top my childcare up by only £87 a week - I do have 3 kids though and that is based on £350 a week childcare costs.

This is wrong, the maximum you would EVER get in childcare costs from TCO is £240 p/w (80% of £300).

If you claim costs for one child you will get up to a maximum of 80% of costs of up to £175 which equates to £140p/w.

If you claim costs for more than one child you will get up to a maximum of 80% of costs up to £300 which equates to £240 p/w.

So in short, 1 child = max £140 and 2+ children = max £240.

You may receive more if you have more children and/or if anyone in the household receives any disability elements of Tax Credits.

Oldernotwiser

alison999 wrote: »

im sorry but 38K is A LOT OF MONEY! maybe it is because your income is so high that you cant claim any help with childcare?

I think that you've misread the post; 38K is the combined salary for 2 people, both working full time, not the OP alone. Hardly a trillionaire!

mitchaa

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

I think that you've misread the post; 38K is the combined salary for 2 people, both working full time, not the OP alone. Hardly a trillionaire!

No, in the eyes of benefits £38k combined is a lot of money.

For example the basic entitlement to CTC is set at around £21k combined (for 1 child)

£21k combined so person A earns £11k and person B earns £10500k then they will be deemed to 'wealthy' in order to receive the additional rate of CTC.

mitchaa

Dippychick wrote: »

Wrong. On a combined income of over 40k we can still claim over 1k a month in childcare for me to work full time.

I worked out I would have to top my childcare up by only £87 a week - I do have 3 kids though and that is based on £350 a week childcare costs.

That is purely based on you having 3 children and the amount it costs you in childcare costs.

£350pw x 51 = £17,850 pa in childcare

The government pay £13,437 and you pay £4,437

You are only entitled to this due to you having high costs, a couple earning £40k with only 1 child and say £150pw costs wouldn't be entitled to a penny. They would have to try and get their employer to use the childcare voucher salary sacrafice scheme in order to make savings.

Mips

mitchaa wrote: »

That is purely based on you having 3 children and the amount it costs you in childcare costs.

£350pw x 51 = £17,850 pa in childcare

The government pay £13,437 and you pay £4,437

You are only entitled to this due to you having high costs, a couple earning £40k with only 1 child and say £150pw costs wouldn't be entitled to a penny. They would have to try and get their employer to use the childcare voucher salary sacrafice scheme in order to make savings.

I think that is unfair - incidentally I never intended to have 3 children so young but I was blessed with Twins.

I am self-employed but we are struggling so I am just grateful that if I go back to work full time, we can bring in over £120 a week although my poor kids wont see us as much.