A few questions re mother leaving work to care for child.

munkee

Hi

I've done a few searches and trawled citizensinformation.ie, but can't seem to find specific answers to my questions. And boards seems to have replaced Citizen's Advice Bureaus too

My partner and I have a young baby, and she's due to restart work next month. We've looked at the cost of childcare, and by paying childcare she'll effectively be working for very little take home pay. We would both also prefer to have her look after our daughter.

We're now considering the option of her leaving work altogether for a few years. We realise the child benefit entitlement will remain the same, and we're aware that if you leave work voluntarily there's a 9 week delay in social welfare payment.

Two questions:

1. What are the rules for someone who leaves work and is caring for a child? All the literature states you have to be actively seeking work, but there must be some allowance for mothers.

2. Would means testing take into account bank loans that you owe? I realise we'd be means tested based on the household income.
On my salary alone we could get by if we had no loans, but with the loans that we have, living just on my salary would leave us with about 20 euro a week for the household.

Really appreciate helpful answers, as it's hard to get specific information, and it's a bit of a worry.

Xiney

munkee wrote: »

1. What are the rules for someone who leaves work and is caring for a child? All the literature states you have to be actively seeking work, but there must be some allowance for mothers.

If you are not actively seeking work you are not eligible for a jobseeker's payment. You'll have to look at this as a cost/benefit. The cost will be your wife's pay, but the benefit will be a child that spends more than an hour with his/her parents every day.

munkee wrote: »

2. Would means testing take into account bank loans that you owe? I realise we'd be means tested based on the household income.
On my salary alone we could get by if we had no loans, but with the loans that we have, living just on my salary would leave us with about 20 euro a week for the household.

Means testing does not take loans into account I'm afraid. Visit MABs, they may be able to help you consolidate your loans into a more workable payment plan.

Good luck

blossom180

your partner will get no benefit as she will not be lookin for work as she is staying at home to look after baby.if she has been working 4 a number of yrs it would be benefit and not means tested,your income would not come into it,unfortunately there is no allowance 4 stay at home mothers.if she were in a position 2 be made reduntant her claim would be accepted,hope some of this is helpful 2 you

munkee

Thanks for the responses.

So, it appears there is no allowance for stay at home mums (pretty appalling IMO).

blossom180 wrote: »

if she has been working 4 a number of yrs it would be benefit and not means tested,your income would not come into it..if she were in a position 2 be made reduntant her claim would be accepted

My partner has been working for a number of years. Are you saying Jobseeker's Benefit is not means tested?

If so, this could be an option for us, as her employer may be willing to make her redundant- they are trying to save money on staff costs currently.

Xiney

however, if she goes on jobseeker's benefit without actively seeking work, she is actively committing fraud.

galwaygirleen

What about seeing are ye eligible for Family income supplement?

munkee

galwaygirleen wrote: »

What about seeing are ye eligible for Family income supplement?

What exactly is that?

echosound

munkee wrote: »

Thanks for the responses.

So, it appears there is no allowance for stay at home mums (pretty appalling IMO).

You can claim a homecarers tax credit (think that's the correct term) and if you are married she can transfer some tax credits over to you, meaning you will have a little extra in your paypacket.

FIS - see link here

if she's giving up work to look after your child then no, she's not eligible for JB or JA as she's not seeking work.

Mrs OBumble

munkee wrote: »

So, it appears there is no allowance for stay at home mums (pretty appalling IMO).

The "allowance" for stay-at-home-parents (either gender) is their partner's income!

If, and only if, their partner doesn't have an income (eg becomes unemployed), then the partner will get a supplementary allowance on top of the standard benefit, and this allowance will have a component for the partner and for the child(ren).

I know a few people who've calculated what it would take to give every stay-at-home-parent an allowance. Generally warm-fuzzy-social-activist-feminist types who sincerely believed there should be such an allowance. To a woman, they've come to the conclusion that the cost would be absolutely unsustainable, and that's without allowing for unintended-consequences (eg the vast rise in numbers of stay-at-home-parents, and births).

OP, you really should have worked all this out before all this out before you got pregnant. I know this advice is not use to you now, but others in the same situation please take note: if you're going to have the kid, you really should make sure you can afford to take care of 'em.

fasterkitten

munkee wrote: »

Thanks for the responses.

So, it appears there is no allowance for stay at home mums (pretty appalling IMO).




My partner has been working for a number of years. Are you saying Jobseeker's Benefit is not means tested?

If so, this could be an option for us, as her employer may be willing to make her redundant- they are trying to save money on staff costs currently.

Why appalling? Because it happens to affect you at the moment? How could the State afford to pay people not to work and not to seek work (and why should they)? I would think that CB is quite a generous allowance anyway.

munkee

Just getting back to check this today.

JustMary wrote: »

OP, you really should have worked all this out before all this out before you got pregnant.

Should I? You really should learn not to give 'advice' to people you know nothing about.

We can afford to take care of our child, and before she was born we just planned on my partner going back to work. We've now decided that we would prefer not to put her in a creche. We will find a way to do this, because it's more important to us than having slightly more disposable income for the few years before she goes to school.

fasterkitten wrote: »

Why appalling? Because it happens to affect you at the moment?

No, because, in my opinion, it should be an option for a parent to care for a child, and in an ideal world there would be some carer's allowance to enable that. I'd happily see my taxes go towards a workable scheme like that.

In our case, if we aren't entitled to benefit, we'll work it out somehow.

Moonbeam

There is an extra tax credit that you can claim
http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/it/credits/home-carers.html#section1