The situation I face is that me an my wife are separated. She has worked part time and looked after our 3 year old since the split.
However due to severe ill health she can no longer do the full time parenting and travel etc.
So my only option seems to be to drop hours at work to be there for him.
I currently earn 21k. I am thinking I could drop my hours at my job to 16 a week and work around him.
My employer is fine with it, but I obviously need to make up (some of) the shortfall through tax credits.
If I get my hours cut to 16 and then make a claim for tax credits, what are the timescales? Will I find myself in a months long financial black hole? As I earned 21K will they take that into account and give me nothing until next April?
Any guidance appreciated as this is quite urgent :(
However due to severe ill health she can no longer do the full time parenting and travel etc.
So my only option seems to be to drop hours at work to be there for him.
I currently earn 21k. I am thinking I could drop my hours at my job to 16 a week and work around him.
My employer is fine with it, but I obviously need to make up (some of) the shortfall through tax credits.
If I get my hours cut to 16 and then make a claim for tax credits, what are the timescales? Will I find myself in a months long financial black hole? As I earned 21K will they take that into account and give me nothing until next April?
Any guidance appreciated as this is quite urgent :(
