Babies and Benefits

[Rosie1974]

My partner brings in �1000 per month, I bring in �1100. both working full time. We have outgoings jointly (excluding mortgage) of �1700/mth. We are trying to work out what size mortgage repayment we can afford if I had a baby and cut my income by �500 month. Does anyone know roughly how much in benefits (namely tax credits) we would get with one child? I am aware child benefit is �18/week. Would the benefits be anywhere near the 500 I would be loosing? We would have no savings. Any advice would be much appreciated !!

[Hawkwalk]

payments vary - see here for details
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/MoneyTaxAndBenefit s/TaxCreditsandChildBenefit/TaxCredits/DG_4015 483

you will not get anywhere near �500 per month. Your outgoings are very high and only leaving you with �400 per month at the moment. If you drop your income by �500 and continue with these outgoings you will be in debt very quickly.

[tigwig]

To say you are excluding your mortgage from that figure you have massive outgoings! Does that include shopping, petrol and general living expenses or just other bills? When I first had my baby 3 years ago I got �150 per month benefits including child benefit and then my hubby earnt arond �25,000 pa so I shouldn't imagine you would get much more certainly not �500. the only people who do get that amount in benefits are people who can't or won't work, us ordinary folk who carfully work out if we can afford a baby before having one get b*gger all

[Rosie1974]

Tigwig and Hawkwalk thanks for your comments, yes I agree with you Tigwig us honest folk who try to be sensible and work out what we can afford end up getting b*gg8r all help.
Yes we were shocked by our outgoings once we sat down and wrote everything down. That figure of 1700/mth does include �335 put aside for holidays which will obviously come down if we had a baby. We both agreed we are not extravagant in our expenditure, except maybe the holidays, the figure includes all outgoings so petrol, food, leisure, insurance all included plus a bit added on for higher bill payments with a bigger house.
I will go to that link and think some more.
Many thanks.

[Rosie1974]

I should add I'm thinking some more about what size mortgage we can afford, not whether we can "afford" a baby - if one comes along that would be wonderful and you can't put a price on love!

[taperface]

Rosie - you obviously want a child & good luck to you, but you should be looking at a small, affordable place at first - or maybe renting until your incomes increase. Why put yourselves into further debt? Have a child, stay at home and care for it yourself - there's no price on the richness which'll engulf your lives.

[Rosie1974]

Thanks Taperface.
Our incomes won't go up due to the type of work we do, we aren't going to get promotions or anything.
We have sold my partners 1 bed house and are looking to get a 3 bed ideally or a 2 bed with potential to extend in the future. There is a lovely spacious 3 bed which we could afford now but possibly not if baby came along and mortgage rates went up. But should we be looking that far into the future (10 years - when a fixed rate mortgage deal would end). But then I worry if we go for a 2 bed with no potential to extend, in 10 years time we may not be able to afford to move up another step on the property ladder especially if house prices soar. We do live in a fairly pricey area in the south west.
Grrrrrr.

[taperface]

Bless you Rosie - You're trying to do all the right things, but once that little baby comes along, the material side of things won't seem to matter so much. People live on far less than what you have already - and still manage to bring up decent, wonderful children. As time goes by, you'll get what you can afford. The fact that your wages probably won't go up a lot, might seem quite worrying right now, but once you have your family - none of that seems to matter so much. The very best of luck to you.

[Rosie1974]

Ahh Thanks Taperface, wise words.
The latest disagreement we've been having is me saying how our holidays will change once a baby comes along - we won't be needing the �300 per month which we currently save, and this could go towards the mortgage. my partner likes coach holidays 3 times a year and we do splash out and go to Jersey when we can, we are on the go the whole time cramming as much in as possible. He thinks that we will still have 4 hols per year and says we should put away the same amount of money as "Hols are vital for wellbeing". I agree about the wellbeing but surely its obvious that with a baby one good hol is probably all we can manage financially and that hol will be spent doing different things to what we do without a child in tow.
Arghhhh.

[joko]

you will not get any benefits.

you are rather well off by all accounts so wont qualify - especially as you are still working.

My sister gets nothing and her boyfriends 350-400 a week was deemed enough to support all 3 of them.

I am actually surprised you think you should get benefits at all - just so you can buy a nice big house... you are trying to plan beyond your means in the hope that the governement will pay for that bit extra!

[taperface]

Rosie - It may not be of much help to you here, but before having my family, I was fortunate enough to have 5 holidays a year - plus weekends abroad. Holidays ARE important if you both go out to work, but once a child comes along - a) you will never have as many as you do now, and b) things change radically! Your whole outlook'll change when you have a baby, & if either of you'll feel resentment that you can't do things "as you used to do", it might be wise to put off having a family until you get the freedom out of your systems. I do so hope you decide that a baby's more important than hols & money.