A question about : Please help, I've never had these problems before
Good Afternoon,
I'm after all the advice I can get at the moment. I feel very worried, I will explain whats happened.
I work full time (i'm a newly single mum) and I have an 8 year old son and 3 year old daughter. My son is Disabled and I recieve High Rate Care and low Rate Mobility for him. My Wages after the childcare bring in Ј1000. I receieve Ј520 in working Tax credits (disabilty element) along with child maintenance/benefit.
I also own another property from many years ago which brings in Ј3500 a year profit.
The house I'm in at the moment is still in joint names with my ex but he is not allowed to the property and I need to arrange before September that the house is signed over (its in negative equity, interest only and I had put all the deposit into the house).
My son is very very ill now and has been in a locked unit for 9 weeks suffering with a mental illness. The social worker has come round today and said that if he is to come home I will need to be home to care for him. I know a childminder would not be an option now with all his conditions.
Please could someone give me an idea of whats best to do, part time work, or leaving work to care for him? I'm really scared I wont be able to pay all my bills.
Thank you for reading x
Best answers:
- what a terrible time for you
I guess much will depend on what you intend to do re the house come September. If negative equity and looking to have over to your name only you would likely need a deposit to get the LTV down and also an income sufficient to qualify for the mortgage in your name
Re part time or leaving work, you can model the different scenarios on entitledto or similar site
The second property may have an effect on means tested benefits if you chose to leave work (eg if the equity is over Ј16k then you would not receive income support or SMI help with mortgage interest payments) you would lose your working tax credits so would have your child tax credits, income from the rented property and maintenance together with your son's DLA and carers allowance - Im hoping he will go back to school, but I just dont know at the moment. Everthing is up in the air.. I currently pay my mortgage which is Ј520 a month interest only. Im thinking if he did go to school I could manage a few hours. Or i'm not sure if the other household income could be classed as the job?
Ive worked hard all my life so I just trying to figure out what my options are and what I need to do. Thank you Poppie x - Several issues.
Means tested benefits.
The house you own which you do not live in will count as capital for means-tested benefits - so these would not generally be claimable.
This would mean that income support and support for mortgage interest is not payable.
I think carers allowance may be payable, and rental income does not count for this (needs checking).
This is however only 61 pounds a week. This does not come with any mortgage help.
You could in principle earn up to 102 pounds a week alongside this.
https://www.gov.uk/carers-allowance/eligibility has more details.
How secure a tenancy does the rental house have?
If you're in negative equity - moving there might in principle be an option opening up more support. - Oh what a big mess :/ I wonder if working the 16 hours would be a better option for Tax credits? Just trying to find a happy medium.
Need to win the lottery lol.. things were so different last year - Have social services done an assessment of your sons care needs at home? They should do that and then once they work out what care he needs, they will carry out a financial assessment to see what your contribution is.
You need to press for that to happen as a starting point.
Of course it may be you want to do the care yourself, but this might allow you some support to work at least part time if you want to.
IQ - I totally agree. You have a serious problem and it would be best to talk with professionals dealing with such and similar issues.
- Would selling your rental property and using the profit to pay down the mortgage be an option? Depe.nding on the figures it might enable you to keep your current property
- I'm not sure how soon your son is being released from hospital, but if he is there for much longer his DLA may stop. I believe (thank you google - https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/hospital-...-your-benefits ) that for a child under 16 the cut of point is 12 weeks in hospital.
- I was going to say the same regarding DLA, you will lose that and the higher tax credit disabililty rate if he is in long term hospital/care .
You could claim carers allowance, move into your second property but would be financially better off working part time and staying on the tax credits. - I know this might not be an option, but can his dad share some of the care? I have a disabled child, and it really wouldn't be an option in our case - dad lives too far away, and isn't interested in seeing the kids for more than a few hours on a Saturday. For some families, though, it can work. That way, you might be able to continue to work, maybe in a part time capacity, without compromising your son's care.
My friend's son has mental health problems, and has been in a locked unit for several weeks before now. I know that she hasn't had an easy time by any means.
Your daughter is likely to need extra attention when her brother returns home too - she will be used to having you to herself, and could find sharing you difficult to understand and deal with.
Whatever you decide to do, I wish you well. - Hi on the carers allowance notes from for DWP it says
Self Employment could mean:
rent from property or land you own.
I'm not sure what could means though??? - Hi,
Then I found this thread https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/....php?t=4083117 as long as it's one property and not run as a business it's not classed as income - I did think about Young Carers, but as the little girl is only three, there is likely to be too young. In my area, YC only starts at age 7.
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