Another HB Query, sorry!

Hi,

Am hoping someone can help me as all the calculators I use seem to give me conflicting information.

I am currently on maternity leave, therefore in receipt of £135.45 SMP per week. My husband earns £162.60 per week and we receive £108.05 CTC per week (3 children) and £47.10 CB per week.

Our rent is £675.00 pcm (private landlord) and LHA is £150.00 for a 3 bed house.

The council calculator says £122.00 HB per week, while turn2us and Gov.uk say about £25.00 per week.

Does anyone know which is right?

Comments

  • pmlindyloo
    pmlindyloo Posts: 13,049
    Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post
    Forumite
    Put your details in to the benefit calculator on here:

    http://www.turn2us.org.uk/benefits_search.aspx

    This will give you a very good idea.

    Don't forget that your LHA is £150 per week. You need to be careful with this.
  • Hi,

    I did try turn to us but, it's saying about £25 per week, I just can't understand the disparity between it and what the council's own calculator is saying.

    Things are getting pretty tight here I don't mind admitting. so don't want an over inflated expectation!

    Husband was promised more hours before I went on mat leave and his company have failed to honour it, choosing to take on more part-timers instead, which has rather left us up the proverbial creek.
  • CAB_Wyre_Forest_representative
    CAB_Wyre_Forest_representative Posts: 117 Organisation Representative
    Hi,

    Am hoping someone can help me as all the calculators I use seem to give me conflicting information.

    I am currently on maternity leave, therefore in receipt of £135.45 SMP per week. My husband earns £162.60 per week and we receive £108.05 CTC per week (3 children) and £47.10 CB per week.

    Our rent is £675.00 pcm (private landlord) and LHA is £150.00 for a 3 bed house.

    The council calculator says £122.00 HB per week, while turn2us and Gov.uk say about £25.00 per week.

    Does anyone know which is right?

    Hello Charmcaster
    It's of course very difficult to do a benefits calculation without knowing a lot more about your circumstances. However, your joint income would be assessed against the appropriate personal allowance. The PA for an adult couple with no disabilities and no disabled children is £111.45 pw. Any income in excess of your PA is then used to calculate a "taper". If your income were £150pw and your PA £100 pw, then the excess is £50 and 65% of this (£32.50) would be deducted from your Housing Allowance.
    It would seem to be more likely that the lower figure from turn2us (which CAB use) is closer to the correct figure than that you got from your council calculator.
    Your local CAB office would be happy to do the calculation with you if that would help.
    Official CAB Representative
    I am an official representative of CAB. MSE has given permission for me to post in response to questions on the CAB Board. You can see my name on the companies with permission to post list. If you believe I’ve broken any rules please report my post to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com as usual"
  • pmlindyloo
    pmlindyloo Posts: 13,049
    Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post
    Forumite
    Did turn2us say that you were getting the right amount of tax credits?

    You say that you receive child tax credits. Do you not receive working tax credit? If you didn't because your annual salary was too high, have you notified then about your change of circumstances - that you are on maternity leave and asked for a recalculation?
  • Hello both,

    Thanks for taking the time to reply. We don't receive WTC, I did update tax credits with an estimate for us both this year (12/13) of £18K which, I believe, takes us just over the WTC threshold. As it stands I think we'll be coming in at about £17K come April. I was allowing a bit of leeway to avoid an overpayment.

    TCO are also clawing back an overpayment so, where our tax credits should be £165.00 per week, they are now £108.00.

    None of us are disabled, thankfully!

    All this is out of my spectrum of understanding tbh. Earnings for 11/12 were £27K jointly.
  • pmlindyloo
    pmlindyloo Posts: 13,049
    Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post
    Forumite
    I do understand about not wishing to cause an overpaymnt just trying to get you some more money during this period of time!

    You did deduct £100 per week from your maternity pay in the estimate for tax credits didn't you? - as the first £100 a week is disregarded.
  • pmlindyloo wrote: »
    I do understand about not wishing to cause an overpaymnt just trying to get you some more money during this period of time!

    You did deduct £100 per week from your maternity pay in the estimate for tax credits didn't you? - as the first £100 a week is disregarded.

    Yes, I did deduct £3,900 from my expected earnings for this year when estimating for TC.

    What a nightmare, £456.00 a week sounds like an awful lot but taking out £675.00 rent and £145.00 council tax monthly, doesn't actually leave that much when allowing for all other bills.

    Thanks for your help.
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 342.5K Banking & Borrowing
  • 249.9K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 449.4K Spending & Discounts
  • 234.6K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 607.1K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 172.8K Life & Family
  • 247.4K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 15.8K Discuss & Feedback
  • 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards