Complicated WTC query + HB stuff (temp worker)

elisebutt65

OK - This one is a wee bit complicated and also a bit hypothetical but I need someone with some in depth knowledge of WTC.

My neighbour teaches at the local FE college and teaches for 10 hours per week. The way it works is that you get 40 mins prep and marking work paid for within each hour that you teach - so £23 per hour but 40 mins worth of that is for prep and marking so effectively paid for 1 hour and 40 mins for each contracted hour IYSWIM??? Confused yet??

Anyway - She gets WTC for doing over 16 hours a week even though she is only contracted for 10 hours because of this. However - I've just been offered a job there doing 7.5 hours plus the possibility of more hours in other departments if I can hunt them up. Ideally I'd like to do the same as my neighbour and get WTC for 10 hours teaching - same pay deal and scale at the min. So I rang up the WTC pople and they said I only get it if I'm contracted for the 16 hours. If I did 16 hours of teaching then I would effectively be working for over 25 hours with all the prep and marking though.

So how the heck did she manage it - I asked her and she was a bit coy on it. The college doesn't give us contracts as we are classed as part time temp teachers so there's no proof of our hours. Confused now

Second half of query is about Housing and Council Tax benefit - on the 7.56 hours I will qualify for about 45% HB and CTB according to 'entitledto' . So what happens if my hours go up and down. I don't get paid for any holidays or half terms. I'm currently on IS and I really couldn't bear to sign on for a half term week at a time - I'll have to in the summer as we're off for about 10 weeks. Do I just go into the Housing office with my payslips every time my wages change - doesn't bother me too much as the offices are on my walk into college???????

Any help very, very gratefully received

Oldernotwiser

I used to be an FE lecturer and was part time in the days when you could sign on for the days when you weren't actually teaching. (Happy days!) Whilst I do appreciate what you're saying about preparation and marking time I would never image that you could claim that as official work hours.

To give an example, in the distant past there was a NATFHE agreement that if you were doing enough hours for a year, you had to be given a proper fractional post that reflected those hours, ie. if you were teaching 15 hours per week for over a year they had to give you a proper .75 post. Preparation and marking time didn't come into it.

I think that your neighbour may be lying about the number of hours she's actually working, although I don't know whether they require proof of that nowadays (they used not to). If she's just being asked how many hours, she may be telling them 16 and be prepared to argue her case if it's ever looked at carefully. You, more sensibly, are doing it by the book and are, therefore, getting the proper factual response.

This is just my take on the situation you've described.