Benefits and part-time work

zexx

We are a married couple. We have a 5 year old and a 10 month baby. My wife
returns to work today 22/02/10, from maternity leave, to her old position which
was part-time 16 hours per week. She is now a british citizen and now has an
option of the amount of hours to work ie 16-40 hours per week. She wants to
spend as much time with the baby for now.
I was on incapacity/invalidity benefit for a number of years but have shown my
doctor that I should now be considered fit for full-time employment. I am now
currently on JSA.
I want to be self-employed but cannot earn enough to justify that, so I am
looking for any type of work.
My question is: How many hours should my wife choose to work taking all of the
above into account?

karenx

She can work as meny or as little hours as she wants. To get working tax credits it must be 16hours plus. While you are out of work you will get no help towards childcare. Once you are working 16hours plus also you will get help towards this.

zexx

do I still qualify for jsa?

karenx

Is it cont or income based you are on just now?
Well done for also wanting to work to help support your family! Makes a change from people just wanting as much benefits as possible for as little work as they can do!

zexx

I currently receive income based jsa. I want to be involved with the children as does my wife. Can we both work part-time?

I guess what I am trying to figure out are the optimum hours to work?

We never want to use child minders.

We want to nurture our children ourselves and not both work full-time...maybe I work full-time and she stays with the baby?

Obviously, we will not have any luxuries other than time with our children.

This is just for now...until I earn decent income eg have just passed hgv license so work shouldn't be far off.

I mean, I could ask my wife to work full-time for now. Is that the best idea, morally?

Is there a telephone helpline run by the benefits office for advice?

Witchfinder_General

Whoever earns the most, goes to work to support the household. There, problem solved. Not rocket science is it?

Oh, just a thought (I am probably so wrong with this), but reading between the lines of your post, I swear you are trying to get the tax payer to fund your "both stay at home most of the day" idea?

karenx

I think the best thing to do just now is to get your wife to work full time, over 30hours theres an extra premium on working tax credits also!
Then once your back on your feet and hopefully earning a decent wage your wife could cut her hours back down to 20 or even 16. Then your still getting the over 30hours premium and both earning also.

zexx

Witchfinder_General wrote: »

Whoever earns the most, goes to work to support the household. There, problem solved. Not rocket science is it?

Oh, just a thought (I am probably so wrong with this), but reading between the lines of your post, I swear you are trying to get the tax payer to fund your "both stay at home most of the day" idea?

Listen, I have willingly relinquished invalidity payments to do right by my self respect and childrens self respect.

I'd like to plant one on you! :mad:

Thanks for your helpful advice karenx

I am now going to the benefits office to get clear concise answers. Please, no more funny comments.

dktreesea

"I want to be self-employed but cannot earn enough to justify that, so I am
looking for any type of work."

I think you should give yourself a chance. Why so pessimistic about your prospects of self employment? If you won't be earning much, you will be eligible for working tax credit (assuming you work 16+ hours a week in your own business), housing benefit, council tax benefit and all the other things you are eligible for on JSA. At least you are working. Yes, I agree, self employment can mean working for not very much at all in the early years, but by the time you add in working tax credit, housing benefit and council tax benefit, at least it is not much less that what you would net if you were wokring a minimum wage job.

To become self employed, you register as such with the HMRC. Your JSA stops and your working tax credit kicks in (assuming you estimate your net profit low enough to qualify for working tax credit) from that date. There can be a delay on getting the WTC paid, but it should be backdated. You still should be eligible for housing benefit, council tax benefit and whatever else you are claiming under the JSA. WTC is a bit less than JSA.

Work is work. Even if it doesn't pay much, it doesn't mean it's not worth doing. Anyone trying to bring up a family on the minimum wage (which should be a living wage but isn't) is entitled to all the things you would be entitled to.

And going back to the original question , of how many hours your wife should work, I suggest both working 16 hours a week - you in your business and her at her job. That will be a good outcome for your children, not just for you.

Do you really want a lifestyle where you both get up at 6am, rush the children off to child care /before school club, rush to work, stay at work all day, finish work at 5pm, get the older ones from after school club by 5.30, pick up the younger ones from childcare by 6pm, get home by 6.30pm, five days a week? I've lived that lifestyle. It was a nightmare and I don't recommend it. I still work just as many hours as I did before, but they are much more child friendly hours, and I don't need to depend on strangers to look after my children.

Self employment, I do realise, isn't everyone's cup of tea, but how would you know unless you try it?

zexx

Thank you for your considered response dktreesea.

My wife is lucky and has been allowed to work 10am-2pm 5 days a week

I have just started a bouncy castle business and can now register self employed with HMRC for the summer at least.

Life is great!

dktreesea

zexx wrote: »

Thank you for your considered response dktreesea.

My wife is lucky and has been allowed to work 10am-2pm 5 days a week

I have just started a bouncy castle business and can now register self employed with HMRC for the summer at least.

Life is great!

Good luck with your bouncy castle business. It's great that you are starting a business which will bring pleasure to people. I'm not sure about the wisdom of relinquishing invalidity benefits though. You can still get a disability allowance, via the HMRC, even if you are self employed and not earnign that much.