Advice needed please...

kelgt

I need some advice please.

I currently work part-time and get loads of overtime which affects my housing and council tax benefits on a monthly basis, it seems for the extra hours I do I pay more in rent which is obvious, but it doesn't make me any better off so I am doing extra hours for nothing really.

Anyway, my partner has been offered a 10hr pw job at min wage, but it's very local and easy work.

I want to quit my job working between 17 and 30 hrs pw. I know that if I was to quit and he take up this offer we wouldn't be able to claim WTC anymore... would we be entitled to any other benefits to top us up for his poor wages? Will my claim for WTC still keep going till the end of the year as it is based on last years earnings?

I don't know what we should do for the best, I want to stay at home and he wants to get back into work but not full time.
Maybe the best solution would be for him to take the 10hr job and me to find an 8hr saturday job or something?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Kelly.

Savvy_Sue

Have you tried putting your new possible scenario into entitled to? That might give you the first step towards an answer.

Eager_Elephant

Can you confirm if you have children and whether you or partner are disabled or not?

Once I know this I will let you know what I think

kelgt

I've checked entitled to and it says I will get full HB and full CB, but will I still be able to claim WTC till the end of the year?

We have 4 children and other half is not disabled.

Hope this helps and thanks for answering

CIS

WTC will end as soon as eligibility to claim ends, even if in the middle of the tax year. You would be eleiginle for CTC even though you dont qualify for WTC, but it will be counted as income towards your HB/CTB.

You need to be careful what you say, deliberately depriving yourself of employment to increase benefit entitlement is illegal, and could leave you with benefits being reduced or even stoped.

kelgt

Well I was considering a 6-8hr saturday job to top us up, that would be ok wouldn't it?

CIS

You should be okay, but like I say, be careful when you apply , just dont tell them that your happier to be getting more HB now your hours have dropped, or anything like that, just in case someone gets overzealous.

kelgt

Thanks for the advice. It seems to have sorted itself out now as Hubby refused job based on only the 10hrs and got offered 18 instead! And best of all is it's fixed regular hours and no 'flexi'
Now our benefits can at least stay at a set rate month after month,and I can stop worring about how much rent I'm paying each month! phew!

So I will be handing in my notice very soon and he can do some graft for a change


Thanks again

Eager_Elephant

Sorry about the delay, only just got back to read this thread.

I see that CIS has told you exactly what I was going to say, make sure any changes of circumstances for HB/CTB are reported within 1 month that way they will go back to the Monday after the change occurred, any more and they will take it from the Monday after the change was notified.

Good Luck

Eager Elephant