Financial impact of reducing hours to become carer?

[SCA911]

Age:42
Spouse’s/Partner's age:39

Annual gross income from employment or profession:42,900
Annual gross income of spouse:41,290

Monthly take-home pay:

Me: 2,608

Spouse: 2600 approx

Type of employment: e.g. Civil Servant, self-employed

Me: Full time, Permanent, Public Sector

Spouse: Full time, Permanent, Private Sector

Both PAYE


Rough estimate of value of home: 400,000
Amount outstanding on your mortgage:320,000
What interest rate are you paying? 3.66

Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc

800 per month


Do you have a pension scheme?

Me: Public Sector plus Pension Levy

Spouse: Private Pension through work

Do you own any investment or other property?

Yes. Current value of property 200K approx. O/s mortgage 100K. 11 years remaining on mortgage. Monthly repayments 927, Rental Income 1300. Would prefer not to have to sell for personal reasons

Ages of children:6 & 7

Life insurance:Yes €45/month approx


What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?

At this time we are both working and are able to meet our expenses each month, mortgage, insurances, child care etc. My question is this:

I am looking at reducing my hours from 37 to 15 per week and applying for carers benefit. Don’t know yet if my employer will agree but am trying to work out bottom line on take home pay for the household and if we can do this. My difficulty is working out tax implications of this move, particularly the impact on pension levy, income tax, prsi, usc etc. We are also in receipt of Incap Child Tax Credit of €3300 per annum and are joint assessed for tax purposes. As I see it my gross pay from employment would reduce to €334.35/wk and if successful with carers benefit this would result in another €205/wk also taxable. Am assuming this will also have an impact on tax return come Oct 2017 for the rental property. If I could see exact figures I’d know if we can do this and still keep roof over our heads.

 

[vandriver]

A very quick ballpark figure would be take home of approx 4900,and a reduced tax bill on the property gain of approx 130 a month,so all in all about 150 down.

 

[KOW]

The 1700 euro respite grant( (payed in the month of June) if you are out on Carers Benefit is tax free payment and might help to soften the blow.

 

[SCA911]

The 1700 euro respite grant( (payed in the month of June) if you are out on Carers Benefit is tax free payment and might help to soften the blow.

Appreciate responses to date vandriver and DCD

We are in receipt of DCA and RCG already and I have worked these into my figures. They primarily go to private therapies for our son as public waiting lists are never ending so as a result I can't really use this as a softener for our monthly family expenses. As it stands I'm looking at our incomes alone to cover these monthly expenses and keeping additional allowances for his additional needs. To date this has worked ok and he is getting what he needs. I suppose I am trying to avoid getting into a 12 month commitment with employer to reduce hours and then finding that I overlooked something and it's not working financially and thus causing stress.

 

[vandriver]

Rgd?
Dca?
It might help other posters if you initially spell out these abbreviations.(I realise that these are second nature to you!)

 

[dmos87]

wab0607, I'm also a special needs mum so I understand the struggle. I had to leave my position when my son was 18 months old after the 4th creche (since just 10 months old) told us they could no longer meet his needs (non-verbal and highly aggressive as a result). It broke my heart to leave my job as I really enjoyed it, not to mention it was my sanity! But as I was the lower earner it made sense for it to be me.

Looking back, it was the best decision I made. My son has come on in leaps and bounds, and with consistency at home he is thriving. He is verbal (I can't shut him up), the aggression has dramatically reduced, and he is about to start a preschool specific to his needs. He also now has a mother, instead of the shell of a person I was - the anxiety is crippling as I'm sure you're aware. It's very easy to loose yourself when you become a mother anyway, but with the added surprise of special needs it drains all energy from you.

I enjoy my son so much more now. Our home is one of mostly calm as there's time to stay on top of things that previously were overwhelming with both of us working full time. Without a doubt, I see now that I am my sons early intervention. Services in this country are non-existent as you know.

From what I understand, you can work up to 20 hours a week and claim carers benefit/allowance. I would highly recommend ringing citizens information to find out all the ins and outs of it but as you're already in receipt of ICTC and DCA, I'm sure you're well versed Keep in mind also, your tax credits will transfer to your spouse so his take home will see a slight increase. Also ensure that the ICTC is applied to him if you're not jointly assessed.

Financially speaking, as I said we didn't have a choice as we were out of childcare options. But when you remove the childcare costs you're paying, commute expenses, the coffee / lunches at work etc, you'll end up with very little less than what you have now. We as parents have the uncanny ability to manage in tough times, and it teaches you to watch your spending on frivolous items. We switched from a petrol to a diesel car - 500 odd kms a week for therapies was draining us in a petrol car. I meal plan and it works really well for us, we still eat out here and there when DS is in a good place and can tolerate it. We channel our spare money to savings for his and our future once his therapies are sorted. We're at a lovely place now where he has a check in with each therapist every couple of weeks - this makes a big change from three therapies a week at the monthly cost of 780 euros which we had up until April/May. And he is now about to start school in two weeks time, so I won't know myself. I'm excited to get back to working for me, hopefully I'll find something that suits with his school hours.

I will absolutely toot my own horn here and tell you that he has come on so much because of me - my consistency, my constant pushing of new exercises from therapists, regular routine, etc. Without a parent at home he would not be where he is.

My advice? Go for it. It isn't forever, one year will fly by and you will absolutely manage.

 

[KOW]

Rgd?
Dca?
It might help other posters if you initially spell out these abbreviations.(I realise that these are second nature to you!)

DCA is Domiciliary care allowance payed out monthly 309.50euro for parents/carers of severely disabled/sick children up to the age of 16yrs.

RCG. is Respite care grant- a yearly payment payed out to carers of severely disabled/sick persons in order to give the carer a break. 1700euro payed out in June of each year.

 

[SCA911]

dmos87, Thanks for that response. There is no doubt that being able to stay at home for even a short period of time would be hugely beneficial. I take my hat off to you and your positive outlook. Hopefully I will be able to work out the figures before making the leap as I know what it is to have financial stress hovering and don't want to swap one set of stresses for another.

 

[KOW]

dmos87, Thanks for that response. There is no doubt that being able to stay at home for even a short period of time would be hugely beneficial. I take my hat off to you and your positive outlook. Hopefully I will be able to work out the figures before making the leap as I know what it is to have financial stress hovering and don't want to swap one set of stresses for another.

Looking at your figures I think that you can go for the Carers Benefit. The Jury may be out regarding your employer but hopefully they agree. Maybe a mutual agreement might suit where you break the benefit up. Do it for 3-6 months return for a few months and then back out again. Best of luck D.

 

[dmos87]

dmos87, Thanks for that response. There is no doubt that being able to stay at home for even a short period of time would be hugely beneficial. I take my hat off to you and your positive outlook. Hopefully I will be able to work out the figures before making the leap as I know what it is to have financial stress hovering and don't want to swap one set of stresses for another.

Please don't mistake my sunny disposition for the truth; this job is by far the toughest I've ever had. It will break you at times but you always bounce back. ALWAYS. You will feel alone in your world and at times you are. I am completely blessed to have great family and friends I stay in touch with, who keep me sane and without them you will sink. I speak the truth to them always, and they allow me to vent and help me to laugh until my stomach aches, which is exactly what you need when your life is a bit of a sh!tstorm. This is isolating enough, even more so when your child is non-verbal as you have no-one to talk to at all. I know quite a lot of special needs parents that suffer from depression/anxiety/loneliness... do not become one of them. As tired as you can be at times force yourself to call to people for coffee and a chat for your own mental health.

Also, how can you enjoy your special needs child when you have max 10/11 hours with them Monday - Friday? While at the same time trying to cook dinner, clean the house, give attention and time to other children etc? Effective Early Intervention shows a minimum of 20 hours per week of solid one on one time to bring your child on (if its ASD like my son has). And I swear by this, its worked wonders. Temple Grandins methods are tried and true, my son is similar to her in that he loves animals, structure, routine and the outdoors so her recommendations were an obvious place to start for us.

Financially speaking I found that the frequently mentioned taxcalc.eu is very helpful, a good place to start. Take a look at your partners P60 from last year and see how much tax he and you paid each- the credit is likely to be split between you both as your incomes are close. This will mean he will take home a higher income each month, somewhere from 50 - 100 euros extra (check with revenue how the credit is being divided). They will also backdate to diagnosis or birth, depending on certain details, so if you haven't backdated do that now, a nice safety net to keep you going while on leave. You also show theres just 11 years remaining on your mortgage - would a Moratorium be on the cards possibly? A bit of breathing space while you trial a break from work and get to see how take home pay will change.

The thing to remember about stress is that stress will always be there whether you are a prince or a pauper. You will absolutely manage. Luxuries might be cut down but they will still exist. Even with the biggest bank balance in the world you would still have stress and worries. The key is to always remind yourself that its just money, and you have the rest of your life to earn. This is a short period of time that you can never get back, and its essential for your child right now.

I think if I were to return to work full time now my husband would be horrified (in the good way, not in the sexist way!). The calm we feel in our lives has a far higher value to the equivalent of a few hundred euros - which is what it comes down to! The thought of giving all that up and returning to chaos our lives were before makes me feel sick. Give it a go, but don't isolate yourself!!