Benefits (particularly Income Support?) if working 15 hours?

cw18

My daughter (a single Mum to girls of 4 & 6) currently works full-time (37.5hrs/week), but is finding it's getting too much for her - so is considering the option of a job-share opportunity which would mean just 2 days (15 hours total) a week.

She's been in touch with various places to try and find out what she'd be entitled to in the way of benefits to top up her (pennies over minimum wage) salary, but I'm finding it hard to believe what she thinks she's been told.

On what would be an annual salary of £4485 (weekly £86.25) I don't believe she'd be liable for NI, nor for Income Tax (other than some liability this year as she's been employed full-time for part of the year so will be over the personal allowance).

She's been told (which I can accept) she'd get £96+/week in CTC, plus full Council Tax and rent (she's in a council property, so well below the local allowance for a 2 bed property).

But she's also been told (by two different people, as she phoned back to double check) that she'd get the FULL £64.30/week Income Support - surely this can't be right I thought all but a small amount of a salary got deducted from IS entitlement, though I accept this may vary according to personal situation and she's going to have to pay child-care in full (as she won't qualify for WTC or child-care help with being on less than 16 hours a week) - but the child-care would be mostly off-set by free-school dinner entitlement if she gets any IS.


(Tried the entitledto site - which I don't 100% trust - which agrees with the full HB and CT, plus the figure she's been given for CTC. But this asks how much you get in state benefits rather than giving an entitlement figure for IS )

alwaysonthego_2

If your daughter works less than 16 hours then she can claim IS. She can keep the first £20 out of her wage and the rest is deducted £1 for a £1.

She should try and get an extra hour either from her job or doing something like Avon as she would be better off claiming WTC rather than IS and she would still get help with her CTB and LHA.