Do I work, Can I work, what shall I do?

Hi - a friend of mine when she firstr split from hubby did an Avon round it had to work out at 16 hours per week tho and was prior to WTC (was whatever thing b4 was called) so might need checking.

She did have to pay her mortgage and council tax and also school dinners so if you are in receipt of any help with these it might need taking into account

Only other thing i can think of is taking in ironing - sorry can't be of more help but sure others will be able to think of things.

I'm sure Fran mentioned somewhere like CAB can do a calculation to see if you're better off working or not, i'll have a search and bump if i van find

Best wishes

SSaver,

Assuming you're not living some wild extravagent life style, it sounds wrong that you should have such a shortfall each month. It would probably be worth a trip to the CAB to check that you're getting all you are entitled to. Presumably you are getting Income Support (?) (if you are a single parent I think you can still be on Income Support while studying). If you have a partner though who is working, are they contributing enough? (For instance.) Are you getting all the help you can towards your studying? Should your child be getting a higher rate of DLA (you could ask CAB their opinion if you decide to go).

Does your child on DLA go to school or get cared for in the day? (Ie have you got the time to go to work?)

If you work 16 hours you'd be entitled to Working Tax Credit; if you have a partner working a small no. of hours then the total should be 16 hours or over to claim. (I think - check this.)

I

son wont get higher rate DLA Im sure, he has bad eczema and athsma but his mobility isnt affected.

Just a comment in case the other reader doesn't get confused.
The Mobility and Care elements are entirely separate and so if anyone hasn't a severe problem getting around only the Mobility Component would be affected.

The following is from Benefitsnow where you will also find a self assessment guide. It might also be worth Ssaver checking through the Two minute tests here
BenefitsandWork DLA GUIDE

In order to qualify for the higher care rate (currently £58.80 per week) you will need to show that-

you need frequent help from someone else in connection with your bodily functions during both the day and the night

or

that you need supervision from someone else during both the day and night in order to prevent danger to yourself or others

You will also recieve the higher rate if you need help with bodily functions during the day and supervision during the night or vice versa

In order to obtain the middle rate (currently £39.35 per week) you need to show that you require help or supervision either during the day or during the night

In order to obtain the lower rate (currently £15.55 per week) you need to show that your disability means that you need help during parts of the day or

that your disability means that you cannot cook a main meal for yourself even if you have all the ingredients

SSaver - is your youngest in the nursery attached to the school ie you can only have all morning or all afternoon sessions
or is he at a private nursery that opens for longer sessions you'd just have to pay the difference if he went for longer than 2 and a half hours?

My eldest went to a private nursery from being two it was open 8am-6pm, you could have all day or half a day, half a day being 8-1 or 1-6, i once queried the funding if i was to work after he was 3 using the funding that is paid for kids after their 3rd birthday ie not dependant on working tax credit

this is how they explained it to me - if i'd worked say all day Thursday and Friday my son could have had 2 and a half hours funded in the morning and another 2 and a half hours in the afternoon for each day. That would equal 10 hours in total (you are entitled to 12 and a half hours).
so therefore i would be paying exactly half of each days fees - hope i'm explaining this well enough for you to follow

Now i never did it cos i had another baby instead so it might need checking again and i don't know if all nurseries work this way, also if it's a school nursery he's in you might not want to take him out and also i think they can only do this each term eg Sept,Jan,Easter - i don't think they can take half way thru but might be worth checking out and also see if you could get help with childcare costs if you're working.

Re the house - would it be possible to sell it and give him his share? (I'm sure you'll have considered this already, but it would get you away from being tied to him and improve your situation.) I wonder if you could keep some of the money ie. unpaid maintenance) if you did?