please some advice

cookie82

First of all my apologies if this thread is in the wrong place im not too good at this.... along with a lot of other people my family have suffered the joys of the recession. i became unemployed 12 moths ago and was told last week my stamp runs out at the end of february & am not entitled to the dole because my hubby earns more than €495 a week. Im gutted as this payed our household bills and groceries. i cant find work anywhere & am at the end of my rope with the social welfare office. Can anyone advise me if there is any tax my husband can claim having me & our 2 kids as dependents? we are lucky to have a medical card also but he is being charged usc 2% 4% & 7% i have read that the 7% doesn't apply to medical card holders are we being penilised again because we are married? I have no idea where to go now as im new to applying for government aid so far all doors have been shut in our face & our mortgage not being considered at all. I would really appreciate anyones advice as im a young mum about to go insane. Apologies again if this is out of place.

nicky chick

Sorry to hear your struggling i am in much the same boat myself. Dont know too much about it but have you looked into FIS

cookie82

thanks.. we were refused fis last year when hubby was out of work and i was only doing a 3 day week. i couldnt understand the reason they refused us as we were genuinely struggling. then we were both out of work & i tried again & was refused because we were both on social benefits. i will be trying for it again though all i can get is a no. its very unfair even if they only gave me €100 a week id be happy my gas and esb paid id be a happy girl. Wish i was a bit better at what to claim and where to go. hopefully we will both learn something if someone can answer my question.

Pandoras Twist

Talk to the bank about going interest only on your mortgage

barneystinson

Have you had a look at the Citizens Information Bureau website, http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/
I've always found it very useful.

And they have information centres around the country, I'm sure they'd see you right:
http://centres.citizensinformation.ie/

I'm no expert in the area of benefits etc.., and would never advocate it, but it's entirely possible that ye may be better off if your hubby wasn't working at all, and the state had to support your family entirely... And that's a serious flaw in our Welfare State, "rewarding" unemployment and punishing low income families.

Best of luck with it all anyway.

namenotavailablE

If you have a medical card, your husband should bring it to his payroll office or employer.

The maximum USC for medical card holders is 4% so his employer should reduce future USC deductions. For earlier pay periods, I think (not 100% sure) that you must wait until Dec 31 to sort out any refunds.

Other ideas:
Make sure that your husband is getting the maximum tax credits and tax bands. As you are not working, he might be able to ask the tax office to allocate the maximum possible values of each to his own employment. You or he'll need to probably call or visit the tax office (whichever is handiest- personally, I tend to visit mine as it's not too busy compared to other offices) to do that and probably should take evidence of each person's PPS number (should be on any documents you might already have received from the tax office or Social Welfarte office). This change will means that his personal tax bill per pay period will be as low as feasible.

Also, make sure that you are claiming all possible tax credits. For example, if you are renting, you can claim a tax credit. If you pay bin charges you'd be able to claim a credit for 2009. It might even be worth getting someone knowledgable to check if there are possible tax refunds available for any of the previous 4 tax years.

Best of luck with the financial battles!

cookie82

barneystinson wrote: »

Have you had a look at the Citizens Information Bureau website, http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/
I've always found it very useful.

And they have information centres around the country, I'm sure they'd see you right:
http://centres.citizensinformation.ie/

I'm no expert in the area of benefits etc.., and would never advocate it, but it's entirely possible that ye may be better off if your hubby wasn't working at all, and the state had to support your family entirely... And that's a serious flaw in our Welfare State, "rewarding" unemployment and punishing low income families.

Best of luck with it all anyway.

Thanks for the link ill be having fun looking through the info and trying to take it in for the rest of the day.
I can definitely understand what you are saying about our welfare system but we are just so glad he has a job there is something fairly depressing about going to sign on together.

cookie82

namenotavailabl wrote: »

If you have a medical card, your husband should bring it to his payroll office or employer.

The maximum USC for medical card holders is 4% so his employer should reduce future USC deductions. For earlier pay periods, I think (not 100% sure) that you must wait until Dec 31 to sort out any refunds.

Other ideas:
Make sure that your husband is getting the maximum tax credits and tax bands. As you are not working, he might be able to ask the tax office to allocate the maximum possible values of each to his own employment. You or he'll need to probably call or visit the tax office (whichever is handiest- personally, I tend to visit mine as it's not too busy compared to other offices) to do that and probably should take evidence of each person's PPS number (should be on any documents you might already have received from the tax office or Social Welfarte office). This change will means that his personal tax bill per pay period will be as low as feasible.

Also, make sure that you are claiming all possible tax credits. For example, if you are renting, you can claim a tax credit. If you pay bin charges you'd be able to claim a credit for 2009. It might even be worth getting someone knowledgable to check if there are possible tax refunds available for any of the previous 4 tax years.

Best of luck with the financial battles!

Thanks a mill ill be sending him into his hr department with our medical card im glad with that info alone. will go visit our tax office on monday and see where we stand with our taxes too. We have never claimed for bins ect we are very green to these things maybe i think its time to educate myself.

thanks for the info

meg3178

Bins, Union subscriptions, etc can be claimed for '07, '08, '09 & 2010. You should get fis if your husband is working over 39hrs a fortnight and your stamps are finished as he is under the limit. Would it be possible to get on a CE scheme? that would pay you, not affect your husband nor your medical card.

Talk to the bank and anyone else you need to concerning finances you deal with and you may be able to lower your outgoings.
Citizens information are good and have advice clinics for welfare and tax on certain days. Also apply for the back to school clothing allowance in june, you may be entitled to it.