Why am I better off on benefits than I am in work?

EltonJohnFan

Hi all,

I just got news this morning that a job interview I went for was a sucesss! I'm really pleased about this and I had a hurried 5 minute talk with the disability advisor in the Jobcentre this afternoon and she done a benefit check up with me to see if I would be better off in work should I take this job. If you read my previous posts you'll see that I was made redundant a few months ago and unfortunately due to my disabilities it has been a lot harder than I expected to find work. I am now stuck in a catch 22 situation because the job I went for will pay aroudn £225 per week after tax and yet I currently receive £200.25 per week in Jobseekers Allowance and Disability Living Allowance. with full Housing and Council Tax Benefit. The woman from the Jobcentre told me that I would now have full rent and council tax to pay if I took the job and that I'd actually be worse off, just how is that possible!? I want to work and it now seems like I'll have to turn this job which is not something I want to do. Can someone help me out? I thought maybe I'd be entitled to Tax Credits which might help make up my money but I'm not sure. I'm under 24 and single and someone told me that because I don't have kids I don't qualify for Tax Credits so that's left me disappointed too. I so want to be working, not wasting away on benefits and just don't know what to do.

beth58_2

If you were entitled to that much benefit I assume you recieve disability payments too. If you have a disability and work 16 hours you can claim TC plus if you recieve DLA care (not sure if it's middle or high rate) so you might get the disability element of TC.
Talk to CT dept or DWP carer and support helpline, rather than gossip from ppl who don't really know what their talking about.

Arthurian

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/pdfs/wtc1.htm#1a might help.
Also http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/taxcredits/tc956.pdf goes into detail for the degree of disability.

davidgmmafan

I think this is a question every politician should have to answer. Don't get me wrong I think that there should be help for people who fall on hard times through no fault of thier own. However something MUST be done to make work pay. You can't blame people for claiming what the rules say they can, and making a rational decision that its not worth working (in monetary terms).

If the rules of the game state part time work is best then you'd be best to do that I suppose. I'm sure someone in the Media would like to run with this story...

davidgmmafan

The OP didn't make the rules...

Mark_In_Hampshire

The straight answer to your question is "because we had a Labour Government".

The Conservatives will sort this out. Then they'll lose power, be seen as the nasty party, and then be out of power for another decade while the quasi-socialists continue their campaign to destroy the fabric of society in the name of fairness.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

More constructively, expect benefits to be frozen and with huge inflation for the next couple of years, to become practically worthless.