Better off Financially living apart or as a couple?

A question about : Better off Financially living apart or as a couple?

Hi,

I currently live in my own council flat and my girlfriend lives in her flat with our 6 week old son. I am starting part time work ( 16-20 hours a week). and want to know if we as a family are better off living apart or together. she has a claim in for child benefit and is about to send off the form for child tax credit. she also recieves income support with a incapacity benefit top up totalling about Ј125 a week plus child benefit of Ј18.10 when it come through. I will be earning between Ј85 and Ј113 a week.

Would I be able to claim Working Tax Credit only working 16-20 hours a week

We are concerned about rent & Council tax costs if we live together.

Any help is much appreciated

C & A

Best answers:

• Wouldn't it be in the best interests of your child for you to all live together as a family? If you were to get a full time job you might even be able to support them.
• I'd rather not go into why we dont live together and why i can only work part time. thanks
• I thought this was a financial site and not a personal website and people should be helping with the question i asked and not asking about personal details. There are reasons as to why we dont live together at the moment.
  I just wanted to know if i was working part time and living with them would would my partner and son be better off financially?
• Margaret, with all due respect, the OP did not ask us to judge his family circumstances, just to give advice based upon what he asked. We don't know why his circumstances are the way they are and he does not have to tell us.
  djdoc, I don't know the answer - try putting your details into www.entitledto.co.uk and/or visiting a Welfare Rights Officer at the CAB.
  Hopefully someone will be along soon who can answer your question.
• Unless further details are provided it does sound an iffy question because people will get the impression that the aim is to maximise the benefit paid rather than live as a normal family.
• However, he will automatically be asked to pay child maintenance from the CSA at 15% of whatever his net income is. Also, it is actually collusive separation what you are doing to be honest - what you are asking is whether you will be better off together or apart and if apart you will remain so. That is not the right thing to do. I'm afraid I'm totally with Margaret on this one. If you are a couple and have a baby together then act like one and just take what you are entitled to as a family and don't concern yourselves with how much better off you might be as single people.
• I think I might 'separate' from my husband just to get more money. Off to the Tax Credit office then to make my claim....oh, and income support and council tax benefit and housing benefit, whilst still maintaining a relationship with my husband albeit by staying at his twice a week and him visiting me for conjugal rights....
• I have a history of violence and thats why we live seperately, although i am getting better at keeping my temper...and hope that soon we can live together as a family. I am also looking into starting my own business and thats why i am asking if we would be better off financially until the business provides us with the income we need to live on. so we dont have to rely on benefits just to survive......sorry if i wanted to keep that to myself but it is quite personal stuff. I'm not doing it for the financial gain although that is attractive till the business provides us with enough money to live on.
  Thanx Craig
• You'd be better off living together in my opinion, espescially in the first year.
  If you were living alone, then you wouldnt qualify for WTC as a single person living alone with no children/disability needs to be working 30+ hours per week, but if you were living with a child then you would only have to work 16 hours per week to get WTC
  Obviously she would lose her income support but the WTC would make up for that. I'm not sure how your income would affect the incapacity benefit but assuming it didnt, your HHincome would be around 12500/year, so you would still get a fair amount of CTC.
  The reason why I say that you'd be likely to be much better off in the first year is the tax credits 25k income disregard, where you can earn up to 25k more than you earned in the previous year, so if you didnt work last year, then the award would be based on would be the incapacity benefit.
  Sorry I didnt get to reading your mail earlier, as I would have given this answer without needing to pry into your circumstances. I try to be positive about people and assume that they are being honest rather than automatically assuming that they are trying to beat the system.
• yes but then the next year the tax credits would be based to the last years Ј20k earnngs and the op would get sod all tx credits.
  I'd advise people to phone and tell them as soon as income changes.
  Back to the op, if you work u'd have to pay maintenence wich she would only get Ј10 of, plus if you was only working 16 hours you would have to live on that with no tax credits as you would be a NRP.
• DJ
  I think the first thing you need to think about is your family (which you seem to be doing) theres no harm in you living apart whilst you sort yourself out, the financiall stuff really pales into comparison dont you think?
  If you were better off by alot would you move straight in or wait?
• My family are the most important thing to me yes, but i worry about there safety as i occasionally have a relapse ( its not physical anymore but i do get quite verbal). I'd rather they didnt have to see that side of me.
  But saying that i would love to live with them asap i just need to feel ready and confident in myself that i can be a good partner/dad.
  My partner has a spare room that i can use to calm myself down ( i think a trial run is order).
  Thank you all for your help( well those that helped and not griped)
  Craig