How much and how many hours question?

Worried_Woman

Hello all,

Can anyone tell me how much you are allowed to earn without it affecting housing benefit and council tax benefit? And is there a limit on how many hours you can work without it being affected?

Thank you.

Indie_Kid

There are disregards depending on your circumstances. For a single person, that's £5.

Worried_Woman

I am married with four children. Husband currently not working but is trying to start his own business and is receiving £50 weekly as a business start up claim however no work has been forthcoming. He was receiving contributions based JSA but this stopped after 13 weeks.

I am going to work part time but need to claim HB and CTB, don't know what other benefits we may be entitled to claim and how much I could work/earn without affecting them.

We are both so new to this system, husband lost his job in Jan this year due to Co. shutting down. I have had to change my job due to illness and will be earning much less money.

dmg24

Worried Woman, you keep giving us snippets of information, and we cannot provide answers without a full picture. If you enter some figures into www.entitledto.co.uk, you can work out the different scenarios and see which is best for your own circumstances.

Benefits_Bod

Claim HB/CTB as soon as possible - backdating is not automatic.

Neither hours nor the level of income are necessarily a bar to HB/CTB - there is no maximum number of hours. As a claim would include a partner, the default earnings disregard is £10 per week. However, if the number of hours worked is 30 or more, a further weekly earnings disregard of £17.10 may be applicable (this is in addition to the £10 standard disregard).

There is no absolute maximum level of income for HB/CTB. In short, it is a means tested benefit taking into account the amount of rent and council tax you pay, the family make-up and the overall level of income. The starting point is that all income counts but then some is disregarded - child benefit for example. If the combined income of you and your husband is the same as the amount the government say you need to live on (known as the "applicable amount" - a needs allowance) after all allowable disregards have been applied, you will NORMALLY get all of your eligible rent and council tax paid by way of HB/CTB respectively. Once the combined income goes above the "applicable amount", HB reduces by 65p for every £1 above that amount and CTB reduces by 20p from that same £1.

You have nothing to lose by claiming (apart from the time it takes to complete a claim form and compile the supporting documentation the LA will probably require).

Based on the info you have given, there is a strong likelihood there will be entitlement to Tax Credits. However, these do count as income for HB/CTB purposes.